Alex Morgan has described her whirlwind move to Tottenham as a “perfect opportunity”.
The Women’s Super League club announced earlier this month that they had reached an agreement to sign the 31-year-old United States forward.
Morgan, who gave birth to her daughter Charlie in May, has been with Orlando Pride but not played a competitive match in over a year.
The two-time World Cup winner – scorer of 107 goals in 169 international appearances, including a header against England in the 2019 semi-finals – said on tottenhamhotspur.com: “Everything happened really fast.
“I was spending time in Orlando with my team in the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) and it just hit me that I needed consistent games and consistent training for an entire season, at least for the remainder of the year.
“I started looking at the league here and Tottenham is obviously a huge club that was on my radar and within, I think, less than 48 hours, we were able to get the deal signed and completed and within 48 hours after that I am sure I landed here, so it all happened extremely quickly.
“Obviously, I had to take into account my family, my daughter, and my husband who plays football in the US. I also had to look at how I can get back after not playing for a good amount of time due to injury, also pregnancy and the pandemic, so there’s a lot of things that played into this decision.
“Just to be a part of this organisation is pretty incredible, you know, the rich history and the fact that the women’s team have continued to improve year after year, I’m really happy to take this next step in my career.”
Morgan – who is among five US internationals to have moved to the WSL since the end of last season, along with Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle (Manchester City) and Tobin Heath and Christen Press (Manchester United) – added: “I’ve heard so many great things about the WSL and some of my team-mates from the USA national team have come over.
“I wanted to challenge myself and play in a different league than what I’m used to, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to come here and just see the progress that the WSL has made and the quality all around the league.
“I hope I provide goals for this team, help to win games, help the team get to the top of the table, and set ourselves up for success within the season.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there from the start but the fact that we’re only two games in, I think that I could really help the team moving forward and get back to where I left off at the end of summer last year.”
Tottenham’s announcement about Morgan on September 12 said she was joining “for the 2020-21 season”.
Regarding how long she might stay, Morgan said: “I can’t think too much in the future without really sitting down for a long period of time and I didn’t have that time to make a drastic decision for my family so whether I’m here for three months, six months or even further, I’ll take it one step at a time right now.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here