Soccer superstar Alex Morgan is officially hanging up her cleats.
On Thursday, Sept. 5, the two-time Olympic medalist posted on a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, announcing her retirement from the game of soccer...and while also sharing some unexpected news.
"I'm going to get to the point quickly: I am retiring," Morgan said while looking directly at the camera. "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 firs things that I had ever loved, and I gave everything to this sport and what I got in return was more than I could have ever dreamed up," she continued. "Success for me is defined by never giving up and giving your all and I did just that. I am giving my all every single day on the field, and I did that; giving my all in the relentless push for global investment of women's sports, because we deserve that; giving my all in my various businesses beyond the soccer field and giving my all as a mom to my daughter, Charlie."
Alex Morgan and her husband Servando Carrasco welcomed their daughter Charlie Carrasco in 2020.
While announcing the end of her professional soccer career, Morgan also gave fans another surprise: she is expecting her second child.
"This is not the retirement video I expected when I initially thought I was going to do this, because Charlie is going to be a big sister," Morgan said. "I am pregnant. And as unexpected as this came we are so overjoyed—to me, family means everything."
The soccer star went on to say that she wouldn't be where she is today without her husband and family "uplifting, motivating, and encouraging; supporting me and sacrificing for me for the last 15 years as a professional athlete."
"I am also so grateful that I will get one last game," she added, before clarifying that her last game will be Sunday, Sept. 8.
In her at-times emotional retirement video, Morgan talked about her 4-year-old daughter, Charlie, and the kind of example Morgan and her fellow teammates (and opponents) have set for the next generation of young girls and women.
"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 immensely proud," she explained. "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 are changing lives and the impact we have on the next generation is irreversible," she continued, "and I’m proud in the hand I had in making that happen and pushing the game forward and leaving it in a place that I am so happy and proud of."
In her announcement video, Morgan also thanked the fans for "always supporting us; for always just using what we’re saying and making it magnified," alluding to the U.S. women's soccer team's fight for pay equity.
For six years, the players fought for equal pay with U.S. Soccer, before that fight ended in a settlement that included "a multimillion-dollar payment to the players and a promise by their federation to equalize pay between the men’s and women’s national teams," The New York Times reported at the time.
"I am forever grateful," Morgan said. "I cannot wait to celebrate with you one last game. It’s been a ride. And thank you."
