USWNT star Carli Lloyd gets a fitting tribute from Tom Brady upon retirement
One legend recognizes another, and that's what Tom Brady did with Carli Lloyd as the USWNT star retires from international duties at 39.
Lloyd took the field for the final time as a USWNT player on Tuesday as the U.S. played South Korea in a friendly match. She didn't score in the game, but the national team won 6-0 to celebrate her 316th and final cap.
👏👏 @CarliLloyd walks off the field for the last time in a @USWNT jersey 🇺🇸 https://t.co/GTGo4FzVCb
Lloyd has already confirmed that this will also be her final season, and as she took center stage for her final appearance, a number of important sports figures paid tribute to her, perhaps none more important than the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady.
Brady congratulates Carli Lloyd upon retirement
Brady sent a tribute video for Lloyd which was published by the USWNT Twitter's official account before Lloyd's final game.
On a truly legendary career.
🏈 @TomBrady https://t.co/o3dGiq56wE
"Hey Carli, congratulations, I want to congratulate you on an incredible career. You've played 17 amazing seasons professionaly, and your career is truly legendary", Brady said. "Enjoy your retirement, take care, and best of luck in the future.", finished the quarterback
Brady, who still plays at a high level at 44 years of age, is a definite one-of-a-kind athlete. Lloyd is retiring at 39, which is already an advanced age for a professional sports athlete. She recently said that one of the reasons she wouldn't follow Brady's steps of playing in her 40s would be because she wants to have kids:
"My husband, Brian, and I are eventually going to start a family so the clock's kind of ticking on that. I don't think every athlete gets the opportunity to dictate when they go out, to dictate if they're happy or not, to dictate if they're on top or not. I've always wanted my career to be dictated on me making the decisions. It takes endless work, day in and day out and I'm just ready to kind of shift gears and start this next chapter and live my life and do a lot of things that I've put on hold for so many years.”
Brady stated a couple of months ago that he thinks he can play until he's 50, which is something truly unthinkable — but he's 44 already and maintains the same high level, so it might not be impossible for him.
Lloyd had a legendary career as well. She was the first woman to ever score three goals in a World Cup final when the U.S. beat Japan 5-2 in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. She was also voted the best player in the world twice, in 2015 and 2016.
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