World Cup hero Carli Lloyd ripped her former team, the Western New York Flash, on Friday for trading her to the Houston Dash this past fall without giving her any notice until after the deal was finalized.
“That's the reason no one wants to go play there," she declared,
according to the Democrat and Chronicle. "Because if you don't treat people with respect, you're not going to get respect in return and I have lost all respect for the organization. I would never want to play for an organization that doesn't respect me, doesn't respect what I do."
WNY swapped Lloyd for Whitney Engen, a backup defender, and Becky Edwards, a midfielder, on October 16. Aaran Lines, WNY’s head coach and general manager, had hoped to bring Engen and Edwards back to the team where they had started in 2011. He traded Lloyd because she had been in especially high demand even before her star performance in the World Cup.
The 33-year-old soccer star thinks Lines should have at least called her and her trainer, James Galanis, before agreeing to make the trade.
"He had no respect for James. He had no respect for me after what I did, after sticking my neck out for him and the organization,” she said.
"To not have the decency and respect to call me prior [to the trade] and say, 'Hey, here's what we're thinking. The next couple years are busy for you [with the World Cup and 2016 Olympics],' or whatever," Lloyd vented, admitting that “to tell me on the spot like that was pretty low."
Lloyd not only led the American World Cup team to a 5-2 victory over Japan, but also scored 18 goals for WNY in 2013 and 2014.
Lines, however, said he appreciates everything Lloyd has done for her former team, but explained that players usually do not get much say in whether they are traded.
“I'm genuinely and sincerely grateful for her service to the club for two years and I'm really, really happy that she's been successful because she worked her [butt] off here," he said. "We've rebuilt with a younger team this year. Ultimately, this was a business decision, but this is professional sports. When players are traded, there's no courtesy call."
Still, Lloyd feels underappreciated.
“I was always supportive of the club,” she said. "I felt important there. Aaran was continuously telling me, 'I want you to be a role model for the younger players. I want you to inspire them and I want you to help them, I want you to lead them,' and that's what I did."
But in the end, Lloyd acknowledges that she is “so happy all this happened."
“I'm now playing for a club in Houston that is respectful, that treats people with respect, that treats the players with respect, treats the organization and the people that work there with respect. That's what it's all about, that's what life is all about because everything does come full circle and I'm just happy to be out of that environment," she said.