No longer a choice: Motherhood in modern women’s football

Women’s football has reached a point where motherhood no longer means the end of a career and players no longer have to choose between having children and continuing to play. The story of Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, who played a major role in that shift, is one we’ll tell another time. For now, let’s look at the stories of mothers who have returned to the pitch.

One of the clearest signs of the growth of women’s sport, and football in particular, is the progress made around pregnancy and maternity leave. Much like with long-term injuries, clubs now support players throughout pregnancy and actively work to make their return to the pitch as smooth as possible.

Zećira Mušović 

December 2024. Sweden take to the pitch in front of a packed 3Arena in Stockholm for the second leg of their European Championship play-off against Serbia. Having won the away leg 2:0, they are favourites. And they prove it emphatically, securing a 6:0 victory, with Zećira Mušović keeping another clean sheet.

The players in yellow and blue celebrate qualification for the Euros. But Mušović already knows she won’t be there in Switzerland: she is pregnant.

She announces the news in February, still a Chelsea player at the time. Shortly after, she leaves the club and returns to her native Sweden, signing for Malmö FF while expecting her first child. Her daughter, Zarah, is born in August.

With the Damallsvenskan season not starting until March, Musović had valuable time to recover and rebuild her fitness. And she made the most of it. She entered the new season as Malmö’s first-choice goalkeeper — and, for the first time since December 2024, earned a recall to the Swedish national team, where she had been sorely missed by fans.

Now, the hope is that at the 2027 World Cup, she will once again deliver performances as impressive as those she showed on the last global stage. Specially the most memorable is her performance against United States. 

Sarah Gorden

Sarah Gorden’s story is slightly different from the others. She became a mother in 2014 at just 21, while still in college. Her professional career was still ahead of her. As a young mother, she broke barriers proving that you can build an elite career even while raising a child.

In 2016, when her son Caiden was not yet two years old, she was drafted by Chicago. The centre-back spent five seasons with the club before moving to Angel City, where she continues to play today now wearing the captain’s armband in Los Angeles.

Gorden’s journey shows that motherhood doesn’t mark the end of a top-level career. In her case, it was the beginning. She speaks openly about her experience and often highlights the support she has received from her club. According to her, her son Caiden is part of the dressing room, and she hopes to show him through her example that hard work truly pays off.

Alex Morgan

It’s impossible not to mention one of the biggest icons of the game: Alex Morgan. The former USWNT captain has used her platform not only to shape women’s football on the pitch, but also to advocate for the rights of mothers in the sport. Her journey into motherhood, and her return to the game, was followed around the world, becoming a symbol of the modern professional athlete. And it was clear: Morgan could drive change.

Morgan gave birth to her daughter Charlie in May 2020. Her comeback was closely watched, coming during the пандемic period as she worked to be ready for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

In an interview with Goal.com in December 2023, she admitted that the return was physically demanding, and that she didn’t initially feel as fast as before. She had to adapt her style of play,  focusing more on positioning inside the box, which, in her own words, ultimately made her a better striker. Paradoxically, her 2022 season became statistically the best of her career, scoring 16 league goals for San Diego Wave and adding four more in the cup.

Despite receiving strong support from the USWNT, Morgan has been critical of club-level conditions. She has argued that, at a minimum, clubs should provide basic support for player-parents such as a private hotel room while travelling (to stay with a child) or covering travel costs for a caregiver.

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We’re also keeping our fingers crossed for Celin Bizet, the Manchester United player who announced her pregnancy this season, as well as Kateřina Svitková, former West Ham and Chelsea player, now playing for Slavia Prague.

Svitková finished last season as the top scorer in the Czech league before announcing her pregnancy, openly sharing her ambition to return to the pitch as soon as possible. Her story is another reminder that this path is possible, not only in the world’s top leagues, but beyond them as well.