Two-time World Cup winner Carli Lloyd has been elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in her first year on the ballot, headlining a class of five inductees for 2025.
Lloyd will be inducted to the Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas, on May 3 alongside former MLS goalkeeper Nick Rimando, who was also elected through the player ballot. Former U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Mary Harvey and former U.S. men’s national team midfielder Chris Armas were elected via the veteran ballot, and Mark Abbott was elected through the builder ballot.
Lloyd played 316 games for the United States from 2005 to 2021, winning two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals. She won the Golden Ball as the best player at the 2015 World Cup, at which she famously scored a hat trick — including a goal from midfield — in a 5-2 win over Japan in the final. She also scored the game-winning goals in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medal games.
Lloyd’s first-year selection to the Hall of Fame was nearly unanimous; she appeared on 47 of 48 ballots. (Full disclosure: I am part of the Hall of Fame’s screening committee to put forward player candidates and voting committee for election. And yes, I absolutely voted for Lloyd.)
“When I was in it with my career, you very seldom think and digest the journey because it’s on to the next,” Lloyd said. “And it’s cutthroat. You have to be performing at your best; if not, somebody else will come and take your spot. Now that I’ve had three years to digest my career and the journey, I had to be kind of a certain way. I had to be very tunnel vision, very selfish, very different from the rest in order to reach the heights that I wanted to reach.
“I think now people are kind of seeing the true me, the real me. I’m opening up a bit more. Having reflected on everything that I’ve done in my career, it takes teammates, it takes coaches good and bad, ones that I like, ones that I didn’t like. We all went on this journey together of doing some amazing things.”
Harvey, who played every minute in goal for the U.S. team that won the first Women’s World Cup in 1991, was selected on 23 of 24 ballots in the veteran category, which gives former players another chance at selection if they don’t make the Hall of Fame before their eligibility as a player expires. Harvey was also part of the U.S. team that won the first women’s soccer Olympic gold medal in 1996 in Atlanta.
Rimando played 553 games over 20 MLS seasons and appeared for the U.S. men’s national team 22 times in net. He won two MLS Cups.
Armas played 12 seasons in MLS and made 66 appearances for the U.S. as a midfielder. He won four MLS Cups.
Abbott helped launch MLS and served as president and deputy commissioner from 2013 through 2022.
