Not everything went as planned for Alex Morgan, but everything is exactly where she wanted it to be in the end.
The 35-year-old, a longtime star for the U.S. Women’s National Team, revealed in a shocking video last month that she is pregnant with her second child, just days before playing the final game of her career against the NWSL’s San Diego Wave. At the same time, he announced his retirement from soccer. F.C.
Morgan’s pregnancy was a “surprise” for her and her husband, Servando Carrasco, she told PEOPLE a month later, but it forced them to move up their retirement plans by several months.
“We’re really looking forward to growing our family,” the two-time World Cup winner says. “We’ve been wanting to do this for a while and obviously wanted to find the right time. The pregnancy was a little unexpected so it was a few months earlier than expected, but looking back on it all… I’m really grateful that everything went smoothly.”
Morgan said preparing for her retirement earlier than expected had created “raw” emotions and was “really emotional” for her and her family. That’s because he received hundreds of messages in the days after announcing his retirement. Thousands of comments from fans and teammates online.
Alex Morgan.
Meg Oliphant/Getty
Initially, Morgan had hoped to run one more time with the USWNT at the 2024 Summer Olympics before retiring. But disappointment struck when the longtime USWNT star, who led the team to two World Cup championships, an Olympic gold medal and a bronze medal throughout the 2010s, was not selected for Emma Hayes’ squad in Paris.
“I wanted the last major tournament,” Morgan explains. “I know how much both the Olympics and the World Cup have meant to me in the past, so it would have been great to finish my career on a high note at a major tournament. After the (2023) World Cup… , I wasn’t able to leave a record that I was very proud of, so I wanted to do my best one more time.The team is moving in a different direction and is becoming younger, so we need to look to the future and give strength to our young players. I think I was, and I fully understood that.”
Furthermore, she added: “I wanted to stay on the team and be on the Olympic roster, but I also knew that was always a possibility given my age and how long I had been on the team last year when I passed the torch. I was disappointed, but I continued and realized that this is life.”
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“Something totally unexpected happened and I got pregnant, so my body had other plans,” Morgan said shortly after receiving the news that she was not on the Olympic team.
Morgan first began winning global football honors at the 2008 Under-20 Women’s World Cup, but is now setting her sights on a new chapter in her life. The chapter focuses on her family, her multiple businesses, and her namesake Alex Morgan Foundation. One year anniversary this month.
Alex Morgan.
Alex Morgan/Instagram
Morgan recently partnered with diet health company Nourish and has appeared in several commercials for the brand.
“The presence of a nutritionist has not only affected my playing career and longevity, but also affected various stages of my life in general, such as during pregnancy, postpartum, and changing my diet from a meat-based diet. I know that I’m giving them a transition to a more plant-based diet and then a more vegetarian diet,” she says. “It was so nice to be able to understand everything through a professional who was helping me instead of trying to make me understand it.”
Morgan said she felt “slowly getting ready” for her second pregnancy after giving birth to her first daughter, Charlie, with Carrasco in 2020.
Alex Morgan holds her daughter Charlie Carrasco.
“I’m in a different position now. I just want my baby and myself to be healthy, and even though I have no intention of going back to being a professional athlete, I still want to live a very healthy lifestyle.” she says. I still work with a nutritionist, and it’s so helpful because it gives me the answers I need without having to find them myself or go through trial and error. ”
After injuries over the past few years, including an ankle injury that sidelined him for several games during the NWSL’s final season, Morgan said his body is feeling “very good” overall. Enough to play soccer with Charlie, who recently started playing soccer. Playing ball with her mom. And now that Morgan is retired, they will have plenty of time to play together.
“I’m at peace,” Morgan says. “I’m really happy with where I’m at.”
