US Soccer Star Alex Morgan Announces Pregnancy and Retirement

Alex Morgan may be saying goodbye to soccer, but she’s opening up new doors as a soon-to-be mom of two.

The US Soccer star shared a teary goodbye to the sport and announced she was expecting her second child on September 5. “I’m retiring and I have so much clarity about this decision and I’m so happy to be able to finally tell you,” Morgan said in an Instagram Reel. “It has been a long time coming and this decision wasn’t easy but at the beginning of 2024, I felt in my heart and soul that this was the last season that I would play soccer.”

“Soccer has been a part of me for 30 years, and it was one of the first things that I ever loved. I gave everything to this sport and what I got in return was more than I could have ever dreamed of. Success for me is defined by never giving up and giving your all, and I did just that. Giving my all every single day on the field. Giving my all in the relentless push for global investment in women’s sports because we deserve that. Giving me all in my various businesses beyond the soccer field and giving my all as a mom to my daughter Charlie.”

Morgan conceded that this wasn’t the retirement video she expected because “Charlie is going to be a big sister. I am pregnant,” she said. “As unexpected as this came we are so overjoyed. To me, family means everything. I wouldn’t be here without my husband and my family uplifting, motivating, encouraging, supporting me and sacrificing for me for the last 15 years as a professional athlete.”

The 35-year-old will get one last game to “put on the boots” this Sunday, September 8, but is proud of the way she has pushed to revolutionize the game and make it an exciting and promising path for little girls to come. “Charlie came up to me the other day and said that when she grows up, she wants to be a soccer player,” she said. “It just made me immensely proud — not because I wish for her to become a soccer player when she grows up — but because a pathway exists that even a 4-year-old can see now.”

“We’re changing lives and the impact we have on the next generation is irreversible, and I’m proud [of] the hand I had in making that happen in pushing the game forward and leaving it in a place that I’m so happy and proud of.”

Morgan and her husband, fellow pro soccer player Servando Carrasco, welcomed their first daughter, Charlie, in May 2020. Since then, Charlie has been her mom’s biggest cheerleader at every game—and she’s sure to be cheering her on one last time this Sunday.