Alex Morgan’s legacy: The USWNT star’s top 13 moments on and off the pitch as she announces retirement

One of the greatest U.S. women’s national team players will hang up her cleats and say farewell on Sunday. Long-time forward Alex Morgan announced her retirement in a farewell video on Thursday and the Wave FC striker will play her final game against North Carolina Courage at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California. Morgan will leave behind a nearly 15-year professional career where she earned several championships, titles, and personal accolades. 

She made her senior national team debut in 2010 and went on to make 223 appearances, scoring 123 goals, good for fifth all-time. She’s a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion (2015 and 2019) and earned Olympic gold and bronze medals. She’s as accomplished at the club level too, with a 2011 WSP Championship, 2013 NWSL Championship, 2017 UEFA Champions League title, and a 2024 NWSL Shield.

Her big moments were felt all around the globe, both on and off the pitch, and she made most of them wearing her iconic No. 13. So let’s take a look at 13 top moments of her career:

13. California kid makes a snowy senior debut

Morgan made a memorable senior debut in Salt Lake City, Utah against Mexico on a snow-covered pitch. It was an appearance off the bench and she was repping No. 21 at the time, but it was the appearance that started it all. 

12. 2008 U-20 World Cup champion

The youth team that launched Morgan, Sydney Leroux, and Alyssa Naeher into the spotlight. Morgan was a key figure for the team and scored four goals in the run to the second-ever U20 World Cup title. Her performances earned her future call-ups to senior-level training camps. 

11. Clutch goal to advance into the 2011 World Cup

After making her senior team debut, Morgan was quickly acclimated into the program’s plans as a next-gen player. The senior squad made an extended qualifying effort after not sealing their place in the 2011 World Cup through initial Concacaf qualifiers with a third-place finish. They met Italy for a two-leg intercontinental playoff. Morgan delivered the lone goal in the first leg that ultimately sealed the squad’s place in the 2011 tournament.

10. 2011 World Cup debut

If the 2008 U20 World Cup was a sneak peek at the future, the 2011 World Cup was the official unveiling of Morgan as the next star striker of the team. She was an added boost off the bench throughout the competition, scored two goals, and delivered one assist in her first senior level World Cup. The national team settled for runners-up against Japan, but Morgan made history as the first player to ever score and record an assist in a women’s World Cup final. 

9. First club title with Western New York Flash

Morgan’s generation was also the final draft class for the now-defunct WPS (Women’s Professional Soccer) league. The NWSL’s predecessor was only around for three seasons, but Morgan’s arrival to WNY Flash was a historic one. She featured in 14 games and scored four goals and the club ran away with the regular season title and championship title. 

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8. Helped launch three NWSL clubs

After WPS folded, many players affiliated with the national team were a major part of planning the next iteration of a pro women’s soccer league. As the NWSL prepared to launch, it did so with the help of U.S. Soccer and the commitment of the players. There was an allocation system in place, and several clubs were new franchises, while others were existing club brands. 

Morgan was allocated to Portland Thorns FC during the allocation draft ahead of the inaugural 2013 season — one of the new women’s soccer franchises to launch the league. As the league expanded, Morgan eventually found herself on other inaugural rosters in NWSL. She helped launch Orlando Pride ahead of the 2016 season, and later, San Diego Wave FC ahead of the 2022 season.

7. Winning at the club level

She won the 2013 NWSL Championship with the Thorns during their first-ever season, a season where she shared team-leading goal scorer honors with teammate Christine Sinclair, and delivered an assist in the championship final. She won the league’s Golden Boot in 2022 with San Diego during their inaugural season and won the 2023 NWSL Shield with the Wave — awarded to the team with the most points in the regular season. 

6. European stints

The club level also includes short loans overseas in Europe. In 2017, Morgan joined Olympique Lyon and scored five goals in eight appearances with the team. Though she navigated a hamstring injury while with the squad, and it limited some of her performances, Morgan’s time with the team led to more hardware as Lyon went on to secure the treble winning the domestic league, the Coupe de France Feminine, and the UEFA Women’s Champions League title.

