How Alex Morgan grew from USWNT rising star to powerful advocate: 'She’s been incredible'

Editor's note: The USWNT faces Sweden in the World Cup round of 16 on Sunday at 5 a.m. ET. Here's how the US is preparing.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Ahead of the FIFA Best Awards earlier this year, players from around the globe wanted to learn more about the U.S. women’s long and brutal battle with U.S. Soccer for equal pay and working conditions, and see what lessons could be applied to their own fights for equality.

On the short list for the Best Women’s Player award, Alex Morgan had no shortage of professional and commercial responsibilities in Paris. Plus, her husband had come to Paris with her, as close as it gets to a vacation for the parents of a toddler.

Yet Morgan not only agreed to meet with players from other national teams, she spent “a good while” talking and brainstorming with them. An hour to 90 minutes, at least. She arrived well-versed on the challenges each squad faced, too, along with options they might have to address them.

“She was batting away her minders and people trying to rush her around,” Sarah Gregorius, the director of policy and strategy for women’s football at FIFPro, the international players union, recalled. “Even I learned a lot from her.”

Most of America knows Morgan as the USWNT’s active leading goal scorer, No. 5 on the all-time list. Or as one of its most marketable stars: Attractive and wholesome-looking, appealing to both soccer diehards and those who don’t know the first thing about the sport.

But Morgan is also a disruptor. Keenly aware of the advantages her stardom has afforded her, she actively uses them to advocate for others.

When the USWNT sued U.S. Soccer for gender discrimination three months before the 2019 World Cup, Morgan was the lead plaintiff, knowing the weight her name, and commercial profile, would carry. As a longtime union representative in the NWSL, she helped win the league’s first-ever contract.

She forced Tottenham Hotspur to upgrade the training facilities for its women’s team, despite spending only three months at the club. She leveraged her personal sponsorships to provide gym equipment for the Orlando Pride, her former club.

Morgan also was a steadfast ally to Mana Shim when her Portland Thorns teammate was trying to report an abusive coach and, when the mistreatment finally became public, demanded both the NWSL and U.S. Soccer be held accountable for their failures to protect players.

“She deserves a ton more credit than she gets in this regard,” said Becca Roux, executive director of the USWNT Players Association.

“A lot of people talk,” Roux added. “She does a lot of work that people never see.”

Great expectations

The expectations on Morgan were high from the moment she joined the USWNT. She was seen as the next great American striker, the heir apparent to Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach, and her early play only added to the hype.

She was a week removed from her final game at Cal when her stoppage-time goal gave the U.S. women a win in the first leg of a World Cup qualifying playoff against Italy. She’d be the youngest player on that 2011 squad and finished with two goals, one in the final against Japan.

That 2011 team, the first to reach the World Cup final since the ‘99ers, captivated the country, and Morgan was soon the beneficiary. She became an American sweetheart, albeit one with lightning in her leg, someone companies and parents alike could embrace without worry. She was not going to say, or do, anything that would cause embarrassment or controversy.

But the USWNT’s players have never been easy to pigeon-hole, and Morgan was no different.

In 2016, when five players filed a wage discrimination complaint against U.S. Soccer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Morgan was one of them, joining Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn and Hope Solo.

“I felt significantly younger and more inexperienced than” the others, Morgan, now 34, told USA TODAY Sports. “I felt like, in that moment, that was an opportunity to learn, to get out of my shell and feel uncomfortable even when doing the right thing.

“And so I think that was a pivotal moment for me, in realizing this platform that I have and this opportunity that I have in front of me to be able to say something and have people listen.”

And to effect change.

Working behind the scenes

Morgan and Rapinoe became the spokeswomen for the USWNT’s equal pay lawsuit, filed in 2019, but her involvement went far beyond that. She pored over legal documents, sending Roux and the squad’s attorneys marked-up edits and notes. She got on calls in the middle of the night and did interviews before dawn.

As U.S. Soccer and the NWSL increased their investment in support staff and training conditions, Morgan sat in on interviews with medical professionals. She pushed for additional parental benefits, something that now benefits both the USWNT and the USMNT.

She has been a shrewd negotiator, recognizing where tradeoffs can be made and holding firm on where they cannot. As a result, the USWNT does not have to argue its worth “at all, ever again,” Morgan said Tuesday.

“I hope people do realize” what she’s done, said Kelley O’Hara, who has played with Morgan at four World Cups and is one of her closest friends on the team. “She’s been a part of so many important places to make change in this federation, in the sport, in the world.

“She has done a lot of work behind the scenes,” O’Hara added, “but she’s been incredible.”

Morgan has also been unapologetic about female athletes owning their greatness. When the USWNT was slammed for its goal celebrations in 2019, she rightly pointed out the inherent sexism in the criticism.

She’s also been an unwavering supporter of LGBTQ rights and racial equality — even knowing her public stands could have a negative impact on her endorsements and commercial opportunities.

“So many women feel so isolated. They feel like if they stand up and say something, that they're all alone,” Morgan said. “I think being on this team, and really growing up on this team, has helped me gain a little bit of confidence in my beliefs and a feeling that it’s OK if what you're saying is the right thing, but it's an unpopular opinion. You have to stand up for what you believe in.”

She’s done all this while remaining one of the best players in the world.

At the 2019 World Cup, Morgan and Rapinoe both finished with six goals, though Rapinoe won Golden Boot honors because she played fewer minutes. Morgan was a finalist for the world’s best player in both 2019 and 2022, and is a five-time member of FIFPro’s Best XI.

She converted the penalty kick that lifted the USWNT over Canada in the final of last year's Concacaf championship, the tournament that qualified the Americans for both the World Cup and next year’s Paris Olympics. Morgan also was the NWSL’s leading goal-scorer last season, and finished second to USWNT teammate Sophia Smith in MVP voting.

“I don’t know if you have to do the contrast. I think what makes Alex so special is she’s done both, which is very rare,” Roux said when asked if Morgan’s legacy will be larger on the field or off.

“To have the biggest women’s football superstar be willing to be so involved, that helped set the tone for everybody else,” Roux said. “She didn’t wait until after her career to have an impact off the field. She did it while she played.”

Morgan will continue to do so, because there are still women athletes being disrespected and getting less than they deserve. Because her fight didn’t end with the USWNT’s landmark contract guaranteeing equal pay and the NWSL’s first collective bargaining agreement.

Because Alex Morgan is, and always has been, so much more that what the public sees.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How USWNT's Alex Morgan works behind scenes to be power player