Dubai: Footballers are routinely bestowed with animal or insect monikers to portray their instinctive skill or rapacious hunger for goals.
Eusebio, the great Portugal forward of the 1960s, fully justified his “Black Panther” nickname due to his feline-esque speed and grace, which led to him being name the 1965 European Footballer of the Year.
Likewise, Emilio Butragueno’s “The Vulture” tag was equally apposite due this predatory penalty-box prowess, which yielded 26 goals for Spain in the 1980s and early 90s.
In the modern era, four-time Fifa world player of the year Lionel Messi’s relentless buzzing around the pitch, making him a ceaseless headache for opponents, have led to him being called “The Flea”.
Perhaps Messi would prefer for people to have chosen a more flattering creature for his soubriquet, while the poster girl of the US women’s football team Alex Morgan may not be keen on being called “Baby Horse”.
Yet, despite her nickname being at odds with her modelesque looks, it could be argued that being compared to a fledgling filly encapsulates her pace, power and childlike enthusiasm for the Beautiful Game.
Like her favourite player Messi, 2012 Olympic gold medallist with the US women’s team Morgan says football is her life’s obsession – and that she wants to be a passionate proponent of the women’s game when she retires.
“Do I have passions outside of football?” she said, in an exclusive interview with Gulf News. “I don’t have a passion for music or many other hobbies. But I really love the game of soccer; it’s kind of consumed my whole life.”
Of her nickname, she laughed: “I don’t mind it. I think one of my teammates gave me that because I was baby on the team and I kind of galloped like a horse with my running style.
“I guess it sums up my attitude to the game. What do I love about it? When I was younger, I always loved the exertion I put my body through in 90 minutes of the game and kind of the rush you get when you score a goal. There’s no other feeling like it; you can’t replicate that outside the game and I truly love it.”
Morgan, 25, has made her name as a prolific striker for the US national team, for whom she has scored 46 times in 73 internationals since 2010.
Does she strive to copy anyone in the men’s game, and who impressed her at the World Cup in Brazil?
Admires David Villa
Morgan said she particularly admires New York City FC’s indefatigable striker David Villa, Spain’s all-time leading goalscorer, for his hard work and goals.
“I also like [Dutch stars] Robin van Persie and [Arjen] Robben and their relationship,” she added. “Robben was the fastest player during the World Cup and both those players did so many good things. I am a big football fan in general and it was exciting for me to watch the men’s game and watch the World Cup. I am a Barcelona fan, but I watch leagues around the world on TV and see things in myself or that I want to improve on.”
Morgan served notice of her promise when she was named the second best player of the Under-20 World Cup, which the US won, after scoring four goals.
In 2011, she was a key part of the US team who were losing finalists to Japan in the senior women’s World Cup, scoring once and providing an assist to fellow striker Abby Wambach in the final. A year later, she and her teammates gained revenge for this defeat by beating the Japanese to the women’s football title at the London 2012 Olympics.
Morgan netted three times during the tournament, including a last-gasp, match-winning goal in the 123rd minute against Canada in the semi-final at Old Trafford.
It was a seminal moment which epitomised all that is great about football for Morgan.
“Everyone knows the history behind Old Trafford, so it was an honour to play in that stadium,” she said. “Many people on other team thought going to beat us, but there was just an aura around us that we knew that we weren’t going to penalties. When I headed that goal, I felt this rush of excitement and relief. It was the most exciting moment of my career to that point.”
Morgan, who plays for the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), is now eyeing success at next year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada. She said her and her teammates had started preparing in earnest for the event since the end of the Olympics two years ago.
“Ever since 2011, it’s been a dream of mine to be standing on top of that podium,” Morgan, who has lent her voice to a campaign lobbying against Fifa’s decision to play the World Cup on artificial turf.
“I don’t want to be looking up and watching the champions get their medals.”
Wide horizons
Yet while she shares her hero Messi’s insatiable lust for glory and ardour for the world’s most popular sport, Morgan’s horizons extend outside the confines of the football pitch unlike the shy Argentinian.
She is motivated by the grandiose goal of acting as a global missionary for women’s football when she hangs up her boots.
Morgan said: “I’d like to stay in the game [when I retire] because I love soccer and I love everything about it.
“I’d really like to go to countries where their football federations don’t really spend much on their women’s programmes. It’s not a lot to ask from the federations.
“I’d like to help gain popularity of female footballers in these countries and help give female footballers more opportunity to play, help them know about opportunities outside of their countries.”
Would she be interested in trying to stoke interest in the women’s game in the UAE?
“Yeah, that interests me a lot,” she said. “I’d definitely be up for that. I think that would be in the latter part of my career.
“I feel the women’s game has a lot of potential with the World Cup increasing from 16 teams to 24 next year. I think the gap from the US, who are the number one-ranked side in the world, to the bottom teams is now closing. I’d like to help other countries out and show them women’s female footballers do deserve opportunities.
“I’ve never been to the UAE, but hopefully in the next couple of years football will take me there.”
While women’s football is routinely derided in many parts of the world due to the macho perception of females encroaching into male territory, in the United States it commands great respect and interest.
Unstinting success
Morgan says the main reason for this is the unstinting success the women’s team have enjoyed since their second World Cup triumph in 1999 and because the country’s football federation is investing heavily in the game.
“We are ranked the number one side in the world and we have stayed at the top, with three leagues,” she said. “I am really appreciative of our federation and that they give us the opportunity to play every couple of months together. That’s one of the reasons we do really well at the World Cup.”
She added: “In the US and around the world, football is biggest sport most people play. In the US, it’s the biggest sport that most youth players play, then when they get older switch [to other sports]. Soccer is ingrained in the youth population, and with that you have a lot of mums and dads taking their kids to watch women’s soccer players.”
For many male football fans, Morgan’s lofty aims of helping the women’s game achieve worldwide recognition may be wildly unrealistic.
But with her “Messi-anic” zeal for her sport, talent and good looks, female footballers clearly have no better evangelist preaching their cause.
For more information on Alex Morgan, visit www.alexmorgansoccer.com.
