Carli Lloyd is among the toughest competitors in women’s football. “She wants the hard tackles and the bloody noses. That’s what makes her a champion,” said her USA team-mate Hope Solo. But when the midfielder from New Jersey – one of the likely starts of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – stepped onto the stage to collect the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award on Monday (11 January), she struggled to hold back the tears.

“Sorry,” she said to the audience before composing herself. “This is an honour. It has been a dream, ever since I started. I would not be here without my team-mates. Keep your dreams and just go after them.”

Lloyd and Lionel Messi pose with their gongs at the Ballon d'Or awards (Photo: Getty Images/Matthias Hangst)

Lloyd, 33, has already achieved many of her dreams. She scored the winning goals in the gold medal matches of the last two Olympic Games, plus a hat-trick as the USA won last year’s World Cup final against Japan. And in the build-up to Monday’s glitzy awards in Zurich, she told rio2016.com she is now totally focused on her winning a third consecutive Olympic gold medal.

“Everything else in my life can be put on hold until after Rio,” she said. “It will be another busy year that will require a lot of time on the road away from family and friends, but this is no different than any other year. I will continue to make the sacrifices necessary to ensure I am 100% ready.”

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Lloyd fights for the ball against Trinindad & Tobago and takes another one for the team (Photo: Getty Images/Chris Covatta)

The USA women’s football team can seem almost invincible. They have won the last three Olympic gold medals and four of the five Olympic tournaments that have been staged, taking silver at Sydney 2000. But Lloyd said becoming complacent was not an option.

“The only potential pitfall I can think of is if we go into the Olympics over-confident due to our World Cup success,” she said. “We won’t allow that to happen. We have so much respect for our opponents and for the challenge of trying to win the Olympics that everyone will be highly motivated, focused and ready.”

‘Teams are going to be coming after us at Rio 2016,’ says Carli Lloyd

Olympic pedigree

Lloyd was not the only Olympic champion to be honoured at the FIFA awards on Monday. Argentina and Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi, who helped Argentina to Olympic gold at Beijing 2008, won the Ballon d’Or for best player in the world for the record fifth time. The men’s coach of the year award went to Messi’s boss at Barça, Luiz Enrique, who won Olympic gold with Spain at the Barcelona 1992 Games. The women’s coach of the year award went to Jill Ellis, who led the USA to World Cup glory last year, having been assistant coach to the US teams that won the 2008 and 2012 Olympic titles.

Brazil's Neymar, sporting a nice hat, was on the shortlist of three for the Ballon d'Or  (Photo: Getty Images/Matthias Hangst)

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