Carli Lloyd has not long returned from Bahrain where, as well as starring alongside Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho in a Fifa Legends publicity drive, she discussed her ideas for the future of the game with president Gianni Infantino. Back at the Etihad Campus in Manchester she apologises for any signs of fatigue or jet lag but all that comes across is adrenaline and trademark ambition. The prospect of silverware and the lure of an FA Cup final at Wembley still invigorates one of football’s most decorated talents.

It was a coup for club and country when the 34-year-old joined Manchester City in February, the arrival of the two-times Fifa world player of the year, World Cup winner and double Olympic champion marking another sign of progress for the women’s game in England irrespective of a short-term contract until June. Lloyd’s presence raises the sport’s profile in this country and helped defeat Lyon in the second leg of a “bittersweet” Champions League semi-final, but is far from a one-way transaction. The equality at City and a return to Wembley, where Nick Cushing’s team will play Birmingham City before a record FA Cup final crowd on Saturday, ensure the United States captain is gaining as much from her England experience as she contributes.

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“I’ve got a lot of very good memories of Wembley and never thought I would have the opportunity to go back there and play again,” says the midfielder, who scored both goals in the USA’s 2-1 win over Japan in the 2012 Olympic final. “The London Olympics were so special for me on many different levels and going back there I hope I’m two from two with trophies.

“Growing up in the US, I knew all about the FA Cup final and Wembley. I’m a competitor, I love finals, I love playing in big moments and to be able to play at Wembley in front of a big crowd on a fantastic, massive pitch is great. I want to do anything possible to help this team. I know I haven’t been part of the start of this, I know I haven’t been here quite so long and I don’t want to take away from the fact that the girls here have worked extremely hard to put this team in a position to be able to compete in an FA Cup final. I hope I can have a small part in that and help them along. I’ll do anything I can on the pitch to get that done.”

Few players are more deserving of a big-game reputation than Lloyd, as Birmingham will be aware as they attempt to prevent the Super League champions winning their first FA Cup. The brace against Japan five years ago saw the New Jersey-born star – 233 international appearances and counting – become the only footballer to score the winner in two Olympic finals, having secured the gold medal against Brazil in 2008.

In 2015 she became only the second player to score a World Cup final hat-trick after Geoff Hurst and even a brief City career has witnessed a goal on the grand occasion – the winner in the 1-0 Champions League victory in Lyon that could not overturn a 3-1 first leg deficit. An FA Cup winner’s medal would not merely compensate for European disappointment, Lloyd insists; it would be on a par with her achievements on the global stage.

“The Champions League was obviously disappointing,” she says. “It was a little bittersweet because we did really well. It wasn’t the result we wanted but we ended on a high and to finish the Champions League with a victory over a really quality side says a lot about this club and its character. It should give the players more confidence to know they can play with the best and this club can be at the top level. So now to be able to shift our focus to an FA Cup final is huge. For me, this is up there with the World Cup and the Olympics. This is a massive tournament and I’m going to approach it as such.

“I want to win, I want to have success and this was an experience where I thought it would be worth my while to come over. It has been.”

Lloyd’s buildup to the FA Cup final may have been out of the ordinary – playing in Sunday’s 3-2 win at Reading before the brief visit to the Fifa Congress in Bahrain – but reflects her status and voice within game. The midfielder led the calls for better conditions and pay equality from the US Federation that ended last month in an agreement to raise the base pay of the women’s team by more than 30%, increase bonuses and improve travel conditions. This week, as one of only 21 past and present players invited to a think tank with Infantino, she discussed the continued development of the women’s game with the Fifa hierarchy.

“Busy week,” she says. “Gianni Infantino has started a Legends programme that we kicked off in January in Switzerland. It’s a work in progress but in the two instances I’ve been involved it has been pretty amazing. The first time meeting Diego and [Carles] Puyol and this week we did a mall event for fans with Maradona and Ronaldinho. It was a pretty surreal moment just to be involved in that. Fifa want our feedback, they want to know from players what makes things work and what we don’t like. It’s just a case of keeping involved with Fifa and doing anything I can to help move along the game.

“We had a think meeting with all of us legends and the president. We spoke about the World Cup, expanding the men’s side, the schedule of the men’s game – for example, are there too many games and do they need more breaks? Then they got to the women’s side of things and we discussed what could make our World Cups better and what we need to do to keep pushing on the women’s game. It’s the start of the conversation and we probably need to have a separate meeting on women’s general consensus, World Cups and everything like that. The female side of football is a little bit different to the men’s side because the men don’t have to promote and necessarily get out there to bring fans in. We have to be in contact, be very into social media and that person-to-person meeting really resonates with people. We need to do more of that.”

A record 38,000 tickets had been sold for the FA Cup final by Friday. The interest and the setup at City, where the women’s, men’s and youth teams are based at the Etihad Campus, represent encouraging steps for Lloyd.

She adds: “It is growing. The women in this league have been behind the English Premier League for so many years and have taken a back seat but it is definitely gaining more and more recognition, especially being part of this club where they want to treat the women equally.

“Yes the men have their own section here at this facility but we have got top-notch facilities. We’ve got the support and we’ve got everybody in the organisation working for us. It is definitely getting there. To be playing at Wembley on Saturday against Birmingham with a record crowd for an FA Cup final says a lot about the state of the game.”