Alex Morgan on Her ‘Surprise’ Pregnancy and Finding ‘Peace’ in Retirement from Soccer (Exclusive)

Not everything has gone to plan for Alex Morgan, but it’s all exactly where she wanted to end up.

The longtime U.S. Women’s National Team star, 35, simultaneously announced her retirement from soccer while also telling the world she’s pregnant with her second child in a bombshell video last month, days before playing the final competitive game of her career with the NWSL’s San Diego Wave FC.

Morgan’s pregnancy was a “surprise” for her and husband Servando Carrasco, she tells PEOPLE a month later, and it forced her to move her plans for retirement a couple months early.

“We’re just really looking forward to expanding our family,” the two-time World Cup champion says. “We’ve wanted to do this for a while, but we obviously wanted to find the right time. It came a few months earlier than anticipated, as the pregnancy was a little unexpected, but looking back I’m really grateful for how everything worked out.”

Morgan says having a quicker run up to her retirement than planned made for “raw” emotions that proved to be “really moving” for her and her family, as she received hundreds of messages in the days after she announced her retirement in addition to the thousands of comments from fans and teammates online.

Originally, Morgan hoped to retire after one more run with the USWNT at the 2024 Summer Olympics. But disappointment hit when the longtime USWNT star — who helped lead the team to two World Cups, an Olympic gold medal and a bronze throughout the 2010s — wasn’t selected to join Emma Hayes’ squad in Paris.

“I wanted one last major tournament,” Morgan explains. “I just know how much those have meant to me in the past, both the Olympics and World Cup, so it would have been great to end my career on a high at a major tournament. After the World Cup [in 2023], not being able to have gone far enough to be really proud, I wanted to be able to push for one more. I think the team was moving in a different direction, was trending younger, was looking towards the future, was looking to empower the young players, and I fully understood that.”

She adds: “As much as I wanted to continue with the team and make the Olympic roster, I understood there was always a possibility of that, given my last year, and my age, and how long I had been with the team. There was a sentiment of passing the torch. As disappointed as I was, I carried on and understood that this is life.”

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Shortly after receiving the news that she wasn’t on the Olympic squad, Morgan says, “something beautifully unexpected happened and I got pregnant, so my body had other plans.”

Morgan, who first began racking up global soccer accolades back in 2008 at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup, is now turning to a new chapter in life — one focused on family, her multiple business ventures and her eponymous Alex Morgan Foundation, which celebrates its first anniversary this month.

Morgan also recently teamed up with the dietary health company Nourish, appearing in several commercials for the brand.

“I know the impact that having a dietitian has had — not only on my playing career and the longevity of it — but also the different phases of my life in general, going through pregnancy and postpartum, changing my diet from a meat-heavy diet to more of a plant-based diet, and then transitioning to more of a vegetarian diet,” she says. “Understanding all that through someone who is an expert at being able to help me, rather than having me try to figure it out, has been great.”

Morgan says she feels “a little bit more prepared” for her second pregnancy, after giving birth to her and Carrasco’s first daughter Charlie in 2020.

“I’m in a different position now where I just want the best health for the baby and myself, and not looking to get back to being a professional athlete but still wanting to live a very healthy lifestyle,” she says. “I still to this day work with the dietician and it’s extremely helpful, because it gives me the answers I need without having to try to figure them out myself and go through trial and error.”

After several injuries in recent years, including an ankle injury that left her on the sidelines for several games during her final NWSL season, Morgan says her body is feeling “really good” overall — enough to play soccer with Charlie, who recently started kicking the ball around 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 just really happy with where I am now.”

Source people.com