There was no slowing Carli Lloyd in the final year of her remarkable career. She capped off her remarkable run with the U.S. Women’s National Team by earning a nomination for BioSteel U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year.
While nominees are selected by U.S. Soccer’s technical staff, fans will now have the opportunity to vote on select Player of the Year Awards, with the fan vote comprising 15% of the total vote. Voting for the awards opened Monday, Dec. 6 at 11:00 a.m. ET and closes on Dec. 12 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The winners will be announced throughout the month of December.
Let’s take a look at Lloyd’s final year of competition for club and country:
- The 39-year-old led the USWNT in scoring with 11 goals in 2021, becoming the oldest player to ever lead the USA in scoring in a calendar year and breaking her own record, previously set in 2019. It was the sixth time Lloyd has scored double-digit goals for the USA in a calendar year.
- Lloyd also recorded a team-high six assists in 2021 while starting 11 of the 22 matches in which she appeared in 2021. It marks the first time since 2016 that a player has led the USWNT in both goals and assists in the same calendar year.
- Lloyd’s 17 total goal involvements led the USA and she either scored or assisted on five of the USA’s 17 game-winning goals in 2021.
- Lloyd bid farewell to international competitions with a stellar performance in the bronze medal game of the Olympics, scoring two goals in the USA’s 4-3 victory against Australia, including the game-winner. In the Olympics, Lloyd played in all six matches, spanning 304 minutes, and started three games, scoring twice in the bronze medal match to set the USA’s career Olympic scoring record with 10 total goals for the four-time Olympian.
- She also led the USA in shots and shots on goals and ranked in the top five on the team in chances created.
- On September 16 against Paraguay, Lloyd tied the USWNT record for most goals in a game when she scored five times against Paraguay in Cleveland.
- On June 13 vs. Jamaica, Lloyd scored just 23 seconds into the match, marking the second fastest goal to start a match in USWNT history. With that goal, she also surpassed Kristine Lilly as the oldest goal scorer in USWNT history.
- Lloyd finished her career with 316 caps, currently the second-most in the history of international soccer. Her 134 international goals rank third in USWNT history and fourth all-time in world history, while the 39-year-old also ends her international career tied for fifth in USWNT history with 64 assists.
- In the NWSL, Lloyd appeared in 15 regular season matches for NJ/NY Gotham FC, scoring four goals and adding an assist while helping her home state-based club back to the NWSL Playoffs for the first time since 2013.
- Lloyd ranked third on the team with 24 chances created for Gotham in 2021 and helped the team reach the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup Final. She scored the equalizer in the Championship, although the Portland Thorns prevailed in the penalty kick shootout.
Lloyd has earned U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year honors twice previously, winning the award in both 2008 and 2015. This is her eighth Female Player of the Year nomination overall and first since 2019. Lloyd is the lone player among this year’s nominees to have previously won Female Player of the Year.
