The people running TSN’s soccer Twitter account got a pretty big wake-up call Saturday after posting what they likely thought was an innocuous poll question: “Has Alphonso Davies already become the greatest Canadian soccer player?”
Davies, a 19-year old who grew up in Edmonton and developed with the Vancouver Whitecaps, plays for the German league team Bayern Munich. With an already impressive career, his skills were on full display Saturday when he scored a goal and an assist in a Bayern Munich victory.
But there was a glaring oversight in TSN’s question, and people on Twitter did not hesitate to point it out.
If anyone deserves the title of Canada’s greatest soccer player, it’s Christine Sinclair, captain of the Canadian women’s team and the world’s all-time leading international goal-scorer.
All. Time.
For both men and women.
Sinclair, 36, is also a two-time Olympic medallist, has won the Canada Soccer Player of the Year award 14 times, and is the second soccer player in the world to have scored in five different World Cups.
We could go on about the pride of Burnaby, B.C, but the point is clear.
TSN soon realized its mistake as well, and deleted the poll, replacing it with one that asked if Davies was the greatest Canadian men’s soccer player.
But many pointed out the oversight is just one example of how women’s sports are often overlooked.