By OkayGoal 
Photo: Abe Arredondo-Imagn Images.
It probably did not take a formal ceremony this weekend to ensure no San Diego Wave player would ever wear the number 13 again. Not when that player—Alex Morgan—was the club’s first big star, first to score a hat trick and 15 goals in a season, and first former player to join the ownership group. And that is just a quick overview of Alex Morgan’s life since 2022.
The reality of Alex Morgan is that she has been in our lives since the turn of the 2010s, and there is no sign of her leaving any time soon. Women’s soccer first came to the forefront three decades ago and the game in the United States has seen many stars come and go on the field. Few have had the staying power of Morgan.
It has been a year since Morgan walked away as a player. At the time she was struggling to score goals and retirement came with news she was pregnant. It still came as a shock. She has since found time to become a Wave minority owner, and it certainly appears she will be more than a figurehead.
It is remarkable to think about all the ways Morgan has delivered for the game of soccer. It is easy to remember the famous Megan Rapinoe to Abby Wambach equalizer against Brazil in the 2011 World Cup quarterfinals. But buried in that history is how close the United States came to missing that World Cup altogether. The most important goal along the way came from a 21-year-old Alex Morgan, a stoppage time winner in November of 2010 to lift up a wrecked U.S. team in the intercontinental playoff away leg in Padua.
Remember the epic Olympic semifinal at Old Trafford when Canada led three times only to be undone by a resilient U.S. side and some questionable officiating? It was Morgan who beat Erin McLeod with a header in stoppage time of extra time to send the U.S. through a gold medal match they would win over Japan.
When the National Women’s Soccer League kicked off in 2013, Morgan was a clear choice to be one of the faces. The Thorns made her one of three Americans “allocated” by U.S. Soccer. The Thorns immediately became the model club in the league and took down the inaugural championship.
The Thorns were the first of three NWSL clubs to hitch their early fortunes to Alex Morgan. The initial plan called for Orlando to join the league in 2017. But the new owners knew that it was time for Morgan to move on from Portland, and they wanted her as the cornerstone. Her tenure in Orlando was a bit hit-and-miss from a soccer perspective, but her presence in the inaugural Pride team made the club an immediate marquee attraction.
Six years after the Pride, in came the Wave. And they wanted Morgan. And Morgan wanted to live in California again. It was a match made in heaven. In the Wave’s first regular season home match, Morgan scored four goals. By season’s end she had scored 15 for the Golden Boot and the expansion side not only made the playoffs but won its quarterfinal on an extra time goal—by Alex Morgan. In 2023 the Wave won the Shield.
Along the way, Morgan was the pretty, marketable face of the NWSL and U.S. national team where she was rarely out of favor through the 2023 World Cup. She was always smiling, always accommodating. She rarely turned down an interview, even in the worst of times after big losses. Time will tell the story, but early on in her life as an owner, it appears Morgan will still be available, still willing to put her face on the sport she has carried at times.
But perhaps Morgan’s greatest contribution to the NWSL was carved out behind a keyboard. As the league reeled from the bombshell reports of sexual coercion from Paul Riley’s tenure with the Thorns, the usual bevy of statements, denials, and promises were being slung around the Internet. Morgan posted a screenshot of an email then-commissioner Lisa Baird had sent to Mana Shim, informing her that a prior investigation into Riley was closed and would not be revisited.
From that moment on, there were no more denials. The league had not covered up the story, but had actively attempted to keep it buried. Baird’s tenure as commissioner was no longer viable and she soon resigned under pressure. Much of the NWSL’s explosive growth in the four years since can be traced to that moment of reckoning.
It was just Alex Morgan, delivering for the sport as she has always done.
