Soccer Star Alex Morgan
Alexandra Morgan Carrasco is a forward and co-captain of the Orlando Pride soccer team. She is best known for leading the U.S. women’s teams to victory in the 2012 Olympics, 2015 FIFA World Cup and 2019 FIFA World Cup. In this biography, Morgan tells her story in her own words.
Morgan was born on July 2, 1989 (Alex Morgan age: 32) to Pamela and Michael Morgan. They raised her and her sisters, Jeni and Jeri, in the Los Angeles suburb of Diamond Bar. Morgan played multiple sports throughout her childhood but did not favor soccer until the age of 14. She then joined the Cypress Elite club team, winning the Coast Soccer League under-16 championship and coming in third place in the under-19 bracket.
Morgan continued to hone her soccer skills at Diamond Bar High School. She was chosen as an All-American Athlete by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Additionally, she played for regional and state divisions of the Olympic Development Program (ODP).
Morgan furthered her soccer career at UC Berkeley, where she led the California Golden Bears team in scoring from her very first season. She helped bring the team to the NCAA Tournament all four years and into second rounds twice. Morgan became one of four finalists for the Honda Sports Award and the first from her school to top the charts of Hermann Trophy finalists. Upon graduating a semester early in 2010, Morgan was ranked third in all-time goals and points for Berkeley.
Morgan juggled soccer careers at both the collegiate and national levels throughout her education. During her first year on the Berkeley team, Morgan experienced an ACL injury which barred her from training with the U.S. under-20 women’s soccer team until April 2008. Later that season, she scored her first international goal at the CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship in Mexico. Morgan also participated in the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, scoring four goals and earning her team a gold medal, among other accolades.
Morgan was then absorbed by the senior national team, for which she substituted and scored a number of important goals. One of these was a victory goal over Italy which secured the U.S. team a final spot in the 2011 World Cup. Morgan was the youngest player on the team and led it to victory against France. Though the U.S. ultimately lost to Japan, Morgan became the first player in history to record both a goal and an assist in a final World Cup game.
Also in 2011, Morgan was the first pick in the Western New York Flash draft, as well as the first Berkeley player to be drafted in the first round. She scored four goals over the season and led her team to victory in both the regular season and the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) Championship.
Morgan was signed to the Seattle Sounders soccer team shortly after graduating from Berkeley. She scored two goals in just three appearances in the regular season and helped her team boost game attendance astronomically. Morgan became a starter for the U.S. team in January 2012 in the final round of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. She scored two of her team’s four goals and solidified her place as both a starter and a future Olympic athlete. In June 2012, Morgan was nominated for an ESPY Award as Best Breakthrough Athlete after back-to-back stellar performances in the Algarve Cup.
Morgan told uInterview exclusively about her eating habits and how she stays balanced before and after major tournaments. “Preparing for the games, I definitely try to have a healthy diet,” Morgan said. “Whether that’s eating blueberries at breakfast or putting an avocado in my salads, it’s superfoods like that that are helping my diet.”
However disciplined, Morgan treats herself every now and then. “After the Olympics,” she admitted, “I’m really looking forward to splurging on a hamburger and some really fatty dessert.”
Later in the interview, Morgan described her training regimen and what she sees as the most vital aspect of fitness.
“Our fitness coach, Dawn Scott – she wants us to be in top shape for the Olympic,” Morgan explained. “We do wear heart rate monitors and GPS trackers every practice and every game. That helps monitor how much we’re in our top heart rate zone and how much we’re running.”
According to Morgan, the trackers allow Scott to determine how much recovery time is needed to keep her team in peak condition. “I think recovery is almost the most important part of building fitness,” Morgan told uInterview. “[I]f you never recover … you’re not ever gonna be at that line of building fitness. You’re always gonna sort of break your muscles down and never give them time to recover. For the national team, that’s what fitness is all about – building it up.”
Check out the full autobiographical interview at the top of the page.
Morgan kicked off the 2012 London Olympics with a powerful first match. She scored two of the goals which pushed the U.S. over the edge against France. Morgan provided pivotal assists over the next three matches and scored the winning goal in the semifinals against Canada. In the final game against Japan, Morgan assisted on a header and helped lead the team to gold-medal glory.
Even without Morgan’s historic Olympic win, 2012 was a banner year for her. She led the U.S. in points, goals, assists and multi-goal matches that year. Additionally, she scored 41% of the nation’s total goals for 2012 and was named U.S. Soccer’s Female Athlete of the Year.
Morgan continued to set records throughout 2013. In that year’s Algarve Cup, she provided four assists and three goals, two of which beat Germany out for the championship title. She was honored as the CONCACAF Female Player of the Year. After injuring her ankle, she returned with a bang, scoring five goals in only seven matches. She then injured her ankle again at the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship and was deemed ineligible to compete.
Morgan joined the Portland Thorns for the first season of the National Women’s Soccer League and scored her first goal in their opening game. She led the team in points, with eight goals and five assists, and helped secure the league’s first championship title. Morgan returned to the Thorns the next season and scored six goals in fifteen on-field appearances. Due to her participation in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Morgan made only four appearances for the Thorns that season, scoring one goal in the process.
