Jessie Fleming has been named captain of Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team ahead of the 2024 Concacaf W Gold Cup. The three-time Canada Soccer Player of the Year has been picked to lead her nation at the confederation championship this February as the defending Olympic champions prepare for this summer’s Olympic Football Tournament in July and August.
“While choosing the captain of this team, we felt it was important to choose someone who exemplified the values of this team. We have a team that is incredibly hard working, has exclusive requirements, lowliness and respect and we wanted a captain that could really lead this team across those values. Jessie doesn’t have to change, she leads by example, she’s modest and she’s a major team player which is exactly what this team needs.”
– Bev Priestman, Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team Head Coach.
As part of an experienced leadership group in the Canada squad, Fleming will wear the captain’s armband when she’s on the pitch starting with Concacaf W Gold Cup group matches against El Salvador, Paraguay and Costa Rica. The 12-nation championship features a Quarterfinals Round on 2-3 March, the Semifinals on 6 March, and the Final on 10 March.
Fleming takes on the job of wearing the captain’s armband after Christine Sinclair’s departure from international football last December. Across the past two years, Fleming made 11 Canada starts wearing the captain’s armband including the second group match at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and both the home-and-away legs in the 2023 Concacaf W Olympic Play-In Series.
Still just 25 years old before the start of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup, Fleming has made 123 career international “A” appearances for Canada and won both an Olympic Bronze Medal in 2016 and Olympic Gold Medal in 2021. She has featured at three FIFA World Cups since 2015 and won four Concacaf Silver Medals since 2016. She has scored 19 career goals and recorded six assists.
At the club level, Fleming now plays her professional football at Portland Thorns FC in the National Women’s Soccer League. She spent four seasons at Chelsea FC where she won three successive FA Super League titles, three-straight FA Cup titles, and finished as a sprinter up in 2020-21 UEFA Champions League.
Brought up in London, Ontario, Fleming was just 14 years old when she joined the Canadian youth program back in 2012. As an international youth player, she wore the captain’s armband for coach Bev Priestman at both the 2013 Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Championship and FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica 2014. She made her international “A” debut on 15 December 2013 (the second-youngest player in program history) and she wore the Canada armband interestingly on 17 February 2022 against England at the Arnold Clark Cup.