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Alex Morgan: the Tottenham signing who is bigger than her club

<span>Photograph: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Getty Images

Many a manager has trotted out the “no player is bigger than the club” cliche. It’s a negative, usually aimed at a player perceived to have grown too big for their boots and often at one on their way out of the door. Managers use it to temper the frustrations of fans about to lose a star, but they also believe it.

Except there are exceptions, and with the recruitment of the US superstar Alex Morgan Tottenham have propelled their women’s team, who have gone on a gravity-defying promotion journey to reach the top flight, to another level.

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Morgan is literally bigger than Spurs. On Instagram the striker has 9.2m followers to Tottenham’s 8.7m, and Spurs Women have less than 4% of the following of their symbolic new recruit with 356,000.

Widespread shock at the announcement of the 31-year-old’s arrival at the Women’s Super League minnows hinted at how much they were punching above their weight in acquiring her.

Although Morgan has not played in a year and has only recently resumed serious training following the birth of her daughter Charlie in May, she is more than a footballer. Described in Time magazine in May 2019 as women’s football’s “most marketable American star since Mia Hamm”, Morgan’s profile is staggering.

Morgan burst on to the international stage at the 2011 World Cup, scoring and providing an assist in the final after coming on as a second-half substitute as the youngest member of a team beaten by Japan. Already well known to fans and enthusiasts of the domestic game, her stock rose.

She scored the winner in the 123rd minute against Canada in the 2012 Olympic semi-final as part of a year in which she recorded 28 goals and 21 assists (becoming only the second US player to top 20 goals and 20 assists in a calendar year).

Alex Morgan celebrates after winning her second World Cup in France last year.
Alex Morgan celebrates after winning her second World Cup in France last year. Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Fifa/Getty Images

Two World Cup winner’s medals followed, in 2015 and 2019. In last year’s tournament, having scored five against Thailand in the US’s opening game (and provided three assists), Morgan found the net against England in the semi-final before infamously pretending to sip tea in celebration.

There can be little doubt that had the pandemic not stunted the professional game in the US, Morgan would not be settling into a flat in London. Morgan needs games. Where perhaps the biggest teams in the WSL might have been deterred by her lack of action and likely hefty salary, a move to Tottenham is mutually beneficial. Even an off-pace Morgan will strengthen the team. Whether or not she gets on the pitch on Saturday evening against Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter-finals, she is sure to get much-needed playing time in England.

When asked about the chances of her featuring on Saturday, the co-managers, Juan Amoros and Karen Hills, were cagey.

“We can’t forget that she landed last week,” said Amoros, who also confirmed Spurs had got a quarantine exemption for Morgan. “She has been training with us for a week. So I think we will have to wait almost until the last minute to know that one.”

Hills added that she did not think Morgan was “a million miles away from where she wants to be.”

Morgan will want to succeed. That, four months after giving birth, she is close to full fitness illustrates a drive that propelled her career. She strives for excellence. In 2017 she scored 12 goals in 16 games for Lyon as the European powerhouse secured a characteristic treble. In 2018 she scored 18 goals in 19 international games. When seven months pregnant Morgan could be seen in a social media post twisting away from a static marker before firing in goal after goal in repeated drills.

But time on the turf may not be where Morgan is most effective for Spurs, with service likely to be far from the quality she is used to at international level.

Tottenham announce the signing of Alex Morgan on a large screen in London’s Leicester Square.
Tottenham announce the signing of Alex Morgan on a large screen in London’s Leicester Square. Photograph: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Getty Images

The clout she has off the field could make a more meaningful contribution. Watching her chat with José Mourinho at Spurs’ state-of-the-art training ground reflects that. A women’s team that have very slowly been brought into the fold, having been held at arm’s length, must rapidly prove they are fit for one of the game’s greats.

A great who has shown time and again during her national team’s equal pay dispute with US Soccer that she is not afraid to speak her mind and a great who has put the eyes of the world on Tottenham.