Farewell to an icon of women’s football

When Alex Morgan left the field for the last time in San Diego last Sunday, she was wearing socks. She had already taken off her football boots on the field in a symbolic act. The defeat of her team, the San Diego Wave, was just a side note at the tearful farewell party for one of the most influential female footballers of all time.

Morgan mastered the grand gestures in that natural way that characterizes Americans. But what makes the striker special is not the show. Morgan has scored 210 goals in 16 years as a professional. She played 224 times for the USA and scored 123 goals, was twice world champion, won Olympic gold in London in 2012 and the Champions League with Olympique Lyon in 2017.

It’s an impressive career. But she became an idol with appeal far beyond American soccer because she got stuck in and used her star power to improve conditions in women’s soccer.

Accusation of disrespect at the World Cup

At a young age, Morgan, like all players of her generation, experienced the arduous work of building up women’s football, the failure of professional leagues in the USA, the lack of interest from investors, the low wages and difficult working conditions. But her commitment always went beyond the usual. In 2015, she supported Mana Shim, her teammate at the Portland Thorns, when she confided in her that the head coach had sexually assaulted her. The fact that in 2021 the league had guidelines for the first time to prevent harassment was also thanks to Alex Morgan.

In 2019, she was one of the players who sued the American Soccer Association and demanded that the men and the far more successful women in the national teams should receive equal pay. Two years later, the association announced that it would introduce “equal pay”.

Morgan was somewhat overshadowed by Megan Rapinoe in the eyes of European football fans. Both scored six goals at the 2019 World Cup. Rapinoe, who not only played in a major World Cup but also took a dig at Donald Trump, was the center of attention as a gifted emcee and leader of the Bad-Ass Team, as she called it at the victory celebration in New York.

There was one of the rare occasions during the tournament when Morgan was criticized. When she scored the winning goal in the semi-final against England, she pretended to be a tea drinker. This was considered disrespectful in England, even though Morgan assured that she wanted to honor an actress with the gesture.

The Californian fought her most personal battle in 2020. Her daughter Charlie was born in May. It was unprecedented for a footballer at this level to become a mother during her career. No club or association was set up for a football-playing mother, but Morgan wanted to prove that it was possible.

It is no exaggeration to say that her motherhood and comeback had a big influence on many of her colleagues. Both the German Melanie Leupolz and the Icelandic Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir, who became pregnant a little later, say that Morgan’s example encouraged them. The fact that just four years later, fewer and fewer women feel they have to choose between children and football is also due to Morgan.

Daughter wants to become a footballer

At the beginning of 2024, she decided that she would retire at the end of the season. Unhappy months followed: Morgan was plagued by injuries, and she was dropped from the squad for the Olympic Games, which hit her hard. When she released a short video last Friday, at the beginning of which she takes a deep breath to avoid crying straight away, people wondered what would follow. She is retiring immediately, she said, and the reason is a good one: Morgan is pregnant, earlier than she had planned.

The tributes were not long in coming. Gymnast Simone Biles, former athlete Allyson Felix, former ski star Lindsey Vonn – all bowed to her. But what touched Alex Morgan most was that her daughter Charlie said she wanted to be a soccer player. Not because Morgan necessarily wants that. But because it is possible for four-year-old girls to think that this path is open to them.