Alex The Great

She scored 123 goals. She won two World Cups. She became the face of her sport. But Alex Morgan's legacy is so much deeper than any of that. Ask Mana Shim.

One of the greatest players in the annals of U.S. Soccer hung up her boots in Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego Sunday night. The hometown Wave were playing the North Carolina Courage, and if things didn’t turn out the way the 26,000-plus fans were hoping, well, the 90 minutes of soccer seemed much less consequential than the celebration of Alex Morgan, a 35-year-old icon who has spent more than a decade not only being the face of the USWNT, but one of the most important and impactful female athletes in the world.

Alex Morgan scored 123 international goals in her USWNT career, the fifth most of all time. The first of them came almost 14 years ago, against China, assisted by a flick of a header from Abby Wambach and achieved with a sprint to goal and a lethal left foot, vintage trademarks of the young Morgan, who could gallop away from defenders so easily that her teammates nicknamed her Baby Horse. Not even two years later, she scored one of the most famous goals in program history, an epic header in the 123^rd minute to lift the U.S. past Canada, 4-3, in the 2012 Olympic semifinals in Old Trafford. She and her teammates won an Olympic gold medal a few days later, capping one of the greatest seasons ever by a U.S. player, Morgan finishing the year with 28 goals and 21 assists, joining Mia Hamm as the only player to surpass the 20 mark in both categories. She would go on to be part of two World Cup championship teams, and win club championships in the WPS and NWSL, as well as in the UEFA Champions League, before capturing another Olympic medal in 2021, this one a bronze, in Tokyo.

Morgan’s journey to stardom began in earnest at the 2008 U-20 World Cup in Chile, where she started the tournament as a promising, but little-known, 19-year-old forward out of the University of California. By the end she was being whispered as a possible successor to Hamm. It’s one of those things that happens when you beat three defenders and launch a rocket into the upper left corner to score the game-winner in the final.

Many more heroics would follow for Morgan. Her No. 13 USWNT jersey would become a staple for tens of thousands of young girls all over the country. Her poster has been on the wall of future teammate Sam Coffey’s childhood bedroom for 10 years (I have sources), and on a few million other walls, as well. Years passed and the goals and accolades kept piling up, and with the unparalleled combination of world-class talent and work ethic, movie-star looks and demonstrable character, Morgan would become a marketing machine and a celebrity well beyond the soccer field.

For all of her fame and fortune, though, Alex Morgan’s most enduring legacy, I believe, will be her unerring moral compass - the way that she used her platform in service to others, and for the greater good.  

“I hope my legacy is that I pushed the game forward,” Morgan said in a news conference a day after she announced her retirement (and the news that she is expecting a second child) last week. “That I helped gain respect for the women’s game, that I increased the value and the investment in the women’s game, that I helped players and myself not only be respected in the game but have better resources, be protected, have player safety be at the forefront. Have women’s soccer players just play soccer, not have to fight for so much, so many other things that we’ve had to continually fight for.”

Morgan did all of that, and more. The USWNT waged a six-year equal-pay battle with U.S. Soccer, and Morgan was front and center for the duration, a fight that culminated with a $24 million settlement in 2022 and a commitment from the federation that the men’s and women’s teams would be compensated equally, paving the way for a collective bargaining agreement with revenue-sharing across all competitions. Morgan was no less a force in advocating for her fellow NWSL players, helping to spearhead the NWSL Players Association’s own CBA, and serving on the union bargaining committee that achieved markedly improved pay and employment conditions in the latest agreement that was approved just last month.  It’s not every millionaire athlete who will spend the time and energy to make sure that the rank-and-file players get their due and are treated with respect and professionalism

"Don't think many people will ever understand the weight you carried with you being the face of this team and women's football in general," U.S. captain Lindsey Horan wrote to Morgan in an Instagram post. “You made the game better for so many little ones looking up to you and what an incredible career on top of it."

But perhaps Morgan’s bravest, and most selfless, advocacy was on behalf of former teammates Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly, who were victims of alleged sexual misconduct and emotional abuse by former coach Paul Riley.  Shim, who flew from her home in Washington, D.C. to be there for Morgan’s farewell, won’t ever forget it.

