Christine Sinclair Wins Canadian Female Athlete of the Year

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Congratulations to Christine Sinclair on her second Canadian Female Athlete of the Year award after breaking the female world record for international goals in women's soccer.

The longtime Canada captain added to her remarkable resume by surpassing retired American Abby Wambach's record of 184 international goals, at the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Edinburg, Texas. ...

"For me a defining moment in Canadian sporting history," said Canada coach John Herdman, who coached Sinclair and the Canadian women prior to taking over the men's program in January 2018. "To have a kid from Burnaby become the greatest of all time. "And that's a record that I don't know how long that's going to take to be beaten by a male or a female. And she's Canadian." ...

Sinclair's record-breaking year has earned the Canadian soccer icon the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as The Canadian Press female athlete of the year for 2020.

The 37-year-old Sinclair also won the award in 2012 after leading Canada to a memorable bronze medal at the London Olympics. She is the only soccer player to have won the Rosenfeld Award.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/chr...ward-1.5855858

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Postmedia also chose a soccer player as a Female Athlete of the Year but a different one - Kadeisha Buchanan, a potential successor to Sinclair.

Kadeisha Buchanan continues to grow her impressive list of accomplishments playing for the top women’s soccer club in the world.
In her four years with Olympique Lyonnais in France, the Toronto product has four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles and is on the road to an unprecedented fifth championship. ...

Buchanan, 25, also has an Olympic bronze medal and helped the Canadian women’s national team qualify for the upcoming Games in Tokyo, Japan.
For her efforts this year, Buchanan is the Postmedia Female Athlete of the Year.
“I think our success at Lyon comes with mentality and the strength of the team going into matches respecting our opponents,” Buchanan said, on a recent return to Canada for the Christmas break. “That’s a major key of this team being so successful and always winning, is to always respect your opponent. ...

Olympique Lyonnais is the most successful team in the history of women’s soccer in France and sets the standard for every other club in Europe. Lyon has won five-consecutive Champions League titles and seven in total to go with its 11 domestic championships. Just being on the team is an accomplishment for Buchanan, but she has gone to earn a starting role in the heart of the Lyon defence alongside legendary French captain Wendie Renard. ...

“Coming to Lyon from college, I definitely gained lots of knowledge about the game and being a part of my national team for so long, I’ve improved there as well,” Buchanan said. “From the coaches on the national team and Lyon, I think they’ve both helped my game in general and improve the knowledge of the game when it comes to movement and passing. They played a big hand in that.

“I’m in my fourth year almost into my fifth year now at Lyon I feel pretty professional and I feel very comfortable as a professional; I’ve been doing this for a long time and now it just feels like normal life.” ...

Growing up in Toronto, it was not long before Buchanan caught the eye of Canada Soccer and played with the Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 youth teams before making her senior national team debut at age 17. She played at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup held in Canada and won the Young Player Award at the tournament.

Buchanan has been a stalwart on the national team defence since and was recently named Canada Soccer female player of the year for the third time. She played for Canada at the 2019 World Cup in France and will be on the Olympic roster next summer under new Canadian head coach Bev Priestman, who was an assistant at the 2016 Rio Olympics where Canada won bronze for the second-consecutive tournament, before leaving to coach in England. ...

“I’m super excited for another major tournament and I’m really happy the Olympics are going to happen next year. I’m hoping we can have good results. I’m looking forward to improving and maybe we can get a better result.” ...

The pandemic put a pause on Lyon’s quest for another Champions League title in March, but when play resumed later in the summer, Buchanan and her club were able to withstand touch challenges from German club Bayern Munich, French rivals Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter and semifinal, and then defeated Wolfsburg of Germany 3-1 in the final. Buchanan played every minute of the final and helped keep Wolfsburg’s dynamic striking tandem of Pernille Harder of Denmark and Ewa Pajor of Poland in check. Harder, 28, became the world’s most expensive female soccer player in September when she transferred from Wolfsburg to Chelsea in England. ...

Having set the standard in Europe, other clubs are investing heavily in women’s soccer to try and reel in Lyon, who are working hard to try and stay ahead of the competition. Lyon’s dominance has been good for the development of the women’s game worldwide. ...

The commercial success of the women’s Champions League along with the Women’s World Cup is giving female soccer a higher profile around the world. Buchanan is a beneficiary of that higher profile as she is becoming more and more recognizable around the world.

https://torontosun.com/sports/soccer...te-of-the-year