Morgan will not return to France
The question all Orlando Pride fans have been asking was answered Saturday night. Will stay or will she leave again? “Last year when I signed with Lyon, I signed for six months plus a mutual option for an additional year,” Morgan said when asked in a video produced by the club whether her six-month stint with French side Olympique Lyonnais was something she would do again.
“I wasn’t sure after I finished the season with Lyon. It was an amazing season. I felt like I did what I went there to do. I felt fulfilled. Coming back here, I knew the amazing club that supported me through that process.
“I agreed with Lyon to terminate our contract and continue with Orlando Pride moving forward. I feel that the present of this club and the future of this club is just going above and beyond and is going to do incredible things. I’m really happy here, this is my home. So, as happy as I was this year playing with two clubs, I will be with Orlando Pride moving forward.”
Morgan faced much criticism when she announced her decision to spend the first half of the year in France.
While there, she helped the team win the French league and take home a Champions League title. Lyon made clear after the season ended the club wanted Morgan to come back next season.
She returned to the Pride with a hamstring injury, but quickly worked into the roster and made her 2017 debut in a 1-0 Pride loss to the Chicago Red Stars on July 1. It didn’t take long for Morgan to begin clicking with her teammates old and new, including superstar midfielder and the Pride began racking up points.
They now hold a playoff position in the National Women’s Soccer League table and are 5-2-2 since Morgan’s return.
“I would say I am in pretty good form, this team is in good form, it’s clicking together,” Morgan said in the interview. “It’s combining together both the teams and myself feeling confident. It’s just been at the right time, and it’s been at the time this team needed it the most. I feel like there was definitely a transition time when I came back from France. It was just adjusting to that, and then I feel once we realized we needed to start getting points, we did.”