Alphonso Davies and Christine Sinclair were named Canada Soccer’s Players of the Month for April 2022. Davies from Edmonton, Alberta won his fourth Bundesliga title after making a successful return to the pitch in April while Christine Sinclair from Burnaby, BC scored her 189thinternational goal and earned Player of the Match honours as Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team won and drew at home against Nigeria in a pair of international friendly matches in Vancouver and Langford, British Columbia.
As part of Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team Celebration Tour, Canada’s home matches in April drew 20,601 fans to the 2:0 Friday night win at BC Place and then a sold-out crowd of 5,434 fans to the 2:2 draw at Starlight Stadium in Langford on Vancouver Island. Ahead of the Friday night match in Vancouver, Sinclair was celebrated in front of her home fans for breaking the world’s all-time international goalscoring record – a celebration that had been put on hold since before the pandemic. As part of the event, Sinclair’s teammates surprised her by wearing “12 Sinclair” jerseys as part of the pre-match warm up.
In the opening win against Nigeria, Sinclair was part of the build up on the first goal, playing it forward to Deanne Rose who then fed a pass to Jessie Fleming for the 1-0 lead early in the second half. Three nights later, Sinclair added to her record goals tally when she scored herself early in the second half with a left-footed volley from outside the 18-yard box.
Back with her professional club, Sinclair also scored in the NWSL season opener on Saturday 30 April, a Thorns FC 3:0 win over the Kansas City Current. The goal was the 67thof her Thorns career in all competitions since she joined the team in 2013.
In Europe, Alphonso Davies returned to the pitch after three months on the sidelines, featuring in four April matches as FC Bayern München clinched the 2021-22 Bundesliga title. It was Davies’ fourth-consecutive league title with the German giants since he moved to Europe in 2018-19. After playing just over half an hour in his return on 9 April against FC Augsburg, he played the full 90 minutes in the next three matches, including FC Bayern’s title-clinching victory over Borussia Dortmund on 22 April.
Coming up in the month of May, the 2022 Canadian Championship will kick off with first round matches on 10 and 11 May. CF Montréal, the reigning champions, will enter the competition in the quarter-final phase two weeks later against the winner of the Forge FC v CS Mont-Royal Outremont match.
PLAYERS of the MONTH:
April 2022 – Alphonso Davies and Christine Sinclair
March 2022 – Atiba Hutchinson and Ashley Lawrence
February 2022 – Milan Borjan and Vanessa Gilles
January 2022 – Milan Borjan and Deanne Rose