By Lauren Maharaj, Special to Sportsnet
It’s about attaining a powerful legacy.
It is no surprise that women’s soccer has come a long way in the past two decades. From the lowest attendance record in FIFA Women’s World Cup history in Sweden in 1995 with less than 113,000 attendees to multiplying 10-fold at this past summer’s tournament in Canada, the standard has changed immensely.
Now with the release of the video game FIFA 16, the landscape of women’s soccer is set to have another major boost towards aligning itself with the men’s game in the eye of not just gamers but also fans.
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In May, for the first time in EA Sports history it was announced that 12 women’s national teams would be included in the 2016 installment of the highly popular FIFA series. Following the announcement was the incredible success of the 2015 Women’s World Cup, which marked a new generation of supporters. Thanks to the pristine timing, the spike in interest for the women’s game has continued past the World Cup, including in the virtual world.
The evidence behind a new found popularity in women’s soccer not only comes in the form of video games, but in fan turnout. In late July, the National Women’s Soccer League’s Portland Thorns broke a league record for attendance against the Seattle Reign after hosting a sellout crowd of 21,144 at Providence Park.
Besides the clear increase in status, there is a grander theme that retired Canadian goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc feels has been achieved by being a part of the incredibly popular video game: leaving a legacy in a game she’s spent so many years building.
"As a team we truly were able to connect to something much bigger than just ourselves [at the World Cup]," LeBlanc told Sportsnet.
"Now we have this game and I think people have always played the ‘Messis’ of the world… but now it’s a generation change and people are turning on a game where they can be us. That makes you just feel like a human being, because it’s bigger than just us [as footballers]."
LeBlanc has played for Canada on the international stage since 1998, and her eye for perspective has been filled with a variety of different sights. She can remember the days when stadiums were barely full as vividly as she can recall this past summer, where the world watched in crowded World Cup venues across the country. The inclusion of women in a game as globally renowned as FIFA 16 offers the world’s most popular sport the potential to unify fans outside of the shadow of gender.
"We now walk the streets and there are people who are our age [who admire us]," LeBlanc said.
"We now walk into restaurants and people give us standing ovations and they recognize how this sport is so much bigger than just a sport. It’s about 22 different players with 22 different backgrounds that had accomplished where they got in different ways. That’s what people connect to."
As the connection between countrymen and athlete strengthens, so does the inspiration to pursue a professional career in sports. Players of FIFA 16 can now imitate newfound idols of either gender. In turn, the faces of women’s soccer will become more familiar and it is only a matter of time before the soccer dreams of young girls become a little more possible than they used to be.
For Canadian forward Melissa Tancredi, this is already the case.
"If you ask a young boy, who grew up playing video games, if that’s where they got their spark for competitiveness, they’d probably say yes," Tancredi said.
"Now a little girl can go out there and play a video game. It’s a little bit of encouragement… It’s a way to inspire kids at home through entertainment and have the big names out there. It’s somebody they can relate to through ."
In simple terms, the art of the sport and the faces that are attached to it will always leave a great mark on the generation they graced. Now young women, just like their male counterparts, can look at FIFA 16 for motivation. For veteran players, such as Tancredi and LeBlanc, leaving a positive legacy for the upcoming generation was always the task at hand. Now with FIFA 16, that goal is in virtual motion.
Lauren Maharaj is a Toronto-based writer. Follow her on Twitter.