Hall Of Fame Inductee Carli Lloyd Admits She Owes Her Life To Soccer

Carli Lloyd said it will be “a dream come true” to be inducted into the United States Soccer Hall of Fame after a glittering career representing the women’s national team.

A two-time World Cup winner, Lloyd ended her 16-year journey with the United States in 2021 as the third-most capped soccer player in the history of the game – representing the national team on 316 occasions – and the fifth-highest international goalscorer of all time, finding the net 134 times. It was no surprise when she was last month elected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility for the Player Ballot.

Speaking to me as part of a media call this week, Lloyd reflected on her exceptional career with the United States women’s national team from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of achievement. “I think that the evolution of the national team was kind of a two-fold for me,” she told me.

“I got to experience coming off the 99ers and the 2004 Olympic team that were fighting for guaranteed contracts and health benefits and pregnancy leave and all of these different things. And not really knowing the history of what they had gone through, what they were fighting for.”

“Then to have come onto the team in that gap year in 2005, while they were still negotiating the collective bargaining agreement. And then in 2006, being able to be on a guaranteed contract and be with the team – you know, it was a dream come true. I think any amount of money that we were earning was. . . it was just like amazing in that moment.”

“You didn’t really stop and think where the 99ers and the 91ers and the 85ers and all of those players had come from. From washing their uniforms to fighting for all these different things. I never thought that I’d be in a position to be doing the same thing a decade or so later.”

“So when I first got on the national team, we were barely getting 5,000 fans at our games, but that didn’t matter. We were still passionate, we still wanted to win and we were still successful. Seeing the evolution of social media, us winning – I think the 2015 World Cup was massive.”

“I think when you talk about just all of the stars aligning, with Fox Sports playing a huge role in showcasing our team and telling stories and broadcasting us winning. Having been playing in Canada, it was the just the perfect moment to catapult the women’s national team. . . women’s soccer.”

“So now, watching the team and kind of seeing where it was left three years ago when I retired – I do wish I was a little younger and playing in this era because it just looks so fun. The game has grown so much. There’s more investment, there’s more support, there’s more coverage and that’s allowing so many other teams to become better and to continue to put that pressure on the United States team as well.”

“So, it’s just great to see. We just did our part, it’s not anything that we need an award for. Every generation is continuing to push it forward . We did that and now the next generation that currently is playing is going to do the same thing for the next generation.”

Lloyd does confess that she would love to play under the current women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes who she believes has resurrected the United States’ fortunes in the year since she was appointed. “I played for Emma in 2009 for the Chicago Red Stars in the WPS . Let’s just say we were all learning, we were all getting our feet wet in the professional scene. Emma and I laugh about that journey we had. We had a stacked team, we should have done a lot better than we did. I had to learn how to become a professional.”

“When you look at that moment for Emma, she really talks about that shaping her career and shaping her journey. Managing big-name players and learning how to do that and she’s gone on to do an amazing job at Chelsea and now, having been hired as the United States coach, I do, I wish I had been able to play for her because I feel she has the perfect balance.”

“She’s a motivator, she takes the brunt of the PR, she takes the pressure off the players. She seems like she, kind of, brings this energy and they are playing with joy. I do think there is a balance with that, of grinding and playing hard and having those high expectations, but also not really taking the game as serious. I think she has that blend right. She’s doing an unbelievable job.”

Lloyd pinpointed the moment her life changed in 1999 when, aged 17, she went to the Giants Stadium in New Jersey with her sister to watch the opening game of the Women’s World Cup between the United States and Denmark. “I just remember looking out and seeing almost 80,000 people there, the national anthem being played. All the players having their names on the back of their jerseys. That was my moment that inspired me to want to dream big to try to make the national team.”

The young Lloyd honed her skills practising for hours on the Peter Vermes soccer field a couple of blocks from her childhood home in Delran, New Jersey. She visualised specific game scenarios such as the mid-field strike that she would memorably enact on the greatest stage of all, the Women’s World Cup final in 2015. However, she is quick to point out that her path to the very top of her sport was not a straightforward one.

“My career was not one that was meant to go the way that it went. I was never really the next best thing. I just kind of grinded away. The 99ers were obviously a huge inspiration for me and what the women’s national team was all about. How you carried yourself, how you show up, day in and day out, for training, for games. How you honor the crest.”

“I used to think so many other players were so much better than me. And I really didn’t have a whole lot of self-belief in myself throughout the years. Yes, I had the chip on my shoulder from being from Jersey and Philly and all of that – and was not shy in saying I’m going to prove anybody wrong – but I didn’t fully believe I could really make it to the stage.”

“I was just constantly looking for the next big thing to improve upon, the next thing to strive for, and I have had these three years to come out of that machine, emotion-less, robotic Carli Lloyd that played soccer for all those years to now a mother. Now someone that can kind of I guess, be a bit more vulnerable and let my guard down and let my emotions flow a little bit more.”

“I owe pretty much my entire life to the game of soccer. I mean, it taught me more than anything else could have taught me. Life lessons, how to persevere, how to be relentless, you know, and all of this and the experiences that I’ve had, I will now funnel down to our daughter to help her navigate the world.”