Concacaf W Championship Game-Changers: Jessie Fleming

MIAMI, Florida – The 2022 Concacaf W Championship kicks off July 4 in Monterrey, Mexico with eight teams in pursuit of lifting the trophy and proclaiming themselves champions of women’s football in the Concacaf region. Each of the eight teams boast a special kind of player who is capable of making a play that can change the course of a game and swing things in their team’s favor. For Canada, that player is FW Jessie Fleming. The Chelsea FC (England) #17 is someone that has already made a name for herself in Concacaf. She is just 24 years old, but has been a game-changer for a long time. Jessie Fleming has played 100 matches with the Canadian Senior Women’s National Team, with whom she has proven her skills many times, scoring 15 goals. But Fleming has been a game-changer for Canada since a very young age. In 2013, she won the Golden Ball and was part of the Best XI at the Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Championship. Later on, she was part of the Canada squad that played at the FIFA Women’s Under-17 World Cup at Costa Rica 2014. That same year, she made the jump to the Women’s Under-20 World Cup team, in which she represented her country at home at Canada 2014.

Years later, she became an essential part of the Canada Senior Team and competed in the CWC at USA 2018. She played four matches in which she scored one goal against Panama in the semifinals. Canada ended up being runner-up and Fleming was selected as part of the Best XI for the tournament. Another runner-up position for Fleming and Canada was at the 2020 Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, allowing them to play at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Canada was looking to turn their bronze medals from 2012 and 2016 into gold that summer, and they did. Being the game-changer she is, Fleming scored the goal that gave Canada the pass to the final, in a 1-0 semifinal win over rivals the United States. And in the Gold Medal match against Sweden, she scored the equalizing goal in the second half and then converted her penalty, as Canada claimed the penalty shootout 3-2 to become Olympic champions. Her international career doesn't stop there, as she has also been part of the Canadian squad that competed at the Women’s World Cup on home soil in 2015 and at France 2019. Now with another CWC on the horizon, all eyes will be on Fleming to see how she will show the world again what she and the Canadian team are able to do.