Canada Soccer celebrates 2022 award winners

Christine Sinclair, the world’s all-time international goalscoring record holder, has been presented with the Canada Soccer President’s Award by Dr. Nick Bontis following the 2022 Canada Soccer Annual Meeting of the Members in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Sinclair was chosen for this special recognition with the relaunch of the Canada Soccer Annual Awards as part of the first in-person Annual Meeting of the Members since the global pandemic paused all football activities in 2020, the year Sinclair broke the record.
 
Canada Soccer most recently celebrated Sinclair in front of friends and family in her hometown British Columbia ahead of Canada’s 2:0 victory over Nigeria at BC Place in Vancouver on 8 April 2022. Three days later, Sinclair scored her 189th international “A” goal, also marking the 23rd consecutive season in which she scored for Canada since her debut season in 2000. Just last year, she captained Canada to a world title at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
 
Canada Soccer celebrates excellent individuals on an annual basis as part of the Awards Banquet at the Annual Meeting of the Members. This year’s list of award winners included Maeve Glass for the Aubrey Sanford Meritorious Service Award, Charmaine Crooks for the Brian Budd Award, Drew Fischer for the Ray Morgan Memorial Award, and the late Gary Miller for the Tony Waiters Coaching Excellence Award.
 
Other award recipients were Tony Nocita for the Award of Merit as well as Chantal Boudreau, Marie-Han Gagnon-Chrétien and Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho for the Canada Soccer Referees International Achievement Award.
 
Mrs. Lorraine Miller, who worked for Canada Soccer for 33 years from 1973 to 2006, was presented with her Canada Soccer Life Membership certificate after she was honoured in 2021. Mrs. Miller, who has been battling cancer, is herself a former recipient of both the President’s Award in 1998 and Aubrey Sanford Meritorious Service Award in 2006.
 
CANADA SOCCER PRESIDENT’S AWARD – CHRISTINE SINCLAIR
Christine Sinclair is our champion: an Officer in the Order of Canada, an Olympic champion, a Concacaf champion, and the world’s all-time international goalscoring record holder. She has played – and scored – for Canada in 23 consecutive international seasons, with her first goal scored on 14 March 2000 and her 189th goal scored most recently on 11 April 2022. She has scored goals in five FIFA World Cups, four Olympic Games, and 10 Concacaf tournaments.
 
AUBREY SANFORD MERITORIOUS SERVICE AWARD + MAEVE GLASS
Maeve Glass is one of the most loved persons in Canadian soccer, having served as Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team’s equipment manager and tour manager across the most successful period in program history. She retired this past year after working 224 international “A” matches from January 2008 through November 2021 with the Women’s National Team, highlighted by Canada Soccer’s Olympic Gold Medal in August 2021. She helped Canada win one Concacaf title, three Olympic medals, one Pan American Games title and one Concacaf youth title.
 
BRIAN BUDD AWARD – CHARMAINE CROOKS
Canada Soccer Vice-President Charmaine Crooks has part of Canada Soccer’s Board of Directors since 2013 and currently serves as a member of FIFA’s Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions. A Member of the Order of Canada, Crooks is a five-time Olympian as well as an Olympic silver medal winner from Los Angeles 1984 with Canada’s 4x400m relay team. She has held multiple roles with the International Olympic Committee and served as a Match Commissioner at the men’s 2018 FIFA World Cup.
 
RAY MORGAN MEMORIAL AWARD – DREW FISCHER
Mr. Drew Fischer has served on the FIFA List of Referees and Assistant Referees since 2015 and has been on the Canada List since 2007. This past year, he was appointed to the Concacaf Nations League Final, his second Concacaf Gold Cup, and his second FIFA Club World Cup as a Video Assistant Referee. In recent years, he has also been appointed as a Video Assistant Referee at the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 and the Major League Soccer Final in 2020.
 
TONY WAITERS COACHING EXCELLENCE AWARD – GARY MILLER
One of the earliest recipients of Canada Soccer’s Coaching A Licence Diploma, the late Mr. Gary Miller was a staunch advocate of coach education at all levels of the game. He served as a coach education evaluator for the Irish Football Association and was widely respected across the world of football. An honoured member of the Western Mustangs Sports Hall of Fame, he earned his Masters of Physical Education in coaching from the University of British Columbia and was Canada Soccer’s High Performance Director from 1990 to 1992.
 
AWARD OF MERIT – TONY NOCITA
Tony Nocita is a former Canada Soccer National Teams player who has since had a long career as a coach in Winnipeg. An honoured member of both the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Manitoba Soccer Hall of Fame. As a member of FC Winnipeg Lions, he has won a National Championships gold medal as a player and silver medal as a coach.
 
INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – BOUDREAU, GAGNON-CHRÉTIEN & MITCHELL-CARVALHO
Chantal Boudreau, Marie-Han Gagnon-Chrétien and Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho are the three newest recipients of the Canada Soccer Referees International Achievement Award. Boudreau has been on the FIFA List of Referees and Assistant Referees since 2015 while Gagnon-Chrétien has been on the list since 2016 and Mitchell-Carvalho since 2017.