On Sept. 5, 2024, Olympic Gold Medalist and two-time World Cup Champion Alex Morgan announced her retirement from professional soccer. This follows the news of her pregnancy with her second child and an impressive 15-year career.
She is finishing her career with 123 goals, ranking fifth overall in goal-scoring in women’s soccer and 53 assists for ninth overall. Morgan has been an impactful player on the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) and in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Her on-the-field goal-scoring abilities and her off-the-field advocacy have cemented her as one of the world’s greatest soccer players.
Morgan played college soccer at the University of California, Berkeley, before being the number one overall pick in the 2011 Women’s Professional Soccer draft. She played for the Western New York Flash, helping them win that year’s league championship. She played for the USWNT as the youngest player on the roster in the 2011 FIFA World Cup and followed that by helping to lead the team to gold in the 2012 London Olympics. In 2012, she had 28 goals and 21 assists and is one of only two female players to reach more than 20 goals and 20 assists in one calendar year. She was also named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year. In 2013, she was drafted to the NWSL, joining the Portland Thorns in their inaugural season. She played for the Orlando Pride, the French team Lyon and finished her career with the San Diego Wave.
With the Wave in 2022, Morgan scored 15 goals, winning the Golden Boot. Morgan has seen a decline in goals scored over her past three seasons, scoring only six goals in the 2023 season and now zero in the 2024 season. However, with the Wave being a newer team in the league and seeing players both traded to and from the club, Morgan’s goal-scoring reflects having to adapt to different team and individual player dynamics.
Morgan was left off of the 2024 USWNT Olympic roster as head coach Emma Hayes looked to shift to a younger, more dynamic selection of forwards. Writing for ESPN, Jeff Kasouf reflects on Morgan’s dominance in the center striker position, stating, “Morgan is a rare breed as a No. 9 — a pure striker who must be played centrally. For more than a decade, the rest of the pieces have filled out around her, and her skill set, combined with the USWNT’s depth chart, justified that.” Although Hayes praised Morgan’s talent, she moved forward with rostering younger talents Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith to shift the team to a more dynamic set of three strikers. Instead of waiting for the pieces to fill in around Morgan, Hayes wanted to experiment with this new offensive combination, and it paid off as they led the team to their fifth Olympic gold medal in program history at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
We can view Morgan’s omission from the roster not as a reflection on her but more as an important reminder that programs must grow with the talent they are presented with. Morgan’s struggles give us insight into her skill set as a player and the intention that goes into building a dominant national team like the USWNT.
Although the USWNT is entering a new era of talent, the impact of Morgan’s leadership over the past 15 years in cementing them as an international sensation should not be diminished. Fighting for equal pay alongside Megan Rapinoe and her other USWNT teammates is one example of Morgan’s relentless pursuit of leaving the program better than she found it. In 2022, the USWNT and the U.S. Soccer Federation reached a $24 million settlement and collective bargaining agreement guaranteeing equal pay for both the men’s and women’s teams. This historic settlement marked a turning point for the international soccer community, backing up the USWNT with the respect they more than earned, inspiring action on the NWSL’s collective bargaining agreement for equal pay and opportunity, as well as encouraging other nations to invest in their women’s programs.
Morgan’s impressive offensive dominance, goal-scoring abilities and leadership on and off the field show that she will always be known as one of the greatest soccer players of all time.
Growing up playing soccer in Portland, Ore., I took pride in the fact that Morgan played on my city’s team. She was lightning-fast, had incredible ball control and always seemed to find the back of the net; I wanted to be just like her. Morgan is the reason I wore a pink pre-wrap headband to all of my games. She is the reason I begged my parents for the same coral-colored Nike cleats she wore. She was a role model and an icon to me and millions of other girls and boys growing up watching and playing soccer. That’s why I believe she can hang up her boots with pride. She will forever go down in history as one of the best, just as Nike’s ad following her retirement states: “There is no substitute.”
