Kristine Marie Lilly Heavey (; born July 22, 1971) is an American former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player. She was a member of the United States women's national team for 23 years and is the most-capped football player in the history of the sport (men's or women's), gaining her 354th and final cap against Mexico in a World Cup qualifier in November 2010. Lilly scored 130 international goals for the US national team, making her the team's fourth-highest goal scorer behind

Carli Lloyd Carli Anne Hollins (; born July 16, 1982) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player. She is a two-time Olympic Games, Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2015 and 2019) ...

's 134,

Mia Hamm Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player, two-time Women's Football at the Summer Olympics, Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Haile ...

's 158 goals, and

Abby Wambach Mary Abigail Wambach (born June 2, 1980) is an American retired Association football, soccer player, coach, and member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. A six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, Wambach was a regular on ...

's 184.

Early life

Lilly was born in New York City and attended Wilton High School in

Wilton, Connecticut Wilton is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town population was 18,503. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Wester ...

. While still attending high school, Lilly became a member of the United States women's national team. She was recruited by the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

University of North Carolina

Lilly competed as a student-athlete, playing for the university's

North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer The North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I association football, soccer.

team from 1989 to 1992. During her time there, she won the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship every year she played. She won the

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and th ...

as a junior in 1991. As a senior, she won the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in t ...

as the nations's top soccer player. To honor her time with the school, North Carolina retired her #15 jersey in 1994.

Club career

Lilly began her career with Tyresö FF of Sweden in 1994. She spent one season with the club before returning to the United States. On August 20, 1995, Lilly joined

Washington Warthogs The Washington Warthogs were a professional indoor soccer team in the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) from 1994 to 1997. They played their home games in the USAir Arena in Landover, Maryland, an arena they shared with the Washington Bull ...

of the now-defunct

Continental Indoor Soccer League The Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) was a professional indoor soccer league that played from 1993 to 1997. History In the summer of 1989 Dr Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and California Sports, told his executive Vice ...

. She was the only woman in the all-male professional indoor league, following in the footsteps of Collette Cunningham and Shannon Presley who had played in the league sparingly in 1994. Lilly joined W-League side Delaware Genies in 1998. With the club, she appeared in four games, scoring five goals and providing two assists. February 2001 saw the formation of the world's first women's professional soccer league in which all the players were paid.

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Uni ...

(WUSA) had its inaugural season in 2001. Lilly was the team captain and a founding member of the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional women's soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defu ...

. In her first season with the team, she appeared in all twenty-one matches and played every minute of the season. She led the league in assists with eleven and added three goals. For her performance, she was named First Team All-WUSA. In 2002, she started in a further nineteen games. She increased her point total for the season, scoring eight goals and assisting on thirteen others. She was again named First Team All-WUSA and was a starter on the WUSA North All-Star Team. In 2003 Lilly started all nineteen games in which she played, chipping in three goals and four assists and again being named to First Team All-WUSA, the only player in the history of the league to do so. Following the 2003 season, the WUSA ceased operations. Following the termination of the league, Lilly followed former Boston Breakers head coach

Pia Sundhage Pia Mariane Sundhage (, born 13 February 1960) is a Swedish football manager and former professional player. Currently, she is coaching Switzerland. As a player, Sundhage played most of her career as a forward and retired as the top scorer fo ...

to Sweden to play for

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

club KIF Örebro DFF in 2005. There she was joined by fellow USWNT teammate Christie Welsh as well as USWNT and Boston Breakers teammate

Kate Markgraf Kathryn Michele Markgraf (; born August 23, 1976) is the former General Manager of the United States women's national soccer team and a retired American professional soccer defender. She previously played for the Chicago Red Stars in the WPS, ...

. In late-2006 and early-2007, the formation of a new women's league took shape under the name of

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

(WPS). On September 16, 2008, Lilly was allocated to

along with USWNT teammates Angela Hucles and Heather Mitts. The inaugural

2009 Women's Professional Soccer season The 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season served as the inaugural season for WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The regular season began on March 29 and ended on August 9, with the postseason being held ...

saw Lilly appear in all twenty games (playing every minute) and score three goals with three assists.

