(NEW YORK) — Alex Morgan, one of the greatest U.S. soccer stars of all time, officially announced her retirement from professional soccer on Thursday.
“I’m gonna get to the point quickly: I’m retiring,” Morgan said in a video posted to Instagram. “And I have so much clarity about this decision, and I am so happy to be able to finally tell you. 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 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,” she said.
The two-time Olympic medalist, who helped lead Team USA to gold at the 2012 London Games and bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Games, has been celebrated by teammates, coaches and competitors as one of the greatest goal scorers and winners in U.S. Women’s National Team history.
Morgan continued, “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.”
The 35-year-old also shared a sweet moment with her now-4-year-old daughter before revealing she is pregnant with a second child.
“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, like immensely proud,” she said. “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.”
She continued, “This is not the retirement video I expected when I initially thought I was going to do this, because Charlie’s going to be a big sister.”
“I am pregnant. And as unexpected as this came, we are so overjoyed,” Morgan said of her growing family with professional men’s player Servando Carrasco, her college sweetheart at UC Berkeley and husband.
“To me, family means everything. I wouldn’t be here without my husband and my family uplifting and motivating and encouraging and supporting me and sacrificing for me for the last 15 years as a professional athlete,” she said.
Morgan has one final match for the San Diego Wave on Sunday.
“I just want to thank the fans for always supporting us, for always just using what we’re saying and making it magnified,” she said. “I also need to thank the team, my team behind the scenes — teammates, coaches, staff, everyone who has played a part in my career, has played some part that has made me where I am today and who I am today.”
“I am so shaped into me because of you, because of soccer, and I am forever grateful,” Morgan said. “I cannot wait to celebrate with you one last game. It’s been a ride. And thank you.”
Alex Morgan’s professional soccer career highlights and accolades
Morgan joined the U.S. Women’s National Team training camp in 2009 at 20 years old and has remained a fixture of the team both on and off the field for her legendary 15-year career.
The star striker scored her first goal against China in 2010 and racked up goals against 32 different countries.
Later that same year, Morgan scored in stoppage time against Italy during the Women’s World Cup playoff to give USA a 1-0 win to qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
She finishes her USWNT career with 123 goals, fifth all time, as well as 53 career assists, ninth in U.S. history.
In her 22 World Cup matches, Morgan scored nine goals. She played 16 matches in two different Olympics and scored six goals.
In matches Morgan played, the national team’s record was 177-15-32. She was the captain of the USWNT 23 times and scored in 86 of her 224 international appearances with 158 starts. Of those 86 matches she scored in, the USWNT never lost, notching 76 wins and 10 draws.
With 176 combined goals and assists, Morgan sits at fifth all time in USWNT history, behind only fellow legends Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Kristine Lilly and Carli Lloyd.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Morgan notched three goals, four assists and scored on a header against Canada in the 123rd minute to give the USA a dramatic 4-3 win in the semifinals.
Morgan also had a historic 2012, scoring 28 goals and 21 assists. The only other American player to have a year with at least 20 goals and at least 20 assists was Mia Hamm in 1998.
Morgan’s final goal in a U.S. uniform came on Feb. 23 against Argentina in the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup.
Morgan also racked up numerous awards. She won U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year in 2012 and 2018; was named to the FIFA FIFPRO World XI six times; and was named CONCACAF Female Player of the Year four times.
She also made history during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup with her goal against Brazil on Feb. 22, 2023, to move her past Joy Fawcett to become the all-time leader in USWNT goals as a mother with 14.
The San Dimas, California, native has appeared on the cover of numerous magazines throughout her career, including Time, Adweek, Sports Illustrated, SI for Kids and Glamour.
(NEW YORK) — Women are taking the helm at the 37th edition of the America’s Cup.
For the first time in the racing event’s storied 173-year history, all-female sailing teams representing longtime participants New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy and Switzerland will be joined by six new all-female teams from Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Australia. The teams will take to the seas next week in Barcelona and compete in the brand-new Puig Women’s America’s Cup trophy.
While this is the first time all-female sailing teams will compete for this trophy, it is not the first time women take to the water. Dating back to the 1800s, women have been pivotal members of the sailing, engineering and building teams in America’s Cup but momentum to build up and invest in women sailors has always dwindled and stalled leaving women out of the world’s oldest continually contested sporting trophy.
The Puig Women’s America’s Cup is trying to change that. The inaugural yacht race, which begins Oct. 5, is in part intended as a pipeline for women to eventually enter and compete in the America’s Cup alongside male sailors.
Although there isn’t a formal gender restriction that keeps women from sailing in the America’s Cup, the sport has traditionally been dominated by men due to the intense physical nature of the sport. However, recent technological advancements have changed all of that, according to Coraline Jonet, project manager for Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s youth and women’s teams and herself a lifelong sailor.
“We saw that in the new boats half of the crew don’t need physical strength, which means women and men can do the same job,” she told ABC News. “Obviously, you need experience. And with this first women’s America’s Cup, doing all the jobs, getting that experience, will hopefully mean being able to join the America’s Cup.”
Marie Mazuay, 19, is a trimmer on the Alinghi Red Bull Racing women’s team and has been sailing since she was seven. Her job is to control the sails, adjusting them in relation to the changing wind to turn the boat and control its speed. Previously, that role would require the strength necessary to manually haul on the ropes or crank the sails in place. In the new, high-tech AC40 boats that the teams will be racing, that job is accomplished by using a video game-type remote controller.
For Mazuay, this is a full-circle moment. “It’s a real source of pride to be part of the new generation that is giving more and more opportunities for gender equity in sailing,” she told ABC News. “I’m proud to represent women in sailing alongside women who have achieved great things, and I know how lucky I am to be part of this generation, and I’m going to make sure that this path for women continues.”
And while Jonet and Mazuay hope Alinghi Red Bull Racing will win the Puig Women’s America’s Cup, they say the impact of the race itself surpasses winning a trophy.
“I hope that after this America’s Cup, people will take women more seriously and realize that they are just as competitive and hard-working as men,” Mazuay says.
“Young guys already see male sailors shining, and young girls will now be seeing women sailors as well shining, and the media highlighting them … it’s going to be inspiration and show them that their dream can be true,” Jonet said. “Little girls will see that they can make it. I hope that in time we’ll have more and more women treated just as a sailors, no matter which gender, with the skills that she will get from this kind of pathway.”
