Innovation Of Soccer: Alex Morgan’s Beginning and End of Playing Pro Soccer

Alex Morgan is a world famous soccer player who played for San Diego Wave FC and many other teams. She is an innovation in women’s soccer inspiring many young people to keep practicing the sport. She just announced that she is retiring from playing soccer professionally, because she is expecting her second child. How did Alex Morgan get her start ? How did she get to where she is today?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 Early Life

Alex Morgan was born July 2nd 1989, in Diamond Bar California to Pamela and Micheal Morgan. She started playing soccer for AYSO until age 14 when she joined the club team Cypress Elite. Before that her focus was gymnastics. She was and is very smart and attended the University of California, Berkeley and won many awards for soccer while she attended the school. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political economy. 

Playing  Soccer Internationally

Just starting at 17, Morgan started at the International level. She was the youngest person playing in the 2010 USWNT FIFA Women’s world cup and scored her first goal in a semi- final match. Morgan has gone to three Olympics. One in 2012 located in London, the second in 2016 located in Rio De Janeiro, and the third in 2021 postponed from 2020 located in Tokyo. She was awarded a gold medal, as a part of the U.S. team, helping them win in 2012 and in 2016 the United states women’s team was knocked out by Sweden in the Quarter Finals. Morgan in 2015 and 2019 helped the ​​USWNT (United States Women’s National Team) Win the  FIFA Women’s world cup. In the 2019 game versus Thailand, Morgan scored 5 goals and tied the record for most individual goals scored in a Women’s soccer game. In the group stage, Morgan scored a goal against New Zealand, advancing her and the team to the bronze medal stage match where they had a 4-3 win against Australia.  In the CONCACAF W Championship scored the “lone goal” in the final game and her team triumphed above Canada.

Playing Club Soccer

In 2011, Morgan was the number one pick in the (WPS) draft by the Wester New York Flash. By the end of that season, the WPS ( Women professional Soccer) Disbanded. Then, she joined the Seattle Sounders, this team was later called the Sound FC [Football Club]) of the Women of the United Soccer Leagues and is now a part of  Women’s Premier Soccer League. In 2013-2015, she played with the Portland Oregon Thorns FC. In 2016, she joined the Orlando Pride and she played short periods of time on two european club teams. Olympique Lyonnais Féminin (Lyon) located in France from 2016-207 and then Tottenham Hotspur Located in England from 2020-2021. Then Finally in 2021 to now she has played for the San Diego Wave FC. In 2019, she had to cut her club season short due to a knee injury she faced during that year’s world cup.

Life Outside of  Soccer 

When Morgan wasn’t on the field, she was  fighting a lawsuit for her and her teammates to have equal pay and working conditions compared to the men’s team. This lawsuit was appealed in federal court but Morgan and her teammates for the USWNT appealed. They finally reached a settlement in 2022. According to the deal the players and league formed, USWNT players would be paid 24 million dollars and for all future tournament and Non- Tournament games Men and Women would be paid equally. She also is a Model,Author,Actress,and Mother.  She wrote an Auto- Biography Called Breakaway: Beyond the Goal in 2015 and a book series that was turned into a tv series available on amazon prime called The Kicks. But she didn’t act in that show; she acted in Coppa 71, Alex Morgan the Equalizer,Greatness Code, and Alex and Me. In 2014,she married American soccer player Servano Carrasco and gave birth to their daughter Charlie Elena Carrasco in 2020. She has also modeled for many companies and magazines one of them being Nike.  

Alex Morgan has had a great career with much variety. Do you find her Life Interesting? Do you want to learn more about her? Comment down below!

“Alex Morgan.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 9 Sept. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Alex-Morgan.