Carli Lloyd Just Recently Healed a 12-Year Rift With the Rest of Her Family

An icon of US Women's Soccer has played her final match. Carli Lloyd, who has been with the US Women's National Team for more than a decade, ended her career with the team with a 6-0 victory over South Korea. In light of her retirement, many fans want to learn more about Carli, including the details of a long-standing rift between her and her family.

As of 2020, Carli had not spoken with her family for 12 years. As she detailed in her 2016 book When Nobody Was Watching: My Hard-Fought Journey to the Top of the Soccer World, much of the problem stemmed from her relationship with her personal coach James Galanis, who she was with for 17 years before the two parted ways in 2020. Her family felt that James had come between them, and ultimately led her to be socially ostracized.

In the book, Carli said that her father through her out of the house in 2008, and that battle ultimately meant that she wasn't even invited to her sister's wedding. At first, she began speaking with her sister, and that eventually led her to reconcile with the rest of the family.

"I was talking to my sister since 2016 since my book had come out, so we had a relationship," Lloyd said in an interview with Today.

"I think I just got to a point where you go for so long with not talking, and you kind of are like a ‘Why are we doing this?’ type of thing. I think it was many different factors that contributed to that," she continued. "So she kind of helped break the ice a little bit and sort of be that buffer to my parents and my brother."

Now, she has reunited with her family, and is celebrating holidays with them.

At 39, Carli had reached the age when many professional athletes begin to consider retirement. She finishes her time as a professional soccer player with the third most goals in women's national team history. “It’s been emotional. But there’s just a sense of peace and contentment that I feel — it’s just joy and happiness,” Lloyd said, according to ESPN. “It’s been an amazing journey and I gave it all I had, and now I can walk away into the next chapter.”

After finishing her final game, Carli left the field in St. Louis, Minnesota to a standing ovation from fans. As she left, she pulled off her jersey, which said "Lloyd" on the back, to reveal a second jersey that said "Hollins" on the back. Hollins is Carli's husband Brian's last name, and the moment represented the end of one chapter and the start of another.

Now that she's no longer a soccer icon, she's Carli Hollins. She's had a long career on the field, and now, she'll begin to explore what comes next.