Dubai: US national women’s football star Alex Morgan’s ability to transcend her sport has received a ringing endorsement from her manager.
Dan Levy, Vice-President, Action Sports and Olympics at Wasserman Media Group, said the 25-year-old possessed the ‘entire package’ from a marketability perspective.
He said Morgan not only possesses prodigious footballing ability, but has also exhibited extracurricular talents such as writing a book trilogy entitled ‘The Kicks’, which is about four football-mad young girls.
Levy also cited her modelling work, including twice appearing in the leading American magazine Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition featuring models and other top female athletes.
Levy told Gulf News: “She’s the entire package as a marketable proposition and everything she has touched so far has turned to gold. Not only is she a great player and scores goals, which always helps when you play in a forward’s position, but she has the personality that embraces the fact that she is a role model for all these young girls, globally and here in the States.”
Of his client, who has also appeared in television commercials in the United States and has lucrative sponsorship deals with Nike, Panasonic, and Coca Cola, Levy added: “Some players want to focus on their sport, while some people are overly stimulated by opportunities off the field. She has a really nice balance and perspective on what’s most important, but also she’s willing to work and and have fun with other stuff as well.
“She recently did the Sports Illustrated swimsuit thing for the second time. She’s done other neat stuff like the book series. She genuinely enjoys that stuff as long as it doesn’t get in the way of her soccer, which is really helpful for us.”
Levy also praised Morgan’s sense of social responsibility, which was first kindled during her political economy of industrial societies degree studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
He acknowledged her burning desire to help spread the word about the women’s game globally.
“She really wants to use football as a way to reach girls around the globe and empower them to be great at what they want to do,” Levy said. “The United States is ahead of the rest of the world in terms of women’s football and she knows that. There’s a real need for strong role models for young girls in the Middle East and truthfully helping change some of the perspectives of men in that part in the world.
“There’s no better vehicle to do that than football as it’s the world’s game.”
