Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan (born July 2, 1989, San Dimas, California, U.S.) is an American professional football (soccer) player who used her speed and strength to become one of the leading scorers in the sport. She helped the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) win two World Cups (2015 and 2019) as well as a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games. These successes combined with her athleticism and charisma made Morgan one of the biggest stars and highest wage earners of U.S. women’s soccer.

Early life

Morgan is the youngest of three daughters born to Pamela and Michael Morgan. The family lived in Diamond Bar, California, where she played many sports while growing up. As a teenager, she began to concentrate on soccer and quickly became a standout. While attending the University of California at Berkeley, she earned numerous honors and awards for her soccer skills. In 2010 Morgan graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political economy.

Club play

In the 2011 Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) draft, Morgan was selected as the number one overall pick by the Western New York Flash. At the end of her first season, however, the WPS disbanded. She then joined the Seattle Sounders Women (later called the Sound FC [Football Club]) of the Women of the United Soccer Leagues (now part of the Women’s Premier Soccer League). There she played alongside other soccer stars such as Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo. After the 2012 season Morgan moved to the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

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From 2013 to 2015 she played with the Portland (Oregon) Thorns FC. In 2016 she joined the Orlando (Florida) Pride. While under contract with the Pride, Morgan played short stints on loan for two European clubs, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin (Lyon) in France (2016–17) and Tottenham Hotspur in England (2020–21). In 2021 Morgan signed with the San Diego Wave FC, a new NWSL club that played its first games the following year.

International career

Morgan began playing at the international level early in her career. She was the youngest member of the USWNT at the 2011 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup, and she scored her first goal in a semifinal match. At the 2012 London Olympics she earned a gold medal as part of the winning U.S. team. She also participated at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where the U.S. team was eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinals.

Morgan helped the USWNT win the FIFA Women’s World Cup in both 2015 and 2019. During the first game of the 2019 tournament, she scored five goals against Thailand, tying the record for most individual goals in a Women’s World Cup game. However, she had to cut short the rest of her 2019 season with the Orlando Pride because of a knee injury she suffered during that year’s World Cup play. At the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan (delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), Morgan scored a goal in a group-stage match against New Zealand. Advancing to the bronze medal match, the U.S. team earned a 4–3 victory over Australia.

At the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship, Morgan scored the lone goal in the final game to defeat Canada. The following year she appeared in her fourth World Cup. However, she failed to score during the tournament, and the USWNT made its earliest exit ever from the World Cup, losing in the round of 16 to Sweden in a penalty shootout. In 2024 Morgan was not chosen for the 18-player U.S. team competing at the Paris Olympics. It was the first time in some 14 years that she would be absent from a major tournament.

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Gender discrimination lawsuit and other activities

In 2019 Morgan and several teammates on the USWNT sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender discrimination. They sought pay and working conditions equal to those of the men’s team. Although the lawsuit was dismissed in a federal district court, Morgan and her teammates appealed the decision. The players eventually reached a landmark settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation in February 2022. According to the terms of the deal, the federation would pay $24 million to USWNT members. The federation also agreed to pay men and women equally in all future tournaments and friendly matches (nontournament games).

Morgan wrote The Kicks series of books for middle-schoolers, which revolves around soccer and the importance of teamwork. Installments in the series include Saving the Team (2013), Shaken Up (2015), Under Pressure (2017), and Switching Goals (2019). She also created a comedy television series based on the books, called The Kicks (2015–16). In 2015 Morgan published the memoir Breakaway: Beyond the Goal.

Personal life

In 2014 Morgan married American soccer player Servando Carrasco. She missed much of the 2020 season for the birth of their daughter, Charlie Elena Carrasco.