Alex Morgan retires as a game-changing football star for women

I wasn’t looking for Alex Morgan When I stopped by San Diego Wave’s vast practice facility last month, I was there to talk Landon DonovanThe other national team legend appointed as the Wave’s interim coach.

But Morgan approached us after practice anyway and talked for about 20 minutes. She talked about her daughter, Charlie, who has been Morgan’s most talked-about topic for the past four years. But she also talked about her philanthropic foundation, the businesses she hopes to start, her husband, Servando Carrasco, and the homemade food she makes for her two dogs.

What he didn’t talk about was football. And if there was ever a sign that Morgan was ready to walk away from the sport that had long defined his life, it was the conversation on a windswept bluff overlooking Highway 5.

On Thursday, Morgan made his retirement from professional football official in an emotional 4 1/2-minute video shared on social media. He will play his final game Sunday against the North Carolina Courage in his new hometown of San Diego.

“I’m retiring,” she said in a video that also announced she was pregnant again. “And I have a lot of clarity about that decision. It’s been a long time coming, and it wasn’t an easy decision.”

“Football has been a part of me for 30 years,” he continued, pausing frequently to take deep breaths and collect himself. “It was one of the first things I ever loved. I gave it my all and got more in return than I could have ever imagined.”

Morgan, 35, who learned the game playing for the AYSO teams in Diamond Bar, will leave as one of the greatest players ever. A two-time World Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist and NWSL champion, Morgan is also a three-time finalist for FIFA’s world player of the year award. Her 123 international goals (14 more than Lionel Messi) are ninth all-time, regardless of gender.

But he wasn’t just a goal scorer, he was a winner: In 86 international games in which he scored, the U.S. never lost and went 76-0-10.

“Alex has been one of the best players to ever wear the jersey of a historic U.S. Women’s National Team program,” he said. Jill Elliswho led Morgan to two World Cup titles and later became president of the Wave, making Morgan the focal point of the expansion team’s starting roster.

For most of his 15-year professional career, Morgan was followed everywhere he went by a horde of young fans, their hair pulled back into a tight ponytail like Morgan’s and their tiny bodies wrapped around Morgan’s No. 13 jersey. A typical home game would end with Morgan patiently walking the length of the stands, signing autographs and posing for pictures.

Partly as a result, Morgan became one of the most popular players in the world, and the USWNT became the nation’s most popular women’s national team. In Morgan’s first season, the team averaged fewer than 6,000 fans for its eight home games; in its final full season, it drew more than three times that number.

“She’s bought into that role. I think she can see what it means to the girls,” said her father, Mike, one of her first coaches and still her biggest supporter.

But she did more to change the game off the field. She was a fierce and outspoken advocate for women’s sports. FIFA sued over use of artificial turf pitches Served as lead plaintiff in the 2015 World Cup The lawsuit filed by the National Team against its own federationThis agreement led to a historic agreement with US Soccer that provides equal pay for the men’s and women’s national teams.

Once the “good girl” of US football, Morgan is twice named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, likely to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated in both her football kit and swimsuit.

“His impact went beyond medals and trophies,” Ellis added. “His legacy for the game will be the doors he helped open and the young players he inspired.”

But like all great players, Morgan could not run faster than time. After taking time off to give birth to Charlie, Morgan was forced to return to the national team for the Tokyo Olympics. A year later, she had her last dominant international performance, scoring a tournament-best three goals — including the winning goal in the final — and leading the U.S. to the CONCACAF W championship in Mexico.

That year, she also won her first NWSL Golden Boot award after scoring a league-leading 15 goals. However, injuries and poor form have left her with just 10 goals for club and country in the last two years, she kept a clean sheet at last summer’s World Cup and did not make the Olympics squad this summer, her first major tournament miss since 2008.

In his absence, forwards Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith, none older than 26, scored a combined 10 goals to help the United States win its first Olympic title since 2012. Morgan acknowledged the passing of the torch.

In her retirement video, which ended by thanking her fans, Morgan talked about her transformation from soccer superstar to soccer mom and the role she played in opening that door.

“Charlie came to me the other day and said he wants to be a football player when he grows up,” Morgan said. “That made me so proud. Not because I want him to be a football player when he grows up, but because there’s a path that even a 4-year-old can see now.

“We’re changing lives. The impact we’re leaving on the next generation is irreversible, and I’m proud of the hand I had in making that happen and moving the game forward and leaving it in a place where I’m both happy and proud.”