Retired soccer star Aly Wagner is going for the gold — in parenting.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist stopped by Stagwell’s Sports Beach at the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival to chat with Pvnew’s Evan Real and Danny Murphy, explaining why she’d “never push” her children to be pro athletes.
“It’s funny, there’s a joke with my family [that] now everyone’s gonna know I say ‘gold medals and misery,’” said the Fox Sports analyst, who shares four kids with husband and fellow former soccer player Adam Eyre.
“There is an element of sport that isn’t as glamorous as you think so when you say, ‘Would you want your kids to go down that pathway?’” she told us.
“If they fell in love with the game, yes,” the 42-year-old clarified. “But I’d never push it on them if it’s not where their heart lies because the reality is you want to have a fulfilling life and if you’re doing this for other reasons, then you shouldn’t.”
Don’t count her kids out completely, though, because Wagner asserted that her triplet sons, Griffin, Daeven and Lincoln, as well as daughter Blake, “do have skills” — just like mom and dad.
While she isn’t focused on nurturing soccer careers for her offspring, Wagner is doing her part to champion female athletes.
The San Jose, Calif., native recently became a co-chair of Bay FC, the National Women’s Soccer League’s newest expansion team in the Bay Area.
It goes without saying that women’s sports have always been a passion for Wagner, who noted that the public’s growing interest is no surprise to her.
“If you give them an opportunity to consume it, they will fall in love with it,” she said.
Wagner feels that female athletes have a “massive connection” with fans, while “the men are a bit removed … and they exist outside of that connectivity.”
Wagner mused that female athletes “have almost embraced” the fandom more than their male counterparts — especially in the age of social media — to sustain relevancy.
Meanwhile, she embraced her transition from soccer star to sports commentator.
“I missed it,” she said of what led to her reinvention. “You gravitate towards a sport your whole life. I stepped away and I wanted to bring back that passion and love again.”
Wagner, a former soccer midfielder, retired from professional soccer in 2010 due to injuries. Her storied career includes two gold medals at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic games, as well as bronze medals at the 2003 and 2007 World Cups.
