Carli Lloyd elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame

Carli Lloyd was announced as one of the newest members of the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Tuesday, earning first-ballot induction for her great career with the U.S. women’s team.

Undoubtedly the best women’s soccer player to come from the Philadelphia area — and perhaps the best of any gender — the Delran native played 316 times for the United States from 2005 to 2021. She won the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and those four major tournament titles are tied for second in U.S. women’s team history.

Had the U.S. women won the 2021 Olympic gold instead of losing narrowly in the semifinals and settling for bronze, Lloyd (and North Jersey native Tobin Heath) would have matched Christie Pearce as the only players with five.

Lloyd wasn’t just a winner; she showed up in the biggest games. She scored the gold medal-winning goals in both Olympic finals, then delivered a hat trick in the 2015 World Cup title game — all in the first half, capped by an all-time shot from near the midfield line.

» READ MORE: Five moments in the Hall of Fame career of Carli Lloyd

That was the first hat trick in a women’s World Cup final, and it remains the only one to date. Just two men have achieved the feat in the far longer history of men’s World Cups, England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966 and France’s Kylian Mbappé in 2022, and both required extra time after ties in regulation.

Lloyd’s total of 316 U.S. appearances ranks second behind Kristine Lilly’s 354, with Pearce the only other American above 300. That place in history almost certainly will never be touched because the U.S. team plays fewer games per year these days and changes its roster more often.

In those games, Lloyd scored 134 goals, No. 3 all-time behind fellow legends Abby Wambach (184) and Mia Hamm (158). She also dished out 65 assists, which is fifth behind Hamm (147), Lilly (106), Megan Rapinoe (73), and Wambach (73).

If any of those numbers are caught, it will be a while. As the Americans embark on a youth movement to prepare for the 2027 World Cup, the top scorer among active players is 26-year-old Mallory Swanson with 38 goals. The top assister is 30-year-old Lindsey Horan (37), who inherited the famed No. 10 jersey from Lloyd when she retired in late 2021.

» READ MORE: How The Inquirer covered the biggest moments in Carli Lloyd’s U.S. women’s soccer team career

Going all the way back in the time machine, Lloyd was The Inquirer’s girls' high school player of the year and a Parade All-American in 1999 and 2000. She played collegiately at Rutgers, which is not a traditional college soccer power, but she nonetheless drew attention from U.S. youth national teams.

At the club level, Lloyd began her career in the NWSL’s predecessor league, Women’s Professional Soccer, with the Chicago Red Stars in 2009. She was with Sky Blue FC, which played at Rutgers’ soccer stadium, in 2010; then the Atlanta Beat in 2011, WPS’s last season. She never played for her hometown team, the Philadelphia Independence, which existed from 2010 to 2011.

When the NWSL launched in 2013, Lloyd started out with the Western New York Flash. The team won the league’s regular-season title but lost in the championship game. Lloyd spent 2014 there as well, then was traded to the Houston Dash, where she spent most of the next three seasons.

The exception to that came in the first half of 2017 when she went on loan to England’s Manchester City. It was the only time Lloyd played abroad, and she won an FA Cup title and scored a goal in the final.

» READ MORE: Carli Lloyd gave birth to her first child in October

At the start of 2018, she returned to Sky Blue in a blockbuster trade at that year’s NWSL draft, which coincidentally took place in Philadelphia. The team wasn’t very good and was just as renowned for controversies over its subpar facilities.

But the 2019 World Cup’s publicity boost opened the way for a move from Rutgers to Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. It didn’t fully happen until 2021, when the club rebranded as Gotham FC, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That also was Lloyd’s last year playing, and she helped end an eight-year playoff drought.

Her last game coincidentally was at Chicago, in the stadium in which she played to begin her career.

» READ MORE: Carli Lloyd bought an ownership stake in Gotham FC in 2022

No summary of Lloyd’s career would be complete without an acknowledgment that she wasn’t always the most popular player. She drew criticism after the 2015 World Cup for seeming to prioritize commercial opportunities over playing in the NWSL, even though endorsements often were hard to come by for female athletes back then — and Lloyd still didn’t get as many as some teammates, a matter she often bristled at.

Lloyd’s personal views, including on off-the-field matters, also sometimes clashed with those of fans — and some teammates. That continued past her playing days when she became a TV analyst on Fox’s women’s and men’s World Cup coverage. But when it comes to her on-field accomplishments, there was never any doubt she’d be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

As longtime teammate Rapinoe told The Inquirer in 2022 about their contrasting personalities: “We’ve had our differences over the years, but, ultimately, we played on this team for 100 years together [proverbially]. ... She gave so much and set the standard for so many years and provided so much leadership in her own way to the team forever.”

» READ MORE: A look back at Carli Lloyd's last national team game in 2021

Lloyd received votes on 97.9% of this year’s ballots, representing 47 of the 48 voters. The Hall only publishes vote totals, not all ballots, though individual voters are allowed to publish their votes on social media. (This reporter, a longtime voter, does so every year and voted for Lloyd.)

She learned of her induction in a Tuesday afternoon visit from her fellow Rutgers alumnus and Hall of Famer Alexi Lalas, who had convinced her he was coming to record an episode of his YouTube show. Instead, he arrived with the Hall’s executive director Djorn Buchholz and a videographer.

“I feel absolutely honored,” said Lloyd, 42, as her husband, Brian Hollins, and makeup artist, Liz Yoon, stood nearby. (New daughter, Harper, born just under two months ago, did not make it on camera.)

» READ MORE: Carli Lloyd reflected on the cost of greatness at the end of her career

The rest of this year’s Hall of Fame class includes longtime U.S. and MLS goalkeeper Nick Rimando as the other recent former player, and stalwart midfielder Chris Armas and 1991 U.S. women’s World Cup title-winning goalkeeper Mary Harvey on the veteran ballot. Former MLS deputy commissioner Mark Abbott, who spent nearly 30 years with the league (and was its first employee), won the builder award.

All will be honored in the induction ceremony on the first weekend of May in Frisco, Texas, where the Hall of Fame is headquartered at FC Dallas’ soccer stadium.