Alex Morgan: The greatest female footballer of all time?

US star Alex Morgan has announced her retirement from professional football, prompting many fans to ask whether she is the greatest female soccer player of all time.

The word great is overused and its meaning has become warped over time. Does it mean the best technical player, the player who did the most to promote the sport, the player who won the most silverware or the most famous?

The debate has raged in the men's game, but comparing Pele to Lionel Messi has always felt uncomfortable given they played in different eras. The quick advancement of the women's game means its biggest stars have all played relatively close in time to each other, so the argument is maybe easier to settle.

Then again, the three tennis greats of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic have played in the same era. Djokovic has won the most Grand Slams, Nadal has made the most remarkable comebacks and Federer made the game look so effortless and beautiful. 

A marketing dream

The deciding factor is still subjective, but with Morgan there are clear reasons to say she is the best of all time.

She has never been voted as FIFA's player of the year through all its iterations since 2001, with Brazil's Marta scooping six, Germany's Birgit Prinz three, Mia Hamm, Carli Lloyd and Alexia Putellas two each and Megan Rapinoe one.

Yet ask people on an average street, the chances are Morgan would be the first name that would come to their lips when asked about the most famous women's player in the world.

She transcended her sport like few others, appearing on magazine covers, writing children's fiction books and starring in a film about herself ("Alex and Me"). TV adverts and endorsements flooded in.

She was even named most beautiful vegan of the year in 2019 by animal rights group PETA and was twice among Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.

Elegance and success on the pitch

But being marketable was only part of the story. She could play football like the best of them and had a style and elegance on the ball which few could match. She was even nicknamed Baby Horse early in her career for her big strides.

Dangerous in the air too, she had an all-round game, which fellow US stars Abby Wambach, Mia Hamm and Carli Lloyd — who all scored more international goals — did not quite manage. Morgan is fifth of the US all-time scorer's list with 123, well ahead of Rapinoe's 63. Canada's Christine Sinclair has a world record 190 international goals.

But World Cups are what matter most in football, and Morgan's record on the biggest stage cannot be beaten.

She is one of 32 women to have won the World Cup twice (2015 and 2019) but throwing in her runners-up medal from 2011, Olympic gold from 2012 and four regional titles makes her record stand out like few others.

For all of Marta's individual achievements and a record 17 goals at World Cups, Brazil have never lifted the ultimate prize in the women's game since its inception in 1991.

Former captain Morgan has been a mainstay of the US team for 14 years and fitting in with the grace she showed on the pitch, she knew when it was time to call it a day.

"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," she said when announcing her decision via social media. 

Two US domestic league titles and a French league, cup and Champions League treble with Lyon in 2017 adds to her aura.

A pioneer in women's sports

Off the pitch, Morgan spread the word better than anyone that soccer was for girls. Her media profile helped, but so did traveling the world for UNICEF and going to Tanzania to host football clinics.

She also showed football was a sport for mothers, returning to the professional game after the birth of her first child in 2020. Her second pregnancy at 35 coincided with her decision to reitre.

Morgan was also instrumental in the US women's team's push for equal pay with the men. Along with Rapinoe, she was one of the faces of a six-year lawsuit brought against US Soccer and in 2022 they won a $24 million settlement — with some of the money going to support girls at the start of their soccer careers. 

Despite the pay battles, Morgan also realized that she was better off than most. She became the first female footballer with Rapinoe to agree to donate at least 1% of her salary to the Common Goal project, which supports soccer-related charities.

The debate on who is the greatest female footballer of all time will rumble on, but fans of Morgan can reasonably argue that her legacy outshines the rest.

US captain Lindsey Horan said in tribute to Morgan on Instagram: "You made the game better for so many little ones looking up to you and what an incredible career on top of it."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold