Sitting across the boardroom table in a smart London office, it is hard to believe that Chloe Morgan has stepped out in front of almost 40,000 fans and alongside some of England’s Euro 2022 Lionesses.
Yet this is the double life the 32-year-old has led for the last eight years, juggling the demands of personal injury work with playing in goal for Arsenal, Tottenham and most recently Crystal Palace.
But as the women’s game has become more professional through her football journey, so too have the demands on those players who – through necessity – pursued careers at the same time.
‘It is tough doing both, for sure. Last season at Palace we went up to four sessions a week, and with having a full-time job that doesn’t leave much recovery time,’ she explained.
‘There is a toll mentally and physically, particularly as a keeper when you are throwing yourself on the floor and waking up the next morning feeling bruised and battered.
‘But it is also great to have both at the same time. Last season I made two mistakes in the first game and that could have stayed with me for the whole season, but you can’t dwell on it as you have a court deadline coming up or you’re investigating a case. You have a chance to take yourself out of that negative headspace.’
Morgan’s twin journeys have almost exactly mirrored each other. She was admitted as a solicitor in 2014 at the same time that she was on the books with Arsenal making her way in the game.
The demands were intense: she would come into work early in the morning and regularly have to leave to make it for training in the afternoon. A short break later and she would catch up on the legal work she had missed late into the night.
Something had to give, and with the women’s game still in its nascent stages, the law came first. She moved to then semi-professional outfit Tottenham and established herself there, whilst carving out a specialism in serious injury work with London Bolt Burdon Kemp.
Training was limited to a couple of sessions a week, but weekends would often disappear with trips to the likes of Sunderland and Durham, and Morgan even having to wash her own kit on her return home.
Having moved to Irwin Mitchell, she faced another crossroads in 2019 when Spurs were promoted to the Women’s Super League and required players to become professional.
Morgan was granted a sabbatical to follow her dream of playing football full-time and assured she would have a job to return to. She added: 'I’ve been playing football since the age of six, so I was extremely grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity. It meant so much to me that I was able to play for Spurs in the Women’s Premier League and experience such an elite level of competition.
'It’s something I never thought I’d be able to do as a lawyer. I left my job one day on a Friday, cleared away all my case files, and then on the Monday, I was on the pitch full-time.'
The team’s top-flight debut was at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, one of the giants of the women’s game. An unforgettable season peaked when she was in the squad as Spurs faced Arsenal in front of a record crowd of more than 38,000.
But the lure of the legal profession was still strong. Morgan is just as passionate about working for clients as keeping goal: ‘I love the contact and how personal it is – people have been through so much and there is a real sense of helping someone in a difficult place.’
She moved to Crystal Palace and scaled back her football commitments – albeit the demands of second-tier football were still strong. Last week she announced her retirement from playing at the age of 32, although she will work behind-the-scenes on the club’s communication and social media (Morgan co-hosted a successful podcast during the recent Euros). And of course, she will continue to pursue a burgeoning legal career, helped by the growth of flexible working and a supportive firm behind her.
‘I love the seriousness of law and the intellectual challenge of it, as well as being able to take out stress through sport. I came into the game at a really good time. I love talking about women’s football and those opportunities will become more and more frequent.
‘I’ve had some incredible experiences and now it feels like the right time to move on. It was a difficult decision [to retire] but I have achieved everything I wanted to do. I never thought this would be possible and feel very much at peace with the decision.’
As the women’s game becomes more professional and lucrative, the likelihood that players will have outside careers is likely to diminish. Morgan is probably the last of that generation who had to manage both, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
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