The following season, Morgan was traded to Orlando Pride (otherwise known as “the Pride”), an emerging soccer franchise in Florida. She scored four goals in her 15 appearances that season.
Leading up to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Morgan spent two months in recovery from a knee injury she had received in a game against the Boston Breakers. Once healthy enough to join her teammates, Morgan made her first start in the U.S.–Nigeria game, in which her team won 1-0. Morgan scored a goal in the knockout stage against Colombia and ultimately helped the American team to victory against Japan in the final round.
In March 2016, Morgan earned the Golden Boot and MVP awards at the first-ever SheBelieves competition. The invitational tournament featured notable female players from England, America, Germany and France; Morgan scored against the latter two.
Morgan appeared in her 100th game for the U.S. women’s team (USWNT) in a game against the Republic of Ireland, during which she registered both a goal and an assist. She went on to score two goals in a CONCACAF Olympic Qualifier match, including the fastest goal ever scored by a member of the USWNT. In the next game, she executed a hat-trick against Trinidad and Tobago, scoring three consecutive goals without interruption and qualifying her team for the Olympics. Though they ultimately placed fifth in the rankings, Morgan garnered acclaim for her performance on the field.
Following the Rio Olympics, Morgan signed with the French women’s club team Lyon. She registered two assists in her debut game and scored eight goals throughout the regular season, ultimately leading Lyon to victory for the ninth consecutive season.
Morgan had a successful second season with Lyon. She scored a hat trick on March 12 and led Lyon to a 6-0 victory, qualifying for the French Cup semi-finals. Morgan recorded two assists and four goals in the semi-finals but was unable to play in the final match due to a hamstring injury. Even without Morgan’s talents, Lyon won the French Cup in a penalty shootout
After recovering from her ankle injury, Morgan returned to the Orlando Pride in July 2017. She scored nine goals in 14 games and committed to the Pride for its entire 2018 season, during which she scored five more goals. Morgan expectedly boosted the U.S. women’s team to victory and qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup
In the first game of the World Cup, Morgan scored a record-tying five goals against Thailand. Her team’s 13-0 win set a new record for the largest margin of victory in a World Cup game. On July 2, Morgan became the first female World Cup player to score a goal on her birthday. After the U.S. team won the final match, Morgan was given the Silver Boot for logging the second-highest number of goals and assists throughout the tournament.
Morgan’s career is not limited to soccer. She became a published author in 2012 with a four-part series called The Kicks. These middle-grade books center around friendship, leadership and other elements of soccer for young girls. Morgan’s first novel, Saving the Team, debuted in May 2013 as the number-seven book on the New York Times Best Seller List. The books inspired a live-action children’s show by the same name, which aired on Amazon Prime in 2015.
Morgan began making TV appearances in 2011, when she and teammate Hope Solo starred in a promotion for ESPN SportsCenter. Morgan and co-captain Carli Lloyd guest-starred on Live with Kelly and Michael following their Olympic victory. The following year, Morgan commemorated the 40th anniversary of Title IX with the ESPN documentary series Nine for IX.
2015 was a busy year for Morgan on both the field and the screen. She guest-starred on the show Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn and was imitated on an episode of The Simpsons. In April 2015, she announced on American Idol that the season’s winner would record the official song for World Cup coverage that year. Later in 2015, Morgan presented at the ESPY Awards and received the “Best Team” award with her teammates. Three years later, Morgan played a fictionalized version of herself in the movie Alex & Me.
In addition to film and TV, Morgan has appeared in and on various magazines. In 2012, she appeared in a section of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was also photographed for the 2013 issue of ESPN Magazine and the cover two years later. Throughout 2015, she appeared on several covers of Sports Illustrated and in its Swimsuit Issue, which she reprised in 2019. Aside from Sports Illustrated, Morgan has been featured in Health, Self, Shape, Vogue, Elle, Time and Fortune magazines.
In December 2014, Morgan married Servando Carrasco, a midfielder for LA Galaxy soccer. Carrasco was a member of the Berkeley men’s soccer team and met Morgan as a result. Their marriage is often long-distance given the space between their jobs; Carrasco resides in Los Angeles, while Morgan remains in Orlando for the Pride.
In 2015, Time ranked Morgan as the top-paid female soccer player in America. She simultaneously became one of the first three female soccer players to appear on FIFA video game covers. Morgan and her teammates were also the first female athletes to receive a ticker-tape parade in New York after their 2015 FIFA win. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York and the Diamond Bar City Council gave Morgan keys to their respective cities after the World Cup. President Barack Obama also honored the team at the White House in October 2015.
The only publicized scandal involving Morgan occurred in 2017. She and a group of fellow athletes were written up for questionable conduct at the Epcot Theme Park in Orlando. Police described them as “impaired and verbally aggressive” and removed them from the park for trespassing. Though no charges were filed, the incident garnered a good deal of media attention. Morgan took to Twitter to apologize, stating that she would “learn from this and make sure it does not happen again.”
Morgan and U.S. team co-captain Megan Rapinoe made even more history in September 2017. They became the first two female athletes to join the Common Goal campaign and pledge 1% of their salaries to soccer charities. Morgan has also committed to a vegan lifestyle and was named PETA’s “most beautiful vegan” of 2019.
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