Canada captain Christine Sinclair tries to step up Canadian football

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Christine Sinclair reflects on her outstanding football career and presents challenges for the future in her new memoir, Playing the Long Game.

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The Canadian captain says it’s time for Canadian Soccer, the sport’s national governing body, to ensure a level playing field for women. This includes establishing a national professional league for women to ensure that Canadian women are not overtaken by other countries.

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“In Canada, we assume it’s okay,” Sinclair writes. “We were good at this and I think we will continue to be good at it. and that we will soon be overtaken.”

The 39-year-old from Burnaby said in an interview that there has been movement since the book was completed earlier this year.

“We have seen progress in terms of contract content and equal pay. Obviously we are not even close to the (women’s) league yet. rice field.

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Canada’s men’s and women’s teams are in negotiations for new contracts with Canadian Soccer, with pay equity at the heart of the negotiations.

“I think it will be over soon, especially with the men’s World Cup just around the corner,” she said.

That’s good news, but Sinclair shakes his head at past mistakes. She pointed to the recent news that Canada She Football has signed an image/portrait rights deal with Bayern Munich star Alfonso Her Davis.

“It’s just one of those little jabs where they said to us, ‘That’s not possible.’ It wasn’t possible,” she said. “And with ( ) Alfonso, it’s possible. We’ve been in that fight for ten years, and it took some time for Alfonso to almost deny his ability to sell his name.

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“Yeah, this could have been worked out 10 years ago, but I told the women’s team that it wasn’t possible, and now I’m changing my tune.”

She said that Canadian soccer had just recently begun improving travel conditions for female players and agreed to make it part of the new deal.

“Previously, I found out that men were traveling in business class. Never,” he said. And it was earlier this year. But things have changed and I have to give them a little credit.

“But for 10, 12 years, we were treated differently again. Sadly it was the men’s success that started to change the way they treated the women’s team.”

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Sinclair, the world’s all-time leading goalscorer with 190 goals, said the process of writing a book with Stephen Brandt at times resembled therapy.

“It’s been tough at times, but thank you for doing that,” she said. “Because there are certain things that I haven’t thought about in years. Certain tournaments, games, memories, things that Steven has obviously helped me with. And sometimes I feel like I never look back, so I’m grateful for that.

“And it’s been quite the journey.”

“Playing the Game” is an easy read and focuses primarily on her career in Canada. She cooks for all the national team coaches, including Even Pellerud and her Carolina Morace, John Herdman, Kenneth Heiner-Moller and Bev Priestman.

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She complimented everyone and even found something positive to say about Mores, the Italian coach who led Canada’s women’s team to the bottom of the disastrous 2011 World Cup in Germany.

Mores “created a real soccer player out of a group that just kicked and chased the ball under evenness,” she wrote.

But Mores’ decision to move the team to Italy backfired, and the tournament soon showed that Canadian women had no Plan B when it came to strategy. He said the distance between the players and the staff narrowed as the season progressed.

She has given Perelud many accolades, from welcoming her to the senior team, to championing women in Canadian football and moving the program forward.

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She has the biggest compliments for the current men’s team coach, Hardman, calling him: he is changing his life. ”

Sinclair’s memory of Canada’s bronze medal at the London Olympics is perhaps more than his gold medal in Tokyo.

Heiner-Moller is a soccer brainiac, and his preferred style of play proved inappropriate. “She is one of the kindest and sweetest people I have ever met,” she wrote.

According to her, Priestman understands the team’s strengths and plays to them.

Sinclair has also revealed a “love-hate relationship” with the US national team. She has plenty of respect for what U.S. women have done on and off the field, but they have a lot of attitude, she notes.

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“They are clearly the best team in the world and they know that,” she said with a laugh.

Those hoping to get a peek into Sinclair’s personal life in this book will be disappointed.

“As far as I’m concerned, it should be enough for people to see me on the pitch,” she wrote.

It’s been a productive but busy time for Sinclair lately.

She helped the Portland Thorns win the NWSL Championship with a 2–0 victory over the Kansas City Currents on October 29. On November 1, the same day that her book was released, Portland Thorns announced that Sinclair will be returning for an 11th season in 2023.

After a storm of book appearances, she left Toronto for Brazil on Sunday, where the No. 7 Canadian woman will make international friendships with No. 9 Brazilians in Santos and São Paulo on Nov. 11 and 15, respectively. play a match.

“Playing the Long Game” by Christine Sinclair and Stephen Blunt. Random House Canada, 235 pages, $34.

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