In this case, the North American isn't a member of a World Cup bid committee, or an ex-TFCer getting his foot on the end of a free kick against Slovenia. Nope, this time, it's the proud, dutiful captain of our women's national team, Christine Sinclair.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
The final super-shortlist of nominees for the 2010 Ballon d'Or awards was released today, and while Sinclair had been on the original shortlist, she was left out of the final three. Despite being the most recognizable figure in Canadian international soccer for years (and a winner of Canadian player of the year for five years running), Sinclair has never won the big prize, the FIFA World Player of the Year.
In fact, she's never made the top three.
Who made the cut this year? Pfft. Some nobodies. Marta, who's only won it, what, four years running? Where's she from, anyway? Brazil? What kind of soccer culture do they have? And where's her last name, anyway? Seems fishy to me.
Then you've got the other two, Birgit Prinz and Fatmire Bajmaraj, who play for freakin' Germany. Germany? Seriously? What do they know about soccer? Sure, they're the two-time reigning World Cup champions and haven't been lower than #3 in the world in the entire time FIFA has kept women's world rankings, but... uh, I forgot where I was going with that.
Oh yeah, right, Prinz! Prinz? She hasn't won World Player of the Year since 2005! How do you say "past her prime" in German?
I mean, what happened, FIFA? I thought you were committed to exploring new territories. Isn't that why Russia and Qatar were awarded men's World Cups? Because England and the USA weren't daring enough? Well then, how do you explain this? Marta and Prinz? Cripes, if you're just gonna go with the same old, same old, why not nominate Mia Hamm?
(For the purposes of my ironic argument, I'm pretending Bajmaraj isn't nominated, by the way.)
Alright, my nonsense notwithstanding, this is not a post meant to demean Sinclair. The exact opposite, in fact. I'm trying to venerate her by reminding us not to get complacent about having her name in this discussion.
Let's look at the nominees on the men's side: Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta. Three guys who'll never have to buy a drink in Barcelona (and many other places in the world) ever again. Players of true other-worldly quality, whose names, faces and highlight-reel performances are recognizable to millions of fans around the world.
Now, imagine if Atiba Hutchinson's name was spoken in the same breath as those fellows. Or Simeon Jackson's. Or Dwayne DeRosario's. Or... you get the idea.
We do have a situation like that in Canadian soccer. A player whose name is spoken in the same breath as the globe's elites, athletes who may go down in the books as among the greatest of all-time.
That player's name is Christine Sinclair.
True, the women's game isn't as developed, or as closely followed, as the men's game... not by a long shot. But it's growing all the time... and I'd venture to say that, globally, a hell of a lot more people (or, at the very least, a hell of a lot more countries) give a damn about women's soccer than about hockey.
So rather than Canadians patting ourselves on the back for more success at a sport that few countries that don't end in "-anada" actually care about, it's time that we exult those performers of ours who manage to excel without massive support systems behind them.
Christine Sinclair isn't going to win the Ballon d'Or for 2010. But she'll have been damn close. Canada's captain will have been closer to winning World Player of the Year, in soccer, than all but a tiny handful of all the players on earth. That, whichever way you slice it, is damned impressive.
It also raises the question: What, after all these years, would Sinclair have to do to make that final shortlist for the award?
June 26, 2011. Berlin. Sinclair leads the troops up against Prinz, Bajmaraj and the rest of the German powerhouse squad in the World Cup opener. With the game months away, no one seriously expects Canada to win the match. We're outliers, outsiders, underdogs.
Then again, Qatar didn't get very good odds at first either. And yet, in 2022, the nation will make its indelible mark on world soccer history.
In 2011, Sinclair will have the chance to do the same.
(Photo by Jae C. Jong/The Associated Press)