Veteran midfielder Desiree Scott is calling time on her international soccer career, making her final appearance in Canadian colours May 31 against Haiti in her hometown of Winnipeg.
The game at Princess Auto Stadium will mark cap No. 188 for Scott, who made her Canadian senior debut in 2010.
The 37-year-old Scott called her time with the national team "one of my greatest joys."
"But it's time for that chapter to close," she told a virtual media availability Tuesday. "I don't think that's a huge surprise for anybody. But it's also the start of a new journey right here … with the Ottawa Rapid."
The five-foot-one dynamo ended a brief retirement to play for Ottawa, which makes its Northern Super League debut Sunday against visiting AFC Toronto.
The Winnipeg game is the first of two against Haiti in FIFA's May-June international window. The two teams will also meet June 3 at Montreal's Stade Saputo, a game that Scott will not figure in.
Canada, ranked seventh in the world, has won all three previous meetings with No. 53 Haiti.
Former captain Christine Sinclair scored four times the last time they met, a 6-0 win for Canada in a January 2012 Olympic qualifier in Vancouver. Before that, Canada won 11-1 in October 2022 in Victoria — with four goals from Sinclair and three from Charmaine Hooper — and 2-0 in April 1991 in Port-au-Prince.
A fierce defensive midfielder, Scott is known as "The Destroyer" for her ability to break up opposing attacks.
But she has only played for Canada twice — in friendlies against Mexico in Toronto and Montreal in June 2024 — since November 2022 due to knee surgery and the death of her mother.
"It's been a hard hard year, both with life on field and off field … Everything in life kind of came to a really hard year and a half for me," Scott said.
But she said the setback have also "been fuel to my fire leading me into this Ottawa Rapid season."
Scott, then with the Kansas City Current of the National Women's Soccer League, announced last October she would retire at the end of the 2024 NWSL season. But in January, she reversed that decision and signed with Ottawa.
Scott said she has not decided on her playing future beyond the inaugural NSL season.
"I am very much a girl that's staying in the present," she said. "I'm here to help this league kick off, especially in Year 1. But we don't know what the year will hold. We'll see how the body feels, how the season goes and decide from there."
Scott competed in three World Cups (Germany 2011, Canada 2015, and France 2019) and three Olympic Games, winning bronze medals in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016 and gold in Tokyo in 2021.
"Desiree has been a cornerstone of the women's national team program, inspiring countless players with her hard work, spirit, and commitment to the growth of the game," Canada coach Casey Stoney said in a statement. "We are excited to carry on her legacy and honour her in Winnipeg and add two home matches for fans this spring."
Scott was 15 when she made her debut in the Canadian youth program in 2003 and 22 when she made her senior debut in February 2010 in a 2-1 win over Switzerland at the Cyprus Cup.
Scott, who played five years at the University of Manitoba where she was named team MVP three times and the Bison Sports Female Athlete of the Year in 2009-10, was appointed to the Order of Manitoba in 2022 and inducted into the Canada West Hall of Fame in 2019.
Winnipeg last hosted the Canadian women in June 2017, when Canada defeated Costa Rica 3-1 in a game that saw Scott earn her 125th cap.
"I've got chills thinking about it," Scott, who has played just two games for the national team in Winnipeg, said of having her farewell Canada game in her hometown.
"To be able to bring it complete full circle, to have family and friends in the stands … It's going to be very special," she added.
The Canadian women last played in Montreal in June 2024, defeating Mexico 2-0 at Stade Saputo.
Scott played club football for both FC Kansas City and the Kansas City Current, also playing for the Utah Royals in the NWSL, England's Notts County and the Vancouver Whitecaps women.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2025.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
