USWNT Star Alex Morgan on the 'Swagger' the US World Cup Team Will Have This Summer
NEED TO KNOW
Key Takeaways
- Alex Morgan reflects on her soccer legacy and how she shows support to current US Soccer players
- She highlights the unique advantage of playing a World Cup on home turf and the energy fans bring to athletes
- Morgan stays active post-retirement as a mom, entrepreneur and investor while embracing self-care and new hobbies like padel
Alex Morgan may have retired from playing professional soccer, but that doesn’t mean she’s left the sport in her past.
As co-founder of her TOGETHXR platform, dedicated to amplifying women’s sports and making equality the norm, the former U.S. soccer women’s national team star remains a die-hard supporter of the sport — especially now with the World Cup’s return to North America, which sees fellow athlete, U.S. men’s national team player and acclaimed “Captain America” Christian Pulisic, on soccer’s biggest stage.
“Both Christian and Sophia [Wilson, Morgan’s former USWNT teammate] started on the international stage at a really young age. And, you know, Christian having gone overseas to Europe at a really young age, he has that really important experience to be able to lead the U.S. team this summer,” Morgan tells PEOPLE of the two star players who joined her in Mondelez’s Summer of Soccer campaign. “For Sophia, we played for a couple of years together, and she is just so humble, but so lethal on the field, and it’s awesome to see her now as a mom coming back and playing with her daughter right there in the stands. So I’m loving both of their paths that they’ve made for themselves. And it’s just really exciting for me now, having made my mark on the sport, and kind of what I did both on and off the field, and how that really benefits Sophia. Now it’s really rewarding to be able to witness and to be a fan of.”
One thing Morgan did not have the chance to pave the way for: A World Cup on home turf, with all the advantages of meeting more homegrown fans.
Credit: Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty
“I never had the opportunity to play in front of my home crowd or my home country on the biggest stage,” shares Morgan. “So the fact that Christian has this opportunity, the U.S. men’s national team have this opportunity this year — and hopefully for the women, they have this opportunity in 2031 and I’m sure Sophia is going to be on that team, scoring many goals, just like she is now.”
She adds, “It’s just really exciting, because you kind of have that 12-man, or woman, effect on the field, where you have the fans all behind you. They’re chanting non-stop. You kind of feel like a little more confident and invincible, having your fans and showing up with a little swagger, knowing that this is your home turf, and it’s going to take a lot for someone to take you down on that. I’m just really excited to see our men compete this summer, because it’s a unique opportunity that most athletes don’t ever get in their lifetime. So I’m just excited to be able to witness that.”
It may only be two years since Morgan announced her retirement, but the newly minted mom of two still stays active, prioritizing self-care, daily walks with her family, and getting into what’s become her “new soccer”: padel.
“I gave so much of my life to the sport of soccer, and every day that I woke up and went to sleep, it was on my mind of how to recover better, how to optimize my day in order to maximize the time that I spent on the field, make sure my body was ready to go,” she tells PEOPLE. “So I think just like continuing to carry that through life as a mom, as an entrepreneur, as a business woman, as an investor with the San Diego Wave — that doesn’t stop. But taking care of yourself should be the most important thing, because you can’t be the best mom or the best businesswoman or bring the best to your family or work without working on yourself first.”
The World Cup kicked off June 11 in Mexico City and Guadalajara, and you know Morgan was tuned in: “What I love is to play soccer and to watch soccer, and now I get to do that all summer long,” she says.
Read the original article on People
