Democracy Dies in Darkness
Soccer

Alex Morgan, a star on and off the pitch for U.S. soccer, announces retirement

Morgan, 35, was left off the Olympic team for the Paris Games but remains one of the most popular players in American women’s soccer history.

2 min
The stellar soccer career of Alex Morgan will end on Sunday. (David Vincent/Associated Press File)
By

Alex Morgan, a centerpiece of the U.S. women’s national soccer team that won two World Cups and an Olympic gold medal and one of the program’s greatest scorers, announced she will retire after Sunday’s game with the NWSL’s San Diego Wave.

“I have so much clarity about this decision, and I’m so glad to be able to finally tell you,” she tearfully said in a video on social media. “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.

“Soccer has been a part of me for 30 years, and it was one of the first things I ever loved, and I gave everything to this sport. What I got in return was more than I could have ever dreamed of.”

Morgan, 35, co-captained the 2023 World Cup squad in New Zealand and Australia, but her production fell significantly in recent years. She has not scored for the Wave and was left off the Olympic team for the Paris Games. Still, she remains one of the most popular players in American women’s soccer history. She made 224 appearances for the United States, scoring 123 goals (fifth all-time).

“Success for me is defined as never giving up and giving your all, and I did just that,” she said. “I’m giving my all every single day on the field … in the relentless push for global investment in women’s sports because we deserve that.”

Morgan, the mother of a 4-year-old daughter, also announced that she is pregnant with her second child. “We’re changing lives, and the impact we have on the next generation is irreversible,” she said of the U.S. women. “I’m proud of the hand that I had in making that happen.”

Her final appearance will come against the North Carolina Courage.

“I grew up on this team, it was so much more than soccer,” Morgan, whose first U.S. training camp appearance came at age 20, said in a statement via U.S. Soccer. “It was the friendships and the unwavering respect and support among each other, the relentless push for global investment in women’s sports, and the pivotal moments of success both on and off the field.

“I am so incredibly honored to have borrowed the crest for more than 15 years. I learned so much about myself in that time and so much of that is a credit to my teammates and our fans. I feel immense pride in where this team is headed, and I will forever be a fan of the USWNT.”