Local Soccer Stars Crack Elite FIFA List

We can find no fault with Marta

​FC Gold Pride, certainly the first professional sporting team based out of Hayward, set another mark last month. It hosted the first professional sporting championship ever set in Hayward -- and won it, 4-0.

Now  a trio of Gold Pride starters have cracked the shortlist for Women's Player of the Year, an annual award handed out by FIFA, soccer's international governing body (they're the good folks who put on the World Cup and light their stogies with €500 bills).

Head coach Albertin Montoya also made the shortlist for women's coach of the year. Not bad for a guy whose most recent prior gig was as a collegiate assistant!

Brazilian national Marta will be gunning for her fifth FIFA top player honors. Teammate Christine Sinclair, a Canadian, has made the 10-deep shortlist five prior times. And France's Camille Abily is a first-timer. 

No matter who wins, Hawyard will be totally stoked. And rightfully so.

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