SAN DIEGO – Alex Morgan walked into her retirement news conference Friday thinking she'd be the only player there from the San Diego Wave.
She was surprised by an ovation from her teammates who packed the first two rows.
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“This is your day off!” Morgan said, clearly touched by the moment.
After becoming one of the more recognizable athletes in the United States during her brilliant 15-year professional career, Morgan can expect a lot more of the same Sunday, when she'll play her final match for the Wave, against the North Carolina Courage at Snapdragon Stadium.
Morgan is retiring because she's pregnant with her second child. She's confident she's done all she can both on and off the pitch for the women's game, which she said is in “an amazing place.”
“I will be playing limited minutes this weekend, but nonetheless, it’s always an honor to be able to lace up my boots and step out on that field for one last time," Morgan said.
Morgan, 35, said she didn't expect to retire midseason but found out a few weeks ago she was pregnant. She and husband Servando Carrasco, a former MLS player, have a 4-year-old daughter, Charlie.
“As unexpected as it was, I was so happy because this was what our family wanted, a couple of months sooner than expected, but, nonetheless we were very overjoyed," said Morgan, who had originally planned to retire at the end of the season.
After speaking with her husband and doctor about how long she could safely play, she decided Sunday would be her final match with the National Women's Soccer League club. She informed her teammates Wednesday.
“I just felt like this was the right time," she said. "I felt like the last couple of weeks I’ve sort of lost a step, you know, in playing and I felt like for my body and my mind and my heart, this was the right decision at this time.”
While focusing on expanding her family, she'll continue to support women's sports through her Alex Morgan Foundation and various businesses. She said she plans to invest in the Unrivaled 3 on 3 women's basketball league set to debut in September.
“I don’t think coaching is in my future,” she added.
Having a bigger family is more important.
Even before she started playing soccer at age 5, she was going to her sisters' soccer games and kicking a ball around on the sidelines.
“That’s a big reason that I wanted to grow our family. I want Charlie to have siblings like that. I want siblings to look up to her. I want a big, chaotic family like I had growing up. My sisters meant everything to me. And they were the inspiration behind why I wanted to play soccer in the first place," she said.
Morgan has had Charlie around the Wave so much that defender Naomi Girma asked at the end of the news conference, “Can we still bring Charlie on road trips?”
Said Morgan: “OK, well, the Charlie thing, I don't know. I mean, she has grown a liking to Hillary (Beall). Somehow she jumped to first place in the last three weeks.”
Morgan has helped make the Wave one of the biggest draws in San Diego. As much as the focus will be on her on Sunday, Morgan said it will also be a celebration of the people who helped her along the way. She'll have more than 80 family members in the stands.
Morgan will try to soak up all the small things players sometimes take for granted, including getting her ankle taped one last time and then singing the national anthem with her daughter by her side.
She recalls going to Mia Hamm's retirement game in 2004.
“My mom took me because she knew I wanted to become a professional soccer player. And so that just had a profound impact on me. I couldn’t tell you how many minutes she played or what she even did on the field, but the fact that I saw her for the last time ever, step on the field and step off, it changed me," she said.
Morgan played in 224 matches for the national team, ninth all-time, with 123 goals (fifth all-time) and 53 assists (ninth all-time). She was named the U.S. Soccer Player of the Year in 2012 and 2018.
She helped the United States win an Olympic gold medal and two World Cup titles. As hard as it was being left off the Olympic roster this summer, she said she was proud the United States won the gold medal.
Morgan was known as much for her activism as her big endorsement deals.
She helped lead the fight for equal pay and benefits for the national team. She was one of the key figures in bringing to light the NWSL abuse scandal in 2021, as well as rallying players to demand the NWSL adopt an antiharassment policy and the reforms she advocated for improved working conditions across the league.
Looking at her teammates, many of them much younger than she is, Morgan said, “We're in good hands.”
"Women’s soccer is in such an amazing place where I have done everything that I’ve needed to do. I have accomplished everything that I have come to do. To see those players step on the field and do work and be able to do it at such a young age with such poise, and such confidence, that’s what this is all about.
“That’s why I’m so happy being here saying, yes, I’m retiring because we are more than fine. We are great.”