Sinclair a candidate for FIFA World Player of the Year

Canada’s Christine Sinclair has once again been shortlisted for the FIFA World Player of the Year award. Sinclair is one of 26 female candidates for the 2007 award that will be presented at the 17th FIFA World Player Gala at the Zurich Opera House on 17 December. Sinclair, captain of Canada’s women’s national team, has scored 16 goals in 13 international matches this year, including three at the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007.



Last year, Brasil’s Marta captured the prestigious FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award. On the men’s side, Italia’s Fabio Cannavaro won the FIFA World Player of the Year award.



The FIFA list of candidates – 30 men and 26 women – is drawn by “football experts from the Technical and Development Committee, the Football Committee, the Commitee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as women’s football specialists on other FIFA committees.” Voting for the two awards is now in the hands of international coaches and captains. The three-top players with the most votes in each category will be announced at the beginning of December a couple of weeks before the Gala.



Sinclair has spent most of the season with the Canadian women’s national team in a year-long residency camp en route to the FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007. The team started its international match schedule in early May with games against China and the United States. Sinclair scored in the two matches she played. In early June, she scored three more times in two matches against New Zealand. With her second goal of the match on 3 June, she became Canada’s all-time goal-scoring leader at the international level (72 and counting).



Sinclair’s goal-scoring continued at the XV Pan American Games Rio 2007 as she helped her teammates pick up a collection of bronze medals. She scored hat tricks against Uruguay and Jamaica and then scored the first goal of a 2:1 win over Mexico in the bronze-medal match. Seven weeks later, Christine competed in her second FIFA Women’s World Cup. She scored three goals in the tournament as the team finished ninth overall. Sinclair also became Canada’s all-time goal-scoring leader at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.



As team captain, Sinclair helped Canada post seven wins, two draws and five losses in 14 full international matches from May to September. The team was ranked ninth in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings released earlier this month. After a short break in October, Canada’s women’s national team will resume training in November as it begins the road to the 2008 Summer Olympics. Canada is expected to be one of two CONCACAF teams that qualifies for the Beijing games.



The full list of candidates for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year awards is listed below.

Nadine Angerer (Germany), Adjoa Bayor (Ghana), Cristiane (Brazil), Daniela (Brazil), Lisa de Vanna (Australia), Formiga (Brazil), Christie George (Nigeria), Ragnhild Gulbrandsen (Norway), Duan Han (China), Ariane Hingst (Germany), Jie Li (China), Kristine Lilly (USA), Renate Lingor (Germany), Marta (Brazil), Perpetua Nkwocha (Nigeria), Bente Nordby (Norway), Cathrine Paaske Sörensen (Denmark), Birgit Prinz (Germany), Un Suk Ri (Korea DPR), Christine Sinclair (Canada), Kelly Smith (England), Rebecca Smith (New Zealand), Ane Stangeland Horpestad (Norway), Kerstin Stegemann (Germany), Ingvild Stensland (Norway) and Abby Wambach (USA).



Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Deco (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Michael Essien (Ghana), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Steven Gerrard (England), Thierry Henry (France), Juninho (Brazil), Kaká (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Frank Lampard (England), Rafael Márquez (Mexico), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Alessandro Nesta (Italy), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Franck Ribéry (France), Juan Román Riquelme (Argentina), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Wayne Rooney (England), John Terry (England), Carlos Tévez (Argentina), Lilian Thuram (France), Fernando Torres (Spain), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) and Patrick Vieira (France).