“When I told Alex what Paul had done, she could have just been sympathetic, but instead she took action,” Shim told me Monday. “She leveraged her power as a national team player to help me find someone at the Thorns to make a formal complaint to, and later, she worked with Sinead and me behind the scenes to pass (the NWSL’s) anti-harassment policy – which never would’ve happened without her.

“Everyone saw Alex’s courage from the moment she stepped on the field for the USWNT. But Alex has another kind of courage . . . to stand up and call out injustices when she sees them. Her character in moments of adversity, and her commitment to act in accordance with her values, is what sets her apart.”

As if that were not enough, when Shim was making $11,000 in WPS and decided to go back to school, Morgan paid for flights, took her out to dinner and basically covered everything when they were together.  “Occasionally, she would let me buy her a coffee,” Shim said.

Mana Shim and Alex Morgan after the Portlant Thorns’ 2013 NWSL Championship. (Shim’s father brought the leis from Hawaii.)

Shim said Morgan told her from the start that if she wanted to share her story publicly, she would stand behind her. When Shim and Farrelly came forward and shared all the sordid details in a bombshell report in The Athletic, Morgan was good to her word. Indeed, she sat alongside Shim when Savannah Guthrie did a TODAY show segment on the scandal, the spotlight leading to two investigations that revealed “systemic abuse” in the league and ultimately to the permanent ban of four coaches, Riley among them. At a time when former NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird and so many others in a position of power did all they could to hush things up and make the rampant misogyny go away, Morgan refused to let that happen. It was a watershed moment for the league, one that resulted in the anti-harassment policy, a coach’s code of conduct, and a no-fraternization policy. Inarguably, Shim and Farrelly’s courage to come forward, and Morgan’s untiring efforts behind the scenes, did more to safeguard the emotional and physical well-being of NWSL players than anything else in the history of the league. Maybe it would’ve happened without Morgan’s quiet, steadfast advocacy.

Or maybe not.

“(Alex) is fiercely loyal and remarkably courageous,” Shim said.

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The final 13 months of Alex Morgan’s storybook career did not quite yield the anticipated ending – on the field, anyway. The U.S. exited the 2023 World Cup in the quarterfinals, its worst showing ever. After winning the NWSL Golden Boot for the Wave in 2022 with 15 goals, Morgan didn’t score a single goal in the current league season. Emma Hayes left her off the Olympic roster for Paris, a decision that was hard to argue after the front line of Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson shined throughout the gold-medal run, but one that was stunning nonetheless. And then in Sunday’s farewell, after the Wave earned an early PK, Morgan stepped to the spot. A fairy-tale finish seemed all but assured, but Morgan’s USWNT teammate, Casey Murphy, made the save. Morgan smiled, handling a disappointing moment with customary grace and class.

Still, in the most important ways, the night was perfect. Morgan walked out on the Snapdragon pitch hand-in-hand with her daughter, Charlie. She was surrounded by her family, and serenaded by chants and cheers throughout. The stands were packed with thousands of girls (and plenty of boys and men, too) wearing those No. 13 jerseys, and too many adoring signs to count. Someone hung up all the incarnations of the USWNT jerseys she wore on a railing, and when she came off the field in the 13^th minute and spoke to the crowd about how she has lived her dream and how grateful she was for all the fans’ support, Alex Morgan wasn’t the only one who was fighting tears. Tributes poured in from Simone Biles and Michaela Shiffrin, from everywhere, and Trinity Rodman said, “She’ll never get enough credit for all the things she’s changed, inside the sport and outside the sport.”

After a brief, heartfelt speech, Alex Morgan unlaced her blue boots, blew a few kisses to the crowd and walked slowly to the bench, and it felt as if the entire city of San Diego was chanting her name. Up in the suite where Morgan’s family and friends had gathered, Mana Shim was among those standing, tears of joy and gratitude coming hard, not wanting the moment to end, understanding that the true measure of Alex Morgan’s greatness can never be measured by goals or trophies or championships

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