Alex Morgan speaks during a press conference announcing her retirement. (Abe Arredondo-Imagn Images)
Alex Morgan will always remember the championships. But what she’ll remember more points to the kind of player she is.
One of the greatest players in U.S. women’s national team history, Morgan will retire after Sunday’s San Diego Wave game. She made the announcement in a video on social media, revealing that she’s pregnant with her second child. While the pregnancy moved up her retirement timeline, she had always intended to walk away from the game after this season.
“As unexpected as it was, I was so happy because this was what our family wanted, a couple of months sooner than expected, but, nonetheless we were very overjoyed,” Morgan said during her retirement press conference on Friday. “I just felt like this was the right time. I felt like the last couple of weeks I’ve sort of lost a step, you know, in playing and I felt like for my body and my mind and my heart, this was the right decision at this time.”
When asked by USWNT and San Diego Wave teammate Naomi Girma what her favorite soccer memory is, Morgan didn’t point to her two World Cup wins. She didn’t point to her Olympic gold medal win.
“One really special moment is when we had, I think we had four or five moms on the team at once between myself, Casey [Krueger], Julie [Ertz], Crystal [Dunn] and AD [Franch],” Morgan said. “Growing up on the national team, I had seen Christie Rampone have two kids and just make it seem so easy. Looking back, I’m just like, ‘Wow, that must have been so hard.’
“So I think that was a really special moment to be able to enjoy with some of my teammates knowing how far we’ve come and the support that we now get as moms.”
Our partners at The Next deliver 24/7 women’s basketball coverage
Subscribers to The Equalizer can now save 50% on their subscription to our partner publication, The Next. Between the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast and more than 100 reported stories per month, The Next has women’s basketball covered 24/7.
It’s almost fitting that the player that had become a leader of the USWNT would cite motherhood as one moment that stands out. A player that isn’t afraid to stand up for her teammates in the face of opponents or the press, Morgan has grown from being nicknamed “baby horse” for her youthful speed and power to one of the most respected and lethal players in the game.
Following her retirement announcement, it seemed as though the praises couldn’t stop pouring in. From sporting legends like Billie Jean King, to her teammates, to soccer greats around the world the sentiment was felt: Morgan was a special player.
And she was a generational player to many, creating a similar effect to players like Mia Hamm and Marta. Morgan will be one to inspire players to come. Of course, she still recalls those World Cup and Olympics memories as some of the best. But she also knows that winning wasn’t always the best part of those moments.
“Some of my best memories are when we won at the Olympics and the two world championships,” she said. But, she continued, “it wasn’t the winning. I mean, it was the winning. But it was just the fact that we were so focused and — it’s not robotic, but you’re just like, in it, and you’re on, I don’t know, auto-drive. You feel like you have the blinders on, and you’re just looking forward. And then when you win it, you get to celebrate with your friends and family, you get to be human again. You’re not just an athlete.”
Morgan continued on, reliving some of her favorite memories from her career, many of which were not the goals or wins themselves. “I think just being able to … go down, what was it, Broadway? Or New York [in 2019]. Celebrate with fans and actually just be a human and not the athlete that everyone is seeing you as, like this robotic thing, this thing on this platform. I’m a sister, I’m a daughter, I’m a friend. I’m not just a teammate and an athlete. I think the special moments [were] when we got to be more than just the athlete.”
In the months and years to come, much will be made about Morgan’s legacy, but it won’t just be her play on the field that is cited when people talk about the star. Throughout her career, Morgan made sure that she was the kind of player that used her platform for good. She was one of the key players involved in the fight for equal pay and benefits for the USWNT, resulting in a landmark collective bargaining agreement in 2022.
In 2021, she was there to help bring to light the abuses that players were facing in the NWSL. She was also one of the league’s players who demanded that the NWSL adopt an anti-harassment policy. She sat alongside former teammates privately and publicly, making sure that their voices were heard.
When reflecting on Morgan’s impact, Seattle Reign coach Laura Harvey cited one moment in particular when she realized exactly how monumental the California native was. When Seattle played Portland in 2014 at home, fans cheered Morgan.
“For someone from Europe, that’s just unheard of,” Harvey said during a press conference. “I was so pissed off about it, but I think the magnitude of who she is and what she had done for the game, continued to do, really hit me that she probably at that time was bigger than the game. And what a burden that must have been to carry for so long, and not only carry it, but then be able to perform consistently at the highest level.
“I think she’s always done it the right way. She’s always fought for the things that are important to her. … She’s been willing to stick her neck on the line in a multitude of ways. … I think we owe her a lot. We owe her a big thank you to what she’s done for the game, and I’m sure she’ll continue to really impact the sport even when she’s not playing.”
Want even more women’s sports coverage?
Subscribers to The Equalizer save 50% on their subscription to our partner publication, The IX. This newsletter has experts covering the latest news in women’s soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics. Each sport has its own day, which means you’ll receive The IX in your inbox six days a week.
She wouldn’t be Alex Morgan if she wasn’t thinking about what comes next. And she’s already thinking about what her impact will be now that she’s stepping away from playing.
She’s ruled out coaching, noting that she’s found her calling in being an investor in women’s sports. Morgan’s a co-founder of the media company Togethxr, and has also invested in the new women’s 3×3 basketball league Unrivaled, which will begin play in January 2025.
“Doing as much as I can to give as big of a platform to women’s sports as possible,” she said. “I see that that’s where I will make the most impact.”
And even if she did want to walk away entirely, nobody could fault her for it. After all, she’s already leaving the game in a better place than she found it. The NWSL — the third stint at a women’s pro league in the U.S. — is rapidly expanding. And media coverage has grown. So much so, in fact, that her retirement game will be simulcast by a number of different outlets on Sunday.
“We’re in good hands,” she said, looking at each of her teammates, who all opted to attend her final press conference on their day off. “Women’s soccer is in such an amazing place where I have done everything that I’ve needed to do. I have accomplished everything that I have come to do. To see those players step on the field and do work and be able to do it at such a young age with such poise, and such confidence, that’s what this is all about. That’s why I’m so happy being here saying, yes, I’m retiring, because we are more than fine. We are great.”
