The last three elections for the presidency of U.S. Soccer, a position that is alternately powerful and thankless but always unpaid, could not muster even the two candidates necessary to qualify it as an actual race.

This year, however, it’s getting hard to keep track of just how many people do want the job. There’s the lawyer. The administrator. The former player. The other former player. The other former player.

And now there is yet another name. On Tuesday, the field of candidates grew to eight when Kathy Carter, a former N.C.A.A. goalkeeper with decades of marketing and deal-making experience at soccer’s highest levels, announced that she, too, was entering the race to replace Sunil Gulati as president of U.S. Soccer.

Carter discussed her decision to run in an interview on Monday, hours before Gulati, who had become a lightning rod for criticism after the United States men’s national team stunningly failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, revealed that he would not seek a fourth term. And while Carter said she had consulted Gulati, her longtime colleague, on her decision to run, she also said the presence — or absence — of any other candidate did not affect her conclusion that she was the best person for the job.