Carli Lloyd Wins FIFA’s Women’s Player Of The Year Award

The U.S. women’s national soccer team finally won a Women’s World Cup this past summer, beating Japan 5-2 in a heavily viewed finals game. The big lead and eventual win was all thanks to midfielder Carli Lloyd, who scored the first three goals in a span of 16 minutes, thus recording the fastest hat trick in World Cup history. In terms of this feat and becoming Player of the Match for the World Cup win, she was awarded the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award on Monday for undeniably becoming one of the most prolific women soccer players.

She is the third U.S. player to win the award after Mia Hamm (2001, 2002) and Abby Wambach (2012). “Those 16 minutes were 13 years in the making,” said Lloyd. “It’s truly an honor. It has been a dream come true.” Celia Sasic of Germany and Aya Miyama of Japan were also up for the award who became the runner-ups for the award. Lloyd also thanked her U.S. teammates who were part of the World Cup, saying, “We all know it took 23 players to win the World Cup.”

The Player of the Year award helped solidify Lloyd’s place in U.S. soccer history, with her 18 of 20 goals happening in 2015 alone. This helped her win the U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year as well as grabbing awards in the Golden Ball and Silver Boot honors at the Women’s World Cup. She also scored winning goals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics for gold medals and will be on hand for Olympic qualifying when matches begin in February. “Nothing’s been handed to me. I’ve had to work for every single moment. You learn more in your failures than you do in your success. I try to take a positive approach through every situation I go through,” Lloyd said.

Photo: VANCOUVER, BC – JULY 05: Carli Lloyd #10 of the United States kicks the ball against Saki Kumagai #4 of Japan in the second half in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 Final at BC Place Stadium on July 5, 2015 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)