After 13 years of professional soccer, soon-to-be-retired San Diego Wave forward Alex Morgan said she hopes young players watching her will benefit from the work she and her teammates have put into the sport.
“I hope my legacy is that I pushed the game forward,” Morgan said at a press conference Friday. “That I helped gain respect for the women’s game, that I increased the value and the investment in the women’s game, that I helped players and myself not only to be respected in the game but to have better resources, to be protected, to have player safety to be at the game. the vanguard. Should women’s footballers just play soccer, don’t have to fight for so many, so many other things that we had to fight for continuously.”
Morgan pointed out that young players on the national team are already benefiting from the growth of women’s soccer, praising recent Olympians Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, Croix Bethune and Wave teammate Naomi Girma for winning gold medals and being part of the next generation of star players. .
“For some of these younger players who could just focus on themselves, focus on their teams, get better every day, have a path to be able to do that, have the resources to do that, that’s what I’ve been fighting for,” Morgan said. And I knew I wouldn’t always benefit from all the things I fought for, but fighting for equal pay and achieving that, in the end, was such a pivotal moment in the history of women’s soccer. It created such a butterfly effect throughout women’s soccer worldwide , that is irreversible, and which I only see continuing to grow.”
ready to pass the torch 🫶
“We are in good hands, the future of women’s football and the present” – @alexmorgan13 pic.twitter.com/Pjdh80PsWc
– San Diego Wave FC (@sandiegowavefc) 6 September 2024
On Thursday, Morgan posted a video on her social media, announcing her retirement from soccer and that Sunday’s Wave game against the North Carolina Courage would be her last. She also announced that she is pregnant with her second child.
The announcement came as a surprise at the time; Morgan just played 69 minutes for the Wave on Sunday against the Washington Spirit.
Morgan said Friday that she unexpectedly discovered she was pregnant “a few weeks ago.”
“I was so happy because this was what our family wanted a few months earlier than expected,” she said. “But still, we were very happy. So I think the last two weeks have been very stressful, but it’s been consulting with my doctor, talking to my husband, understanding when it might be the last game I could (play) or when I could play until it’s safe.”
Morgan said she informed her teammates Wednesday morning of her earlier-than-expected retirement. Her original plan, which she decided in early 2024, was to retire after the season, hopefully after a playoff run and a championship game in November.
Morgan will play limited minutes this weekend against the Courage; she did not specify, but said that it “may only be a few minutes.” As is customary for retiring players, Morgan will step in early to receive a final standing ovation from fans.
“I just want to take in every moment of the game on Sunday,” Morgan said. “From walking into the locker room, getting ready with my teammates, getting my ankle one last time, warming up one last time, and seeing the national anthem on the field with my daughter right there with me. She will be there with me. So I’m very excited about that.
“It’s just all the little moments. It’s the accumulation of those little moments that you sometimes just take for granted.”
GO DEEPER
USWNT star Alex Morgan retiring from soccer
Morgan has struggled on the field this season. Despite leading the Wave in shots and shots on goal, she did not score in 12 games. In 2023, Morgan was the Wave’s leading scorer with seven goals in 19 games; she also led the team with five assists. However, her veteran presence was never in question, although the 35-year-old noted with humor that “some players are closer in age to my daughter than they are to me.” (Morgan’s daughter, Charlie, is 4 years old.)
Morgan’s professional career began in 2011 in the former professional women’s soccer league in the United States, WPS. She reminisced about the progress in the game since that time.
“I found out I was drafted to the Western New York Flash in 2011 by our press officer when we landed in China with the national team because Twitter wasn’t really a big deal,” she said. “It was definitely not aired. Clearly there is no service on planes then. We’ve come a long way where we won’t actually have a blueprint going forward there. Yes, women’s soccer has come unbelievably.”
Regarding her post-Games career, Morgan pointed to her ongoing work as an investor in women’s sports, including Togethxr, the media and business company she founded with Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, Olympic swimmer Simone Manuel and former WNBA player Sue Bird. Morgan quickly ruled out coaching as an avenue, saying she hadn’t taken any coaching licenses.
The press conference is over with final questions from Girmawho joined the crowded room in the back. Girma asked Morgan if her daughter Charlie could still join the Wave in away games, and about Morgan’s favorite soccer memory. (Morgan gave maybe about Charlie.)
“Some of my best memories are when we won at the Olympics and the two world championships,” Morgan said. “It wasn’t the win. I mean, it was the gain 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, autopilot. You feel like you have the glasses on, and you’re just looking forward. And then when you win it, you can celebrate with your friends and family, you get to be human again. You are not just an athlete.”
She added: “Winning those makes you feel like you can be human, you can celebrate and you can just enjoy and be vulnerable and smile. Sometimes you don’t smile for weeks at a time. You just don’t realize it until you finally get to that end point. I think just being able to do that and just go down, what was it, Broadway (in 2019). Celebrate with fans and actually just be the person and not the athlete that everybody sees you as, like, this robotic thing. that thing on this platform. I’m a sister, I’m a friend. I’m not just a teammate and an athlete. I think the special moments (were) going to be more than just the athlete.”
Required reading
(Photo: Abe Arredondo / Imag Images)
