United States soccer icon Alex Morgan announces retirement
Alex Morgan certainly knows how to drop a mic.
In a four-minute and 33-second video posted to her social media Thursday morning, the U.S. women's national team legend shocked the sports world by announcing that she will be retiring from professional soccer immediately and is also pregnant with her second child. Morgan will play her final professional game for the San Diego Wave on Sunday against the North Carolina Courage at home.
"I have so much clarity about this decision, and I'm so happy to be able to finally tell you," Morgan said between deep breaths. "It has been a long time coming, and this decision wasn't easy. But at the beginning of 2024, I felt in my heart and soul that this was the last season that I would play soccer.
"Soccer has been a part of me for 30 years, and it was one of the first things that I ever loved. I gave everything to this sport and what I got in return was more than I could have ever dreamed of."
Morgan, 35, will go down as one of the best to ever play the game. She's a two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist. She will be remembered as one of the greatest finishers of all-time, scoring 123 goals (fifth-most in USWNT history) with 53 assists in 224 international appearances. She grew up on the national team, earning her first cap as a 20-year-old in 2010 and being nicknamed "Baby Horse," and eventually became the face of it.
She scored countless pivotal and memorable goals, like when a 21-year-old Morgan, then the youngest player in the squad, scored a stoppage-time goal against Italy in the first leg of a 2011 World Cup qualifying playoff. Then there was the time she had a U.S. and World Cup record five goals against Thailand in the 2019 World Cup opener. Later on in that tournament, she scored off a header in the semifinal against England, which she then followed by her now famous "sipping tea" celebration. In February 2023, she became the highest-scoring mom in USWNT history and finished her career with 16 goals as a mother.
She was just as, if not more, prolific off the field, especially in her fierce pursuit for equal pay. She was the lead plaintiff when the USWNT sued U.S. Soccer for gender discrimination ahead of the 2019 World Cup, recognizing the weight her name carried. She's an activist and ally, always standing up and supporting LGBTQ rights. She held the NWSL accountable for its failure to protect players. She always understood her starpower and celebrity, and knew how to use her platform to advocate for others.
In playing for the national team for 15 years, Morgan transcended the sport, becoming everyone's favorite player, whether they were girls or boys, women or men, avid or casual fans. This was always evident by how loud the cheers were during player introductions before matches. No matter what, the decibel level grew when her name was announced.
Morgan is a mentor and role model and an inspiration, not just for her daughter or younger teammates, but for athletes outside her sport. Simone Biles, Caitlin Clark and Mikaela Shiffrin were among the thousands of commenters on her retirement video thanking her for elevating women's sports. She's friends with Taylor Swift, who wished her luck in the USWNT's 2023 World Cup sendoff video. And is respected by iconic players who came before her, like Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach.
And while there's plenty Morgan does publicly, much of her work is done behind the scenes that people don't always see.
"Every day in camp Alex is always taking me under her wing, helping me, explaining things to me," Sophia Smith said last summer ahead of the 2023 World Cup. "She's someone that I've looked up to my whole life.
"She's just a professional in every way," Smith continued. "How she carries herself. You can just watch Alex and learn a lot from her. I mean, she's in the spotlight. Her life is crazy. To watch her navigate that and at the same time be a mom, which is something I hope to do too, you can learn so much."
"Don't think many people will ever understand the weight you carried with you every day being the face of this team and women's football in general," USWNT captain Lindsey Horan wrote on Instagram. "You made the game better for so many little ones looking up to you and what an incredible career on top of it."
Most of all, Morgan just wanted to set an example for her daughter Charlie, who became a fixture at her mom's games and press conferences. Morgan told FOX Sports last year that it was "important for her to see mom in a different way and understand that mom is going to work, mom is going to her soccer game" and expose her to "some of the most confident and powerful women." In her retirement video, Morgan teared up when she said Charlie recently told her she wanted to be a soccer player when she grew up.
"It just made me immensely proud, not because I wish for her to become a soccer player when she grows up, but because a pathway exists that even a four-year-old can see now," Morgan said. "We're changing lives and the impact we have on the next generation is irreversible. I'm proud in the hand I had in making that happen, in pushing the game forward and leaving it in a place that I'm so happy and proud of."
Last summer, the USWNT was knocked out of the World Cup in the round of 16 – its earliest exit in major tournament history – after a dramatic penalty shootout with Sweden. Morgan started all four matches but failed to score a goal. Nearly a year later, she was left off the 18-player squad that new coach Emma Hayes called up for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Morgan was disappointed about not having another opportunity to represent her country, though remained supportive and cheered on the team as it won gold.
Morgan has been thinking about her post-soccer future for some time. She told FOX Sports last year that whenever she decided to retire, she would be at peace.
"With soccer, I love it, but it's not my identity, it's not everything of who I am," Morgan said. "I think a lot of people see me as ‘Alex Morgan the soccer player,' but I hope they start to see me as ‘Alex Morgan the activist, Alex Morgan the entrepreneur, Alex Morgan the mom.
"So with that, I feel like I'm setting up things in order to make that next stage of my life as fulfilling or more than right now."
Her soccer career may be over, but Morgan's legacy will undoubtedly impact players for generations to come.
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.
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