USA's Alex Morgan (C) has 101 goals during his international career for the United States Women's National Team ahead of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI |
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May 23 (UPI) -- United States Women's National Team soccer star Alex Morgan is featured on the cover of Time magazine ahead of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. She said she won't go to the White House if the team wins gold in France.
Morgan, 29, is set to appear in her third World Cup for the U.S. She helped the squad win the 2015 World Cup. The team finished second in the 2011 World Cup. The 2015 squad visited the White House in October of that year and was welcomed by former President Barack Obama.
The 2019 team is ranked No. 1 in the world and is a favorite to win the tournament this year in France. But Morgan said she won't join teammates in Washington, D.C., if she is part of another World Cup-winning run.
"I don't stand for a lot of things the current office stands for," Morgan told Time.
The Orlando Pride forward said she is upset about the administration's policy of separating migrant families at the country's southern border. Morgan's husband is from Mexico.
"We don't have to be put in this little box," said. "There's the narrative that's been said hundreds of times about any sort of athlete who's spoken out politically. 'Stick to sports.' We're much more than that, OK?"
Morgan also spoke about the fight for equal pay within the game. Five members of the women's national team filed a complaint in 2016 relating to inequity in pay and bonuses with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The players signed a new collective-bargaining agreement in 2017.
Morgan's name was listed among several other soccer stars March 8, with U.S. players filing a federal gender-discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation. The complaint accused the national governing body of the sport of paying "only lip service to gender equality."
The complaint stated that U.S. Soccer rejected requests for compensation for women's national team players "that would have been at least equal" to that afforded to the U.S. men's national team.
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Alex Morgan is featured on the cover of the June 3/June 10 double-issue of "Time," which hits newsstands Friday. Photo courtesy of "Time"
The lawsuit asserted that the U.S. Soccer provided the men's team with performance bonuses totaling $5.375 million for losing in the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup, while the federation provided the women with $1.725 million for winning the 2015 World Cup.
The United States Soccer Federation responded to the complaint and denied unlawful conduct.
"Eventually, you just have to take a stand," Morgan said. "How come we've had to fight the whole time, year after year?"
The June 3/June 10 double-issue of Time hits newsstands Friday.
Morgan -- who was also on the 2012 gold-medal-winning Olympics team -- has 101 goals and 40 assists in 162 international appearances for the U.S.
"I was not the go-to player [in 2015]," Morgan said, according to USSoccer.com. "This World Cup is the best of both worlds -- I'm feeling confident and ready to be a leader."
Morgan and the U.S. women's team battle Mexico in a friendly before entering the group stage of the 2019 World Cup. The U.s. team then battles Thailand in Group F at 3 p.m. June 11 in Reims, France, to begin its title defense.
