Thorns FC's Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan and Christine Sinclair nominated for Concacaf Women's Player of the Year

ThornsFC.com Staff

Thorns FC midfielders Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan and forward Christine Sinclair were announced today as nominees for the Concacaf Women’s Player of the Year today.

The 2021 nominees have been selected based on performance statistics and voting by expert panels consisting of former professional women’s players and football broadcasters. To be eligible to be shortlisted for this exciting new Concacaf awards, all players have met at least one of the following criteria:

Have played for a Concacaf Member Association's senior Women's national team (in eligible Concacaf and FIFA competitions and matches).
Regardless of nationality, played for a club (in 2021) in a Concacaf and FIFA sanctioned top division Women’s professional league in the Concacaf region.

Dunn, playing in her first season in Portland in 2021, appeared in 15 matches (12 starts) with a goal and two assists across 1071 minutes.

Horan finished the 2021 campaign with two goals and tied for the team lead with three assists in 14 matches (14 starts), earning her a spot on the NWSL Best XI Second Team. Recently signed to a contract extension through 2025, Horan will join French side Olympique Lyonnais on loan until June 2023.

In 2021, Sinclair helped Canada win gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. With Portland, Sinclair appeared in 15 matches (all starts) during the regular season, recording five goals and one assist. It marked the seventh time in eight seasons that she has tallied at least five goals in a campaign. Sinclair was also recently honored with The Best – FIFA Special Award for breaking the women’s international football goal-scoring record.

All three players were part of Portland’s treble-winning 2021 season which saw the Thorns win the NWSL Shield, the NWSL Challenge Cup and the Women’s International Champions Cup.

Concacaf Women’s Player of the Year Voting Process (100 votes total)

41 votes: one vote for each Concacaf Member Association’s Women's National Team Head Coach
41 votes: one vote for each Concacaf Member Association’s Women's Captain
9 votes: one vote each for nine representative members of the media from the Concacaf region
9 votes: fan voting through www.concacaf.com. The player with the most fan votes will receive 4 votes in the overall voting process, second place 3 votes, third place 2 votes (regardless of how many people vote online).

At the conclusion of voting, the player in each category with the most votes out of the 100 available will be named 2021 Concacaf Women’s Player of the Year.

The full list of nominees for the 2021 Concacaf Women's Player of the Year are (listed in alphabetical order by last name):