Dash's Janine Beckie says Canada slighted by FIFA list

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 19: (L-R) Formiga of Brazil and Janine Beckie of Canada challenge for the ball during the Women's Olympic Football Bronze Medal match between Brazil and Canada at Arena Corinthians on August 19, 2016 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images) less SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 19: (L-R) Formiga of Brazil and Janine Beckie of Canada challenge for the ball during the Women's Olympic Football Bronze Medal match between Brazil and Canada at Arena Corinthians on ... more Photo: Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images Photo: Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Dash's Janine Beckie says Canada slighted by FIFA list 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

When Janine Beckie walked off the pitch for the final time in Brazil last summer it was hard for her to fathom what she and the Canada Women's National Team had accomplished.

Canada won the bronze medal for a second consecutive Olympics – a significant feat considering the team had not done much at major competitions before the 2012 Olympics.

Beckie, the Dash forward who scored the fastest goal in Olympic history this summer, thought the world might take notice. On Friday morning the Texas Tech graduate got some bad news from FIFA.

Canada might still have a ways to go.

The world governing body of soccer released its 2016 finalists for the Best FIFA Women's Player and for the Best FIFA women's coach.

Beckie's coach John Herdman and accomplished teammate Christine Sinclair, who this year became the world's No. 2 all-time leading scorer, were not on either list.

Beckie wrote her opinion on Twitter:

Sinc & John deserve more..back2back podiums, 2nd most goals EVER, bronze winning goal & transforming a program. Very disappointed for them. — Janine Beckie (@janinebeckie4) December 2, 2016

Herdman also took to Twitter in defense of Sinclair, who scored the winning goal in the bronze medal match against Brazil:

Gutted for Sinc. Back2Back podiums, 8 nominations, breaks the 2nd all time scoring record & scores the goal against BRA for bronze, nonsense — John Herdman (@coachherdman) December 2, 2016

The voting process for each award is split evenly between national coaches, national captains, media and fans.

This year the finalists for the Ballon d'Or are Dash midfielder and USWNT captain Carli Lloyd, who won it last year, Germany's Melanie Behringer and Brazil's Marta.

Behringer scored an Olympic best five goals in leading her team to the gold medal. Marta is a five-time winner and has been a finalist 12 of the last 13 years.

While the idea of giving fans a vote seems like good publicity for FIFA it may keep up-and-coming teams like Canada from being recognized. Women's soccer games are not as widely viewed around the globe so fans may not have a chance to see teams outside of their country unless they are playing in the international finals that are televised throughout the world.

"You might have a 15-year old American girl voting who hasn't necessarily ever watched Canada play," Beckie said Friday in a phone interview. "Lots of it is about population size. Brazil, Germany and the United States have huge populations. Canada does not.

"At the same time you would hope FIFA could recognize the talent that is there."

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Herdman's exclusion from the three coaching finalists comes at least in part because USWNT coach Jill Ellis made the list. Ellis won the award in 2015 after leading the Americans to the World Cup championship but faltered this year when the team failed to make the semifinals of a major international tournament for the first time.

Even FIFA made it seem like Ellis had a down year when it wrote this in its summary of Ellis: "2016 will not be a year that will live long in the memory of the nation's program, as no major honours were won."

Ellis is joined on the list by Germany's Silvia Neid and Sweden's Pia Sundhage, whose team eliminated the USWNT in the quarterfinals en route to winning the silver medal.

Herdman, meanwhile, accomplished two of the major goals he dreamed of when he took over the program in 2012.

"On John's goal list was back to back podiums and breaking into the FIFA top five," Beckie said. "You look at that now and he has checked off everything on that list. That is incredible for a coach who has only been there for four years. He can take credit for a huge transformation for the program."

Beckie added that picking three finalists from around the world is 'incredibly difficult.' She said she believes those were picked have strong arguments to be there. She simply wishes Canada had been represented.

The next step, she said, is to win a major international tournament so that the next time Canada walks off the pitch the world has no choice but to notice what it is building.

"We all believe we have the talent, the staff and the professionalism of our association to be the best in the world," Beckie said. "We think the sky is the limit."