SINCLAIR NOMINATED FOR FIFA WOMEN'S WORLD PLAYER OF YEAR

October 12, 2006 - Ottawa, Ontario - FIFA today announced its 2006 World Player of the Year nominees. Among the candidates is Canadian Christine Sinclair.

This marks Sinclair’s second consecutive FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year nomination. Her name was also on the short list in 2005.

Sinclair is a Canadian soccer phenomenon. Her soccer career has been nothing short of remarkable and her list of achievements speaks for itself:

Named the W-League Championship Tournament MVP in 2006; Canada Soccer’s 2005 Female Player of the Year; NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-America Athlete of the Year; Honda Award Winner; NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-America first team; Soccer America and Soccer Buzz Athlete of the Year; Soccer America and Soccer Buzz first team All-American; CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) Academic All-American of the Year; CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team; CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 First Team; NCAA Today’s Top VIII Award (recognizes eight seniors among all collegiate divisions for excellence both on and off the field); Soccer Buzz West Region Player of the Year; Soccer Buzz All-West Region First Team; NSCAA All-West Region First Team; 2005 College Cup MVP; College Cup All-Tournament Team; WCC All-Academic Team; All-WCC first team; West Coast Conference Player of the Year… The list goes on!

In university, Sinclair rewrote the record books. An Academic and first team All-American, Sinclair’s 39 goals for the University of Portland Pilots in the 2005 season earned her the NCAA single-season scoring record. She finished second only to American Mia Hamm, with 110 goals in 94 games, earning two national championships playing for the Pilots.

First inducted into the Senior Women’s National team in 2000, Sinclair has since played 82 games, scoring a staggering 57 goals. In fact, Sinclair played a massive role in Canada’s strong fourth place finish at the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup, tabulating an impressive three goals.

Sinclair currently wears jersey number 12 for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC who compete in the W-League of the USL (United Soccer Leagues).The Burnaby native, stayed true to her form in 2006, scoring nine goals and four assists in eight regular season matches. She also managed to earn the W-League Championship Tournament MVP in 2006 when she led the Whitecaps to their second W-League Championship in three years.

Needless to say that most will agree that Christine Sinclair is a Canadian soccer superstar.

“Christine’s talent and skills for soccer has been obvious since her first game for the Senior National team as young teenager in Algarve cup 2000, where she scored against power house Norway. Since then she has kept scoring goals and caused all sorts of problems for confused defenders around the world,” said Canadian Head Coach Even Pellerud.

“At this time, she has emerged from her natural raw talent and genuine gifts and is standing out with performance consistency and leadership skills. Her impact on the World cup team cannot be overstated. She is by now the team captain and will lead our team into this fall’s World Cup qualifying tournament as well as into other upcoming international tournaments,' added Pellerud.

'She is clearly one of the more gifted soccer players I have ever coached - Men or Women, and she is a pleasure to work with.”

The winners of the player of the year award will be announced at the 16th FIFA World Player Gala at the Zurich Opera House on December 18th. The lists of candidates for the prestigious awards were drawn up by football experts from different FIFA committees. The Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, in conjunction with women’s football experts from other FIFA committees, have nominated 20 players from the women’s game. The 30 players from the men’s game were chosen by the Football Committee and the Technical and Development Committee.

The following twenty women (in alphabetical order) are in contention for the title of FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year 2006:

Laura Georges (France), Duan Han (China PR), Laura Kalmari (Finland), Kristine Lilly (USA), Renate Lingor (Germany), Xiaoxu Ma (China PR), Marta (Brazil), Malin Moström (Sweden), Monica Ocampo (Mexico), Cathrine Paaske Sörensen (Denmark), Kum Suk Ri (Korea DPR), Silke Rottenberg (Germany), Cheryl Salisbury (Australia), Lotta Schelin (Sweden), Christine Sinclair (Canada), Kelly Smith (England), Sandrine Soubeyrand (France), Ingvild Stensland (Norway), Cynthia Uwak (Nigeria), Abby Wambach (USA).

The following thirty men (in alphabetical order) are in contention for the title of FIFA World Player of the Year 2006:

Adriano (Brazil), Michael Ballack (Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Deco (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Michael Essien (Ghana), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Luis Figo (Portugal), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Steven Gerrard (England), Thierry Henry (France), Kaká (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Frank Lampard (England), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Alessandro Nesta (Italy), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Franck Ribéry (France), Juan Román Riquelme (Argentina), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Wayne Rooney (England), Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine), Lilian Thuram (France), Patrick Viera (France), Zinedine Zidane (France).

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