Carli Lloyd Calls Out Former Teammates For Only Caring About “Building A Brand”

Earlier this week Carli Lloyd slammed the culture of the USWNT, and now she’s calling out the priorities of her former teammates.

The former United States Women’s Soccer player appears to be enjoying her post-retirement media tour.

Speaking to Fox News, Lloyd believed some players where more concerned about their image off the field than what they were doing on it.

“Winning a World Cup [first in 2015, then again in 2019] obviously put us on a really big, big stage and endorsements started coming and the spotlight started coming and I just saw a shift in people’s mindsets,” she said.

“It became more about ‘What can I do to build my brand off the field? What can I do to get an endorsement deal?’ and less about what we have to do when we step in between those lines.”

“What we (@USWNT) had in the last several years was not a good culture, and the mentality changed, and it became toxic.” – @CarliLloyd talks about how the US team changed after the 2015 WC win. ??⚽️ pic.twitter.com/oZdFcNBo50

— Alexi Lalas (@AlexiLalas) March 1, 2022

Despite winning back-to-back World Cup titles, the USWNT struggled to carry that momentum through to other tournaments.

At the Rio 2016 Olympics, they suffered a shock early exit to Sweden and at Tokyo 2020 won a bronze medal.

Newly retired Lloyd believes that came down to players now wanting to fight for each other on the pitch.

“What made this team so successful throughout the years is we stepped in between the lines and we fought for one another.”

She adds: “Whether that was the player in front of you, the side of you, behind you and it didn’t matter what you looked like, it didn’t matter what you stood for.”

The 39-year-old even goes as far saying the respect for being selected to represent the USA wasn’t there.

“I don’t think the respect of wearing the crest and playing for your country and doing everything for your teammates on the field was there and you saw that.”

The damming verdict on her former teammates comes not long after slamming the “culture” of the national team, revealing that she hated the environment in her final years with them.

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