United States women’s national team star Alex Morgan lauded the progress made in women’s soccer over the past four years and addressed why some countries’ players plan to sit out the upcoming Women’s World Cup.
“Our team is in a way different space than we were going into the 2019 World Cup,” Morgan said during a virtual media availability Wednesday about the 2023 USWNT roster, “having achieved equal pay and equal prize money, equal working conditions, but it’s not just us. We’re fighting it, there’s still a lot of teams fighting for it.”
After years of self-advocacy from the USWNT, U.S. Soccer and the two senior national teams’ unions agreed to a deal in 2022 that achieves equal pay through identical economic terms. The women and men will pool and split the teams’ prize totals from the 2022 and 2023 World Cups; the men’s national team won a $13 million prize from FIFA after reaching the round of 16 in Qatar.
Canada, Jamaica and Spain have each prominently protested their federations’ treatment of women’s soccer since the start of 2023.
After winning two consecutive Women’s World Cups, the U.S. women pulled off something even more impressive and impactful in the aftermath of that 2019 title. Their ability to bear the pressure of being both…
