Two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist Carli Lloyd will soon be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and she is not downplaying the moment.
“I never imagined something like this would happen,” Lloyd said Tuesday, a little more than two weeks before her May 3 induction at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. Behind her hung a U.S. women’s national team jersey with the No. 316 — her number of appearances in her nearly two decades with the team.
“My career was not one that was meant to go the way that it went, and I was never really the next best thing, but I just grinded away,” she said. “So to be inducted into the Hall of Fame along with so many other greats is a dream come true. I am incredibly honored. And I was honored every single time I put the uniform on — an amazing thing to be able to represent my country and continue to pave the way and pay it forward to the next generation.”
A native of Medford, N.J., Lloyd’s passion for soccer started at 5 years old. Throughout her decorated career, Lloyd said she constantly reinvented herself. She began as an attacking center midfielder out of college, shifted to defending midfield, then returned to midfield — playing both left and right — before ultimately transforming into a striker late…
