United States women’s national team soccer star Alex Morgan announced her retirement Thursday after over 14 years as a key player on the team.
Morgan, 35, made 224 appearances with the USWNT, scoring 123 goals and recording 53 assists to make her the fifth most prolific goal scorer in USWNT history. The star forward recorded her first cap in March 2010. Since then, Morgan has been a vital part of the front line-up, helping the U.S. win two consecutive World Cups in 2015 and 2019, gold at the 2012 London Olympics and bronze at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
“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,” Morgan said in a video message uploaded to her social media. “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.”
Morgan will play her last game with her NWSL side, the San Diego Wave, on Sunday, Sept. 8, against the North Carolina Courage.
“I’m so grateful that I’ll get one last game to put on the boots,” Morgan said in the video.
Morgan also announced that she is pregnant with her second child. She gave birth to her four-year-old daughter, Charlie, in May 2020 and is married to former MLS player Servando Carrasco.
“As unexpected as this came, we are so overjoyed,” Morgan said. ‘To me, family means everything. I wouldn’t be here without my husband and my family.”
Throughout her career, Morgan also played a central role in the USWNT’s campaign for equal pay and resources.
“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 […] because a pathway exists that even a four-year-old can see now,” Morgan said. ‘We’re changing lives and the impact we’ve had on the next generation is irreversible and I’m proud of the hand I had in making that happen and pushing the game forward and leaving it in a place that I’m so happy and proud of.
“I just want to thank the fans for always supporting us, for always just using what we’re saying and making it magnified. Being there and showing up day in and day out, supporting not only the teams I’ve played on but the player and human I am as well.”
