For World Cup Hero Carli Lloyd, 16 Minutes Can Mean Millions
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For World Cup Hero Carli Lloyd, 16 Minutes Can Mean Millions

© USA Today Sports / Reuters

After her record-breaking performance in the Women’s World Cup Final, Carli Lloyd can expect millions in marketing deals, but she’s got to move fast.

In the first 16 minutes of the match against Japan, Carli Lloyd set a record for the fastest three goals by the same player in World Cup history — for either men or women. After she scored twice in a span of about 135 seconds at the fifth minute, so many people went to her official website that it crashed.

Lloyd added 50,000 followers on Twitter during the final. By the time the game ended, she was up 100,000 followers on Instagram. And one prankster even changed her playing position on her Wikipedia page to “President of the United States.”

Can you spell “endorsements,” boys and girls?

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Lloyd, who turns 33 on July 16, didn’t have many marketing deals before the World Cup, but she reportedly had lined up a deal with Visa before her big game — and other marketing agreements are likely. Lloyd can realistically expect to add at least $1 million to $2 million in endorsement deals over the next few years, according to Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business Program at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St Louis. She also can expect to get about $30,000 for a two-hour appearance, compared to the $7,500 fee that 1999 World Cup player Brandi Chastain currently gets to speak.

Lloyd may have a way to go to catch up with teammate Alex Morgan, considered the most sponsor-friendly current player, who had at least 10 endorsements going into the game and can expect to make at least $3 million this year. But for a sense of what’s possible, think back to Mia Hamm, who has been called the most marketable female athlete of her generation. Hamm signed endorsement deals with Nike, PowerBar, Pert Plus shampoo and Pepsi. She earned $1 million annually at a time when most female soccer players could not earn a full-time living by playing professionally.

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To take advantage of her sudden stardom, Lloyd’s handlers will have to move quickly, as top players in women’s soccer may have a slimmer window than other star athletes who perform more regularly and get more visibility in the public eye.

Her agent, Josh Weil, recently told ESPN.com, that he is in talks with a watch company and an auto company, but he is really looking to make deals with top U.S. Olympic Committee or International Olympic Committee sponsors like Bridgestone, AT&T and McDonald’s.

“A lot of what we were going to do was going to be predicated on how the World Cup went,” he said. “So we’re in pretty good shape now.”

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