Soccer star Alex Morgan is officially hanging up her cleats and calling it a career — and a stellar one at that — but not before playing one more game when her San Diego Wave FC takes on the North Carolina Courage on Sunday.
In an emotional video posted on her social channels, the two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist said she had a feeling “in my heart and soul” at the beginning of the year that this would be her last season. And she seems at peace with it.
“I have so much clarity about this decision, and I am so happy to be able to finally tell you,” Morgan says in the video. “It has been a long time coming, and this decision wasn’t easy.”
But she also noted that this was not the retirement video and announcement she expected to make, sharing that her daughter, Charlie, is going to be a big sister because Morgan is pregnant.
“As unexpected as this came, we are so overjoyed,” Morgan said. “To me, family means everything.”
Thank you pic.twitter.com/8BkofVOh3s
— Alex Morgan (@alexmorgan13) September 5, 2024
After making her debut with the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2010, Morgan is now No. 5 in USWNT history with 123 goals in 224 games. The 35-year-old player, however, was not part of the team’s 2024 Paris Olympics roster.
More from Morgan’s tearful retirement video:
“Soccer has been a part of me for 30 years and it was one of the first things that I ever loved. And I gave everything to this sport. And what I got in return was more than I could have ever dreamed of. Success for me is defined by never giving up and giving your all.
“And I did just that: I’m giving my all every single day on the field. And I did that — giving my all in the relentless push for global investment in women’s sports because we deserve that; giving my all in my various businesses beyond the soccer fields; and giving my all as a mom to my daughter, Charlie.
“Charlie came up to me the other day and said that when she grows up, she wants to be a soccer player. And 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 4-year-old can see now. We’re changing lives, and the impact we have on the next generation is irreversible. And 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.”
