While Alex Morgan may have lost a few thousand fans in England after she celebrated a goal in the World Cup semi-final by sipping from an imaginary cup of tea, her impact on this tournament and the game in general cannot be understated. Maybe she can console herself with the fact 3.7million people still follow her on Twitter.
The sometime skipper may not be as outspoken as some of her team-mates (we're looking at you Megan Rapinoe) but her incendiary sip of tea will be one of the moments in every best bits reel. “Not since Boston dumped it in the sea has England been dissed with tea like this,” boasted Wednesday's New York Post.
But to concentrate on this act of next level trolling would be to ignore Morgan’s standing in world sport. The Orlando forward was the youngest player in the team for the 2011 Women’s World Cup and she capped her rise to prominence with a goal in the 2012 Olympics. In 2011, she was the first overall pick in the WPS Draft and moved to Western New York Flash but was only there a year before she moved to Seattle Sounders Women.
A graduate of the University of California, Morgan scored 28 goals in 2012, the same as established star Mia Hamm and she earned the title of US Soccer Female Athlete of the Year.
The growth of the women’s game led to the establishment of the National Women’s Soccer League and Morgan joined the Portland Thorns who went on to win the league title that season. After two years, she made the move to central Florida.
While at the Pride, Morgan spent time at loan at Lyon, very much the stand-out team for women’s football, where she managed five goals in eight appearances. She also became the first female player to appear on the cover of a FIFA video game alongside Lionel Messi.
Away from football, the 30-year-old is a published author - writing four books in a series called The Kicks about four girls sharing experiences in life and football. The books were turned into an Amazon Prime series in 2015. Her “brand” has been tapped into by a host of global companies including Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Nike and McDonalds. Morgan is also a Champion for Unicef.
Never afraid to brew up a storm - as evidenced by her response to the 'Teagate' controversy - Morgan can add to her legend with another World Cup Winner's medal on Sunday. She also remains on course to take the Golden Boot despite only scoring in two games so far during this tournament though the Netherlands will have other ideas when the teams clash.
