The Canadian Soccer Association yesterday released the list of its Canadian Women’s National Team program players that have been selected to play in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) during 2013.
The 16 players, identified by Canada’s head coach John Herdman, will participate in the inaugural season of the league, which is set to begin play this spring in the U.S.
“The selection process wasn’t easy. In a perfect world we would be able to offer contracts to all the players in the program,” said Herdman. “Ultimately we have a responsibility towards the future of our game to ensure we prepare the next generation as much as we value our veteran players.
“As part of our planning for Canada’s Women’s National program, we have projected what the team should look like in 2015/2016, and which players could allow us to be successful as a soccer nation. “From that, we have identified what we call ‘Gold Medal Standards’, 2015/2016 individual and team standards that the players will need to demonstrate or to be tracking towards to be considered for one of the 16 annual contracts. Players will be accountable and with individual performance plans they’ll know what to work towards to obtain or maintain their spot in the league. I think this will create a positive competitive setting that should raise the quality of our performances and benefit the program’s growth overall.”
Canada’s Women’s National Team players who obtained a professional contract for the 2013 season are Melanie Booth, Robyn Gayle, Kaylyn Kyle, Karina LeBlanc, Adriana Leon, Diana Matheson, Bryanna McCarthy, Erin McLeod, Carmelina Moscato, Jodi-Ann Robinson, Sophie Schmidt, Desiree Scott, Lauren Sesselmann, Christine Sinclair, Rhian Wilkinson and Emily Zurrer.
Of these 16 players selected by Herdman, 13 were part of the Olympic bronzed medallist team while one (Adriana Leon) was a member of the Women’s U-20 Team that competed in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Japan 2012. McCarthy and Robinson are both making returns to the Women’s National Team program.
The Canadian Soccer Association will subsidize the salaries of these 16 Canadian Women’s National Team players, while U.S. Soccer will do the same for 23 U.S. players and the Federation of Mexican Football will do the same for 16 Mexican players. The club location for all 55 players will be announced tomorrow.
The eight teams in the National Women’s Soccer League are: Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Portland Thorns FC, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, Western New York Flash and Seattle Reign FC.
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