She also spent time in England with Tottenham. Her first and only stint in the WSL came during a time of uncertainty. With leagues affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, playing opportunities in the NWSL during 2020 looked different than they would have during a traditional season. For Morgan, who was also returning to play after giving birth in May 2020, it was a short loan experience, from September to December. Her biggest impact came in the form of notoriety and influence, by getting the franchise to change their subpar training grounds and move over to the men’s training fields. 

5. Olympic 2012 semfinal against Canada

In what is often labeled as the greatest soccer game ever played, long-time rivals Canada and the United States met in the London Olympic semifinal at Old Trafford. The two sides played to a wild 3-3 scoreline in regulation, while a tense period of extra time was needed to determine who would advance. 

It was arguably the game that solidified Morgan’s place as the “present” striker of the team instead of the future player. With time winding down in second extra time, Heather O’Reilly whipped a ball into the box and Morgan was there, ready to rise and head the ball into goal as the game clock expired. 

4. Championing others in the game

Morgan’s legacy expands beyond the pitch for many. She’s been vocal about efforts to grow the game and expand opportunities for girls in the game. She was from a generation of players who evolved the concept of using one’s personal platform for something bigger. She has often advocated for bettering the women’s game, allyship for the LGBTQ community, and women’s equity.

In 2023, as the team held friendlies in Florida and Texas, Morgan was vocal about protecting trans youth in sports.  

“Looking at these games in Florida and Texas respectively, we’re going to need to continue to step it up, and have internal discussions as well with the team, because we’re not ones to shy away from hard conversation or taking a stand for what’s right,” Morgan told reporters at the time.

3. Trusted Teammate

In perhaps the biggest example of championing others, Alex Morgan was one of a handful of players who made repeated efforts to try and advocate for teammates who were experiencing varying levels of abuse and misconduct in the league.

In a 2021, report exposing sexual misconduct allegations by former Portland Thorns teammates Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly against former head coach Paul Riley, Alex Morgan was named as a player who Shim and Farrelly turned to when their concerns were brushed aside by former Thorns executives. The story made national headlines, placed a spotlight on the league, and led to nearly year-long investigations in misconduct by U.S. Soccer, and a joint team investigation between the NWSL and NWSL Players Association. 

Prior to the story coming to light, Morgan, Shim, and Farelly discovered there were no functioning protocols for player protection in the player handbook. There was also no anti-harassment policy in place prior to the 2021 story. Morgan helped change that, as she led 240 players to sign a letter to former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird asking for processes for player protection in the league. 

2. Semifinal tea sip celebration against England

While Morgan has an entire trophy case full of hardware, her celebratory pop during the 2019 World Cup will live on for eternity. As the United States faced England in the semifinal, Morgan scored the game-winning goal in the 31st minute and immediately ran to the corner flag a hit a “tea sipping” celebration. It was witty and iconic. and feather ruffling — and it was the coolest stuff American dreams are made of. 

While she caught some criticism for it, Morgan defended her celebration telling media,  “I feel that there is some sort of double-standard for females in sports, to feel like we have to be humble in our successes and have to celebrate, but not too much or in a limited fashion,” she said at the time. 

The USWNT won the semifinal 2-1 and went on to win the 2019 World Cup with a 2-0 win against the Netherlands in the final. England went on to earn fourth-place.

1. Equal pay fight

Morgan was one of the faces, and names, on a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation as the team navigated the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. After an extended fight from their initial EEOC filing, the group was navigating uncharted waters but held the power of knowledge and history of top performances in the briefcases that aided them in the court of public opinion and throughout legal sessions that lasted multiple years.

It was a fight that was years in the making, with lawsuits and litigation a near-constant carousel, but finally paid off in February 2022. The national team reached a $24 million settlement with the federation that included World Cup backpay prize money and a commitment that both the women’s and men’s teams would receive equal pay. The two national teams signed a historic collective bargaining agreement that runs through 2028 and features equal compensation for all competitions, World Cups, and a revenue sharing mechanism. 

The larger scale, very public fight, had a ripple effect. As the NWSL was in the midst of ongoing investigations into the misconduct in women’s domestic soccer, the NWSL Players Association was also actively negotiating their own, first ever, CBA, which was signed in ratified in January 2022.