International career

Lilly made her debut for the United States national team in 1987, when she was still attending high school. During her international career, she surpassed the previous women's world record of 151

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

, held by

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

's Heidi Støre, on May 21, 1998. On January 30, 1999, she surpassed what was then the men's record of 164

, held by Adnan Al-Talyani of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. Lilly has participated in the

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

editions of the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

. She is a two-time World Cup champion, winning in 1991 and 1999; during

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

of the '99 Final against China, Lilly, standing on the goal line, blocked a Chinese shot which had passed goalkeeper Briana Scurry - since the tournament took place with the

golden goal The golden goal is a sports rule used in association football, Australian rules football, bandy, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, and rugby league to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the ...

rule in effect, the game would have been over if China had scored - and in the ensuing

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...

, she scored the goal which would give the US the lead. When she played against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

on September 11, 2007, in the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but the outbreak o ...

, she became the first woman (and only the third player overall) to participate in five different World Cup Finals; by scoring a goal against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on September 22, 2007, she became the oldest woman to score in the World Cup. Lilly has also competed in the

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

editions of the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. She won a gold medal in 1996 and 2004, and a silver medal in 2000. She missed the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

due to the birth of her child. Unlike several of her longtime teammates (among them

Joy Fawcett Joy Lynn Fawcett (; born February 8, 1968) is an American soccer coach and former professional player. She earned 241 caps with the United States women's national soccer team and retired in 2004 as the highest scoring defender in team history. ...

Julie Foudy Julie Maurine Foudy ( ; born January 23, 1971) is an American retired soccer midfielder, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. She played for the United States women's national soccer team from 1988 to 2004 ...

, and

), she did not retire after the team's "farewell tour" which finished on December 8, 2004. On January 18, 2006, Lilly made her 300th international appearance in a game against

. In the same match, she equaled

Michelle Akers Michelle Anne Akers (formerly Akers-Stahl; born February 1, 1966) is an American former Association football, soccer player who starred in the FIFA Women's World Cup 1991, 1991 and FIFA Women's World Cup 1999, 1999 Women's World Cup and Footbal ...

for second place on the team's all-time goal scoring list with 105. Lilly was named as a finalist for the 2006 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year. She finished second in the voting to Brazil's Marta. After the birth of her daughter, Lilly returned to the national team in December 2008. Her last match for the national team, representing her record 354th

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

, was a World Cup qualifying loss to Mexico (1–2) on November 5, 2010, in which she played for six minutes as a substitute.

Coaching career

Lilly has been an assistant coach for the

since 2012.

Personal life

Lilly grew up in

, and lives in

Medfield, Massachusetts Medfield is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,799 according to the 2020 United States Census. It is a community about southwest of Boston, Massachusetts, which is a 40-minute drive to Downtown Bos ...

. She is married to Brookline

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

David Heavey, a former hockey player and golfer at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

. Lilly gave birth to her first daughter Sidney Marie Heavey on her birthday, July 22, 2008, and her second daughter Jordan Mary Heavey on September 2, 2011. She appeared in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

documentary '' Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team''. Lilly helps run a soccer camp with

and Tisha Venturini-Hoch.Wahl, Grant, "Seeing Stars", ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'', July 4, 2011, p. 101.

Career statistics

Club

Matches and goals scored at World Cup and Olympic tournaments

Kristine Lilly competed in five

: China 1991, Sweden 1995, USA 1999, USA 2003 and China 2007; and three

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

: Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, and Athens 2004; altogether played in 46 matches and scored 12 goals at those eight global tournaments. With her USA teams, in eight world cup and olympic tournaments, Lilly had 39 wins, 3 losses, and 4 draws; finished first place with her teams 4 times, second place once and third place 3 times.

International goals

Honors and awards

References

;Match reports

External links

* * * * * * * *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lilly, Kristine 1971 births Living people United States women's international soccer players Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players People from Wilton, Connecticut Soccer players from Fairfield County, Connecticut Sportspeople from Brookline, Massachusetts Olympic gold medalists for the United States in soccer Olympic silver medalists for the United States in soccer North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer players Continental Indoor Soccer League players Washington Warthogs players Women's United Soccer Association players Boston Breakers (WUSA) players Boston Breakers players FIFA Women's Century Club American women's soccer players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players Tyresö FF players FIFA Women's World Cup–winning players KIF Örebro DFF players Damallsvenskan players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden American expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Women's association football midfielders Women's association football forwards Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics National Soccer Hall of Fame members Hermann Trophy women's winners Wilton High School alumni Women's Professional Soccer players Female players in men's indoor soccer 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen

Early life

University of North Carolina

Club career

International career

Coaching career

Personal life

Career statistics

Club

Matches and goals scored at World Cup and Olympic tournaments

International goals

Honors and awards

See also

References

Further reading

External links