Alex Morgan is planning on being at every United States match at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Not as a player, of course. The two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist retired from both club and country in 2024 ahead of the birth of her second child. But this summer, she hopes to attend every one of the U.S. men\u2019s national team matches as the squad competes in what will be a historic tournament on home soil.<\/p>\n
“I will be watching as many games as possible and going to all of the [U.S.] men\u2019s games this summer, if my schedule allows,” Morgan told me. \u00a0“There is definitely still a lot of soccer and sports in general in my life right now, and I love that.”<\/p>\n
Alex Morgan retired from the game in 2024 after a legendary career. (Photo by Ron Smits\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Morgan has been busy since hanging up her boots, though many of her current business ventures were started while she was still playing. Morgan was arguably the world\u2019s most famous female athlete during her 15-year career. She was the face of the U.S. women’s national team, not just because of her talent on the field \u2013 she scored 123 international goals \u2013 but because of everything she did off of it, like fighting for equal pay, speaking out against systemic abuse in the NWSL, investing in women\u2019s sports and so much more.<\/p>\n Now, she gets to watch the USA \u2014 both the men’s and women’s teams \u2014 as a fan.<\/p>\n Below is my conversation with Morgan as part of her new partnership with Henkel, which has been edited for length.<\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of strange to ask you about the men’s national team, but what are you most looking forward to about this summer\u2019s World Cup? And how do you feel about the USA’s chances?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n Morgan:<\/strong> There\u2019s so much I\u2019m looking forward to. One of the biggest things is just a summer filled with soccer in the U.S. The U.S. has so many great sports and leagues that fans gravitate towards, but having the World Cup here and the best athletes in the world in our backyards is great for the sport of soccer in general.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s going to really generate more opportunities for both boys and girls in the future. Having all those communities around the country that maybe don\u2019t have a professional soccer team or only [follow] American athletes to be able to witness these global stars in a different way than just seeing them on TV.<\/p>\n I\u2019m also just excited to be able to follow the U.S. men. I think our chances are the best that we\u2019ve ever had, so I\u2019m really excited to be able to watch the men\u2019s team and follow along and go to as many or all of the matches.<\/p>\n Who do you think will win it all and why?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n Morgan:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know. I feel like you always look at the powerhouses like Spain, Germany, France, England. But I really do like the U.S. in that bucket of the top powerhouses right now. I feel like they’ve done a great job of diversifying the players on the team and where all those players play. I also think that a lot of these players grew up on the team in a way that they\u2019re in their prime now, so I am very optimistic with this year\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n Are there any players in particular that you\u2019re excited to watch in person?\u00a0<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n Morgan:<\/strong> I\u2019m mostly excited to just watch good football. What\u2019s really great is bringing it back to the communities so they can watch these global stars. Someone like [Spain’s] Lamine Yamal who has already built an incredible career [at 18 years old] and seeing his story. It\u2019s athletes like that that are global stars that fans are maybe introduced to in a new way. Big soccer fans know Lamine, but does every casual fan in the U.S. know Lamine Yamal or some of those big, global stars that are young and have made a mark on the sport already at a young age? I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n So I think the introduction for a lot of fans is going to be really exciting. And I think it\u2019s going to grow a passion for soccer in this country and [create] a demand and an urge for kids to want to participate and play and be given more opportunities than ever before. So I\u2019m excited for the effect that this can have on the country.<\/p>\n The U.S. women\u2019s national team is gearing up for 2027 World Cup qualifying at the end of this year. You retired in 2024, but is it at all strange for you to not be part of a World Cup team?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n The USA will aim for glory at the 2027 World Cup behind 2024 Olympic champions Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson, and Sophia Smith. (Photo by Brad Smith\/ISI\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Morgan:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019ve definitely had some great conversations with current players. I have friends still on the team, although there are a lot of young players and new players that even being only a year-and-a-half removed, the team looks so different in general, which is great. It\u2019s just different than ever before.<\/p>\n As far as the organization, I\u2019ve had really great conversations with [U.S. Soccer president] Cindy Parlow Cone about the growth of women\u2019s soccer in general, the youth landscape and how we can continue to increase opportunities for girls and keep girls in the game. There\u2019s a great opportunity for girls to go to college and play soccer while getting a scholarship, and at the same time, there\u2019s a large number of players who want to go pro younger more than ever before and how the NWSL is adapting to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s fun things to talk about because these are good problems to have in this country, thinking about the incredible product of players that are coming out of the youth system now.<\/p>\n You\u2019re close with Mallory Swanson and Sophia Smith, who are both coming back from maternity leave. They had babies at the height of their careers like you did. How does it feel to know you helped pave the way for players to feel empowered to start families while still playing at the highest level?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n Morgan:\u00a0<\/strong>When you look at all the support that they have now to be able to get back to the playing field \u2013 all the resources, the maternity leave, the access to great healthcare and how we\u2019ve been able to put in our contracts a level of travel that is essential for all players but especially moms \u2013 all of that factors into a player\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n With myself and Soph and Mal, every player will say that they couldn\u2019t have gotten to the level they\u2019re playing at alone. They couldn\u2019t have gotten there without family, without community, without the daily rituals that they\u2019ve gone through. And I feel like, especially with Mal and Sophia and a lot of the NWSL players who have recently announced pregnancy or had babies, it\u2019s so important, more than ever, to show support for those moms through the league and through U.S. Soccer and through their coaches and all of the resources set up for them, that\u2019s what I fought for.\u00a0<\/p>\n Five or six years ago, it was not common to have multiple moms on the national team or really any mom on an NWSL team because of the lack of support and resources. I feel like now, given the changes that have been made, athletes feel confident and being able to do both and be both and be able to take a break, knowing they can fight for their spot again because they have all the resources in place to be able to do both.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really great to see and I\u2019m proud of the work that myself and a lot of other moms did to put these things in place to protect them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Alex Morgan is planning on being at every United States match at the World Cup. Not as a player, of course. The two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist retired from both club and country in 2024 ahead of the birth of her second child. But this summer, she hopes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}