McLeod ends her Canada career

Veteran goalkeeper Erin McLeod, who survived a string of injuries to win 119 caps for Canada over a distinguished senior career that spanned more than two decades, announced her retirement from international soccer.

McLeod, who turns 40 on Feb. 26, plans to continue playing club football for at least one season. The Orlando Pride announced Tuesday that McLeod and her wife, midfielder Gunny Jonsdottir, left the NWSL club for Jonsdottir’s native Iceland, where both will play.

While still active in the game, McLeod says she has found a new passion. The native of St. Albert, Alta. is transitioning to creating equity programming for grassroots soccer programs in Halifax.

McLeod has long served as an LGBTQ spokesperson. In 2014, she and fellow Olympian Adam van Koeverden, now parliamentary secretary to the federal ministers of health and sport, launched a successful campaign to add sexual orientation to the Olympic Charter.

“I think since that moment I felt an immense amount of pride to wear the (Canadian) jersey and understand there’s a bigger purpose out there, to make sure that I’m continually fighting for more people to play the game, more people to have access,” McLeod told The Canadian Press. “Less discrimination and more inclusivity and more diversity. “I think these things are really becoming more and more of what I think is important, and what I want to be committed to for the rest of my life.”

She says playing in Iceland will take less time, allowing her to “make a difference at the grassroots level.”

McLeod is also looking to help former Canadian teammate Diana Matheson in her bid to establish a domestic women’s pro league.

She was in goal for the Canadian women’s bronze-medal run at the 2012 London Olympics and started throughout the 2015 World Cup on home soil. She was an alternate with the team that won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but dressed for the game against Chile, when Kailen Sheridan stepped in for the injured Stephanie Labbé.

McLeod was 19 when she made her Canada senior debut in a 4-0 victory over Wales in March 2002 at the Algarve Cup.

“I don’t remember much of the game. I just remember being so nervous — like shaking,” McLeod said. “It just seems like a million years ago. I can’t even believe it.”