Alex Morgan invests in NWSL's San Diego Wave

Two-time World Cup winner and Olympic champion Alex Morgan is the newest minority investor in San Diego Wave FC.

Morgan finished her decade-plus professional and international career with San Diego, who she led to the NWSL Shield in 2023.

"San Diego is where I've built my home, where I am raising my children, and found a purpose beyond my playing career," Morgan said in a statement.

"I believed in Wave FC before a single match was played, and I still believe this club has the power to change the future of women's sports.

"I'm proud to invest in that future and not just as a player, but now as an investor."

Morgan, 35, resides in the San Diego area with her family and just gave birth to her second child.

Morgan was one of the first players signed by the Wave, which played its first season in 2022.

Her best season as a professional player came that year, when she scored 16 goals and won the Golden Boot.

That NWSL campaign reinvigorated her United States women's national team career ahead of the 2023 World Cup.

She retired as the USWNT's fifth-highest scorer in history with 123 goals in 224 appearances.

When she retired, Morgan said she planned to invest more in women's sports.

She is already an investor in Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 women's professional basketball league that debuted earlier this year.

On Wednesday, she said that conversations about investing in the Wave began last year.

"I've always looked ahead," Morgan said in an interview released by the team. "Even when I was playing, I was always looking at what I was going to do next, what I could do more on top of what I was already doing, and how I could start building things before it was really too late.

"That was when I started to put into place becoming an investor in the San Diego Wave and wanting to do this immediately after I hung up the boots."

Morgan joins the Wave's controlling owners, the Leichtman-Levine family, who bought the club last year in a two-part deal that valued the club between $113 million and $120 million, which was briefly an NWSL record.

The Wave joined the league for roughly $2 million. A Wave spokesperson declined to disclose the amount of equity Morgan has in the team.

The Wave also declined to disclose the team's other minority investors.

Monarch Collective, a private equity firm led by Kara Nortman, invests in the Wave in addition to fellow NWSL clubs Angel City FC and Boston Legacy FC.

"Alex has always fought to positively impact this game beyond the pitch," Lauren Leichtman, controlling owner of San Diego Wave FC, said in a statement. "She used her platform to lead, to advocate, and to build something meaningful in San Diego.

"Her decision to invest is not only a continuation of her leadership but also a reflection of her belief in what we are building."

Morgan was a fierce advocate for player safety and, in the later years of her playing career, used her global platform to help protect her colleagues.

Last year, she publicly expressed that she was "disappointed" to hear allegations made by former Wave employees that the club created a toxic work environment.

"I want to be proud of what we are building at the Wave but it is clear that there is so much work to be done," she wrote in a social media post last July.

The Wave and the NWSL are currently being sued by six former employees for allegations including sexual harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination.

"I want this club to be known for being extremely successful," Morgan said on Wednesday. "I want players to see this club as a place that they seek out, that they want to play in. I want the fans to look at this as an exciting environment, and as an organization and a team that they want to continue to get behind and stay behind.

"And I want this club to be a reflection of the community that we live in and that we represent."

Morgan joins a growing list of former players investing in the league.

Lauren Holiday, who was Morgan's USWNT teammate on the 2012 Olympic gold medal-winning team and the 2015 World Cup-winning team, recently invested in the North Carolina Courage.