- US Women's National Team legend
Carli Lloyd has officially announced her retirement fromsoccer . - She'll play four more
USWNT games before taking off her national team kit for the last time. - The 39-year-old has won two World Cups, two gold medals, and one bronze medal with the USWNT.
US Soccer icon Carli Lloyd announced her retirement from the national team on Monday.
The US Women's National Team said on Twitter that the 39-year-old American striker will play her final games in a US uniform in four soon-to-be-announced friendly matches scheduled for this fall. Lloyd also plans to finish out the remainder of the National Women's Soccer League season with her club, Gotham FC, before stepping away from the pitch once and for all.
-U.S. Soccer WNT (@USWNT) August 16, 2021
"When I first started out with the National Team in 2005, my two main goals were to be the most complete soccer player I could be and to help the team win championships" Lloyd said in a release. "Every single day I stepped out onto the field, I played as if it was my last game."
"I never wanted to take anything for granted, especially knowing how hard it is to get to the top, but even harder to stay at the top for so long," she added.
Lloyd has done just that in her storied 16-year career with the USWNT, winning two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and an Olympic bronze medal for the stars and stripes. She has more national team appearances - or caps - than all but one player in the squad's illustrious history, and she's scored 128 goals in that span, good for the fourth-most ever on the team.
Inidividually, the Delran, New Jersey, native has put together quite a resume in her time dominating her competition on the world's stage. She's perhaps best remembered for her efforts at the 2015 FIFA World Cup, where she famously notched a hat trick - capped by a half-field chip over the goalkeeper's head - within the first 16 minutes of the tournament's final.
-Stadium (@Stadium) July 5, 2020
She won the Golden Ball and Silver Boot after leading the USWNT to its third World Cup victory, and its first in more than 15 years. Lloyd later earned FIFA World Player of the Year in 2015, and the following year, she was named The Best FIFA Women's Player. She's since been inducted into her home state's Hall of Fame.
Lloyd has not publicly addressed what she plans to do with her newfound free time now that she's ending her soccer career, but she knows that she'll need "another outlet for my competitiveness."
"Perhaps that will be golf?" Lloyd said in US Soccer's release.
Or maybe football - the American one. She's previously said she's "entertaining" the idea of becoming an NFL kicker after finishing her time with the USWNT, but whether that dream will come to fruition still remains unclear.
"I'm not closing any doors," she told Insider in January 2020. "There is always an opportunity. Given my age, I wouldn't say, well, at 39 you might not be able to kick a field goal. It's still a possibility."