Christine Sinclair reviews her distinguished soccer career and lays down a challenge for the future in her new memoir 鈥淧laying the Long Game.鈥�
The Canada captain says it鈥檚 high time for Canada Soccer, the sport鈥檚 domestic governing body, to ensure an equal playing field for women. That includes establishing a women鈥檚 domestic pro league so the Canadian women don鈥檛 get passed by other countries.
鈥淚n Canada we assume that we will be fine,鈥� Sinclair writes. 鈥淲e assume that because we鈥檝e been good at this, we will carry on being good. My fear is that we will soon be surpassed by countries that support their youth programs, support their national women鈥檚 teams and also support professional women鈥檚 leagues.鈥�
There has been movement since the book was finished earlier this year, the 39-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., said in an interview.
鈥淧rogress has been made in terms of contract stuff and equal pay. Obviously we鈥檙e still not closer to a (women鈥檚) league. But they have started to address some things,鈥� she said.
The Canadian men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 teams are in the process of negotiating new deals with Canada Soccer with pay equity a central plank in the talks.
鈥淚 think it will get done quickly, especially with the men鈥檚 World Cup just around the corner,鈥� she said.
While that is good news, Sinclair shakes her head at past missteps. She pointed to recent news that Canada Soccer had struck an images/likeness rights deal with Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just one of those like little jabs that they told us 鈥業t wasn鈥檛 possible. It wasn鈥檛 possible,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淎nd then (with) Alphonso, it is possible. We鈥檝e been fighting that battle for 10 years and it鈥檚 taken Alphonso to pretty much deny them the ability to sell his name.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just one of those instances where, yeah, this could have been sorted 10 years ago but they told the women鈥檚 team it wasn鈥檛 possible and now they鈥檙e changing their tune.鈥�
Canada Soccer has only recently started to improve travel conditions for the women, she said, and has agreed to make that part of the new contract.
鈥淚n previous years we would find out that the men were travelling business class. I flat out in a meeting with (Canada Soccer president) Nick (Bontis) said 鈥楴ot once I have travelled business class with this national team.鈥� And that was earlier this year. But things have changed so I have to give them a little credit.
鈥淏ut once again we were treated differently for 10, 12 years. And it鈥檚 taken the men鈥檚 success for them to start to change how they鈥檙e treating the women鈥檚 team, which is sad.鈥�
Sinclair, the world鈥檚 all-time leading goal-scorer with 190, said the process of writing the book with Stephen Brunt was akin to therapy at times.
鈥淚t was painful at times. But I鈥檓 thankful for doing it,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause there鈥檚 just certain things I haven鈥檛 thought about in years 鈥� certain tournaments and games and memories that Stephen obviously helped pry into. I鈥檓 grateful for that because I feel like as athletes we鈥檙e so focused on the next game and the next tournament that we don鈥檛 sometimes look back.
鈥淎nd it鈥檚 been quite the journey.鈥�
鈥淧laying the Game鈥� is an easy read, focused primarily on her career with Canada. She dishes on all her national team coaches, from Even Pellerud and Carolina Morace to John Herdman, Kenneth Heiner-Moller and Bev Priestman.
She is complimentary towards all, even finding something positive to say about Morace, the Italian coach under whom the Canadian women finished last at a disastrous 2011 World Cup in Germany.
Morace 鈥渃reated real soccer players out of a group who, under Even, just booted the ball and chased it,鈥� she wrote.
But Morace鈥檚 decision to move the team to residency in Italy backfired and the tournament soon showed the Canadian women had no Plan B when it came to strategy. Sinclair, who broke her nose at that World Cup, said the distance between players and staff grew as the tournament progressed.
She gives Pellerud plenty of kudos, from bringing her into the senior team to advocating for the women within Canada Soccer and moving the program forward.
She saves her biggest praise for Herdman, now coach of the men鈥檚 team, calling him 鈥渢he best coach I鈥檝e ever had, hands down. He is life-changing.鈥�
Sinclair鈥檚 memories of Canada鈥檚 bronze-medal run at the London Olympics are riveting, perhaps even more than the gold-medal showing in Tokyo.
Heiner-Moller was a soccer brain whose preferred playing style proved to be not a good fit. 鈥淥ne of the kindest, gentlest people I鈥檝e ever met,鈥� she writes.
Priestman, she says, understands the team鈥檚 strengths and lets it play to them.
Sinclair also reveals her 鈥渓ove-hate relationship鈥� with the U.S. national team. She has plenty of respect for what the U.S. women have done on and off the field, but notes they come with a lot of attitude.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e obviously the best team in the world and they know it,鈥� she said with a laugh.
Those hoping to a peek inside Sinclair鈥檚 personal life in the book will be disappointed, While Sinclair, a notoriously private person, opens up about her family, she steers clear when it comes to the rest of her life away from the pitch.
鈥淎s far as I鈥檓 concerned, what people see of me on the pitch should be enough,鈥� she writes.
It鈥檚 been a hectic, albeit productive, time for Sinclair of late.
She helped the Portland Thorns win the NWSL championship on Oct. 29 with a 2-0 victory over the Kansas City Current. On Nov. 1, the same day as her book release, the Portland Thorns announced Sinclair would be back for an 11th season in 2023.
After a whirlwind of book appearances, she left Toronto on Sunday for Brazil where the seventh-ranked Canadian women are playing a pair of international friendlies Nov. 11 and 15 against the ninth-ranked Brazilians in Santos and Sao Paulo, respectively.
鈥淧laying the Long Game鈥� by Christine Sinclair with Stephen Brunt. Random House Canada, 235 pages, $34.
鈥擭eil Davidson, The Canadian Press
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