Star athletes from across sports offer accolades as Alex Morgan prepares for last pro match

WNBA star Caitlin Clark used the word "legend." Gymnast Simone Biles offered thanks for elevating women's sports.

As Alex Morgan prepared for her final professional match on Sunday, the accolades for the retiring US soccer star came from across the sports landscape — from Biles to fellow US soccer player Christian Pulisic.

"She's obviously brought a lot to the game, scored a lot of goals. Feels like I've been watching her for a while," Pulisic said. "Amazing career." Morgan, 35, surprised many when she announced her retirement from professional soccer on Thursday. The San Diego Wave forward is expecting her second child with husband Servando Carrasco, a former MLS player. They have a 4-year-old daughter, Charlie.

Over a 15-year career, Morgan played in 224 matches for the national team, with 123 goals (fifth on the career list) and 53 assists (ninth). She was named the US Soccer Player of the Year in 2012 and 2018.

She helped the United States win a pair of World Cups and an Olympic gold medal in 2012.

She was one of the founding players in the National Women's Soccer League, playing for the Portland Thorns, the Orlando Pride and the Wave. She also had international stints with Lyon and Tottenham.

Off the field, she was a respected advocate for women’s sports, having fought for equal pay and better working conditions for both national team and club players.

"She'll never get enough credit for all the things she's changed, inside the sport and outside the sport," US forward Trinity Rodman said. "For me, I just looked up to her." Biles wrote on social media "Congrats on an amazing career. Thanks for elevating women's sports!" She added both heart and goat emojis — used to indicate "Greatest Of All Time."

Clark simply wrote "legend" with four goat emojis before adding "congrats!!" Landon Donovan, interim coach of the Wave and a National Soccer Hall of Famer, said Saturday that Morgan helped elevate women's sports overall and soccer in the United States and around the word.

"She is one of the major figures in the history of football, men’s or women’s," he said, adding he hoped the Wave could celebrate her with a win.

Skier Mikaela Shiffrin posted: "What a legacy you're leaving ... you're an inspiration for so many, including me!!" Morgan said she'd play limited minutes in Sunday's match match between the Wave and the North Carolina Courage. About 80 family members and friends will be on hand at San Diego's Snapdragon Stadium.

Tickets for the match went so quickly that the Wave opened the upper deck, which normally goes unused for NWSL matches. As of Friday, more than 25,000 tickets for the 32,000-seat stadium had been sold.

The game will be broadcast or streamed simultaneously across all of the NWSL's media partners — ESPN2, CBS Sports Network, Paramount+, Prime TV, NWSL+ and KUSI, a local San Diego station — allowing fans multiple ways to view Morgan's goodbye.

The league said it was the first time a women's sporting event in the United States has been aired over multiple channels and outlets at the same time.

"Her confidence in herself is next level and her unwavering fight for what's right — the way she stands up for herself, her teammates, for her peers — to make things better in the world is just incredible," said Washington Spirit midfielder Andi Sullivan. "So it's been an honor to be around her and to be influenced by her and take the lessons that we've learned from her and carry them on."

AFP