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(NEW YORK) — Alex Morgan, one of many biggest U.S. soccer stars of all time, formally introduced her retirement from skilled soccer on Thursday.
“I’m gonna get to the purpose rapidly: I’m retiring,” Morgan stated in a video posted to Instagram. “And I’ve a lot readability about this resolution, and I’m so pleased to have the ability to lastly let you know. It has been a very long time coming and this resolution wasn’t simple, however in the beginning of 2024 I felt in my coronary heart and soul that this was the final season that I might play soccer.”
“Soccer has been part of me for 30 years and it was one of many first issues that I ever beloved. And I gave all the pieces to this sport and what I obtained in return was greater than I may have ever dreamed of,” she stated.
The 2-time Olympic medalist, who helped lead Crew USA to gold on the 2012 London Video games and bronze within the 2020 Tokyo Video games, has been celebrated by teammates, coaches and opponents as one of many biggest objective scorers and winners in U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew historical past.
Morgan continued, “Success for me is outlined by by no means giving up and giving your all. And I did simply that. I’m giving my all each single day on the sector, and I did that. Giving my all within the relentless push for world funding in ladies’s sports activities, as a result of we deserve that.”
The 35-year-old additionally shared a candy second together with her now-4-year-old daughter earlier than revealing she is pregnant with a second baby.
“Charlie got here as much as me the opposite day and stated that when she grows up, she needs to be a soccer participant. And it simply made me, like immensely proud,” she stated. “Not as a result of I want for her to turn into a — soccer participant when she grows up, however as a result of a pathway exists that even a 4-year-old can see now we’re altering lives and the influence we’ve got on the subsequent technology is irreversible, and I’m proud within the hand I had in making that occur.”
She continued, “This isn’t the retirement video I anticipated once I initially thought I used to be going to do that, as a result of Charlie’s going to be an enormous sister.”
“I’m pregnant. And as surprising as this got here, we’re so overjoyed,” Morgan stated of her rising household with skilled males’s participant Servando Carrasco, her faculty sweetheart at UC Berkeley and husband.
“To me, household means all the pieces. I wouldn’t be right here with out my husband and my household uplifting and motivating and inspiring and supporting me and sacrificing for me for the final 15 years as knowledgeable athlete,” she stated.
Morgan has one closing match for the San Diego Wave on Sunday.
“I simply need to thank the followers for all the time supporting us, for all the time simply utilizing what we’re saying and making it magnified,” she stated. “I additionally have to thank the crew, my crew behind the scenes — teammates, coaches, employees, everybody who has performed an element in my profession, has performed some half that has made me the place I’m right now and who I’m right now.”
“I’m so formed into me due to you, due to soccer, and I’m perpetually grateful,” Morgan stated. “I can not wait to have a good time with you one final recreation. It’s been a trip. And thanks.”
Alex Morgan’s skilled soccer profession highlights and accolades
Morgan joined the U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew coaching camp in 2009 at 20 years previous and has remained a fixture of the crew each on and off the sector for her legendary 15-year profession.
The star striker scored her first objective towards China in 2010 and racked up targets towards 32 completely different nations.
Later that very same 12 months, Morgan scored in stoppage time towards Italy throughout the Ladies’s World Cup playoff to offer USA a 1-0 win to qualify for the 2011 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup.
She finishes her USWNT profession with 123 targets, fifth all time, in addition to 53 profession assists, ninth in U.S. historical past.
In her 22 World Cup matches, Morgan scored 9 targets. She performed 16 matches in two completely different Olympics and scored six targets.
In matches Morgan performed, the nationwide crew’s report was 177-15-32. She was the captain of the USWNT 23 occasions and scored in 86 of her 224 worldwide appearances with 158 begins. Of these 86 matches she scored in, the USWNT by no means misplaced, notching 76 wins and 10 attracts.
With 176 mixed targets and assists, Morgan sits at fifth all time in USWNT historical past, behind solely fellow legends Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Kristine Lilly and Carli Lloyd.
On the 2012 Summer season Olympics in London, Morgan notched three targets, 4 assists and scored on a header towards Canada within the 123rd minute to offer the USA a dramatic 4-3 win within the semifinals.
Morgan additionally had a historic 2012, scoring 28 targets and 21 assists. The one different American participant to have a 12 months with at the least 20 targets and at the least 20 assists was Mia Hamm in 1998.
Morgan’s closing objective in a U.S. uniform got here on Feb. 23 towards Argentina within the CONCACAF Ladies’s Gold Cup.
Morgan additionally racked up quite a few awards. She gained U.S. Soccer Feminine Participant of the 12 months in 2012 and 2018; was named to the FIFA FIFPRO World XI six occasions; and was named CONCACAF Feminine Participant of the 12 months 4 occasions.
She additionally made historical past throughout the 2023 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup together with her objective towards Brazil on Feb. 22, 2023, to maneuver her previous Pleasure Fawcett to turn into the all-time chief in USWNT targets as a mom with 14.
The San Dimas, California, native has appeared on the quilt of quite a few magazines all through her profession, together with Time, Adweek, Sports activities Illustrated, SI for Youngsters and Glamour.
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