The Destroyer is hanging up her cape

For 12 years, Canadian midfielder Desiree Scott has embraced the persona of The Destroyer, owning the intimidating moniker since former national team head coach John Herdman coined it during the 2012 London Games.

“I loved it from the jump,” she said. “I think there's few soccer players that have an ingrained nickname. It kind of makes you feel like a superhero… like I can put on my cape and get out there and just tackle some people.”

But now, The Destroyer is hanging up her cape.

Last month, in a post on social media, Scott announced that she will be retiring at the end of this season. Scott plays with the Kansas City Current in the National Women’s Soccer League, and her team is set to take on the North Carolina Courage this Saturday in the quarter-finals of the playoffs.

“They say when you know, you know,” Scott told TSN.” I do feel like I'm at peace with my decision. I've given so much, and I love this sport, but I'm also ready for the next chapter.”

While Scott will last be seen on the field in a Current jersey, Canadians will know her best for her legacy with the national team. The native of Winnipeg finishes her career with 187 appearances, fourth-most all-time, and has been a part of three World Cups and four Olympics.

A defensive midfielder, she played an integral role in Canada’s two bronze medals in 2012 and 2016, as well as the team’s gold-medal run in Tokyo three years ago. She last appeared for the national team in a pair of friendlies in June.

“Desiree Scott – absolute legend, one of the best ever to put on a Canadian jersey,” Diana Matheson, Scott’s teammate for 10 years, told the media last month. “She's literally been the heartbeat of the Canadian team. And I think anyone who's played with her, or watched her play, or been able to coach her knows that – heartbeat on the field, but off the field too.”

But despite her decorated resume, Scott has endured numerous hardships on and off the field over the past couple of years.

She missed all of 2023 rehabbing a knee injury, and after captaining the Current in the 2022 season, Scott has had to fight for playing time this year. She has not started a game and has accumulated just 127 minutes in 11 regular-season appearances.

After going through the first major injury of her career, Scott said she wanted to prove to herself that she could come back from it and return to the pro level. But at 37, she admits that the process has been difficult.

“I think that was maybe the hardest thing for me – getting back to that peak level of fitness that you need to be at to compete at this level,” she said. “And nothing replicates that like in-game minutes, and I wasn't getting a lot of that either. So, it was just hard for me to really push to the calibre that I know I can and wanted to be at.”

She has also had to navigate the difficulty of losing her mother, Charlene, earlier this year.

“All of those things were kind of a culmination of the last year and a half of just having a hard year,” she said. “I guess the mental fatigue was there as well, just with a lot of things weighing on me and my heart off-field that kind of – not distracted me from the game, but just put me in a difficult mental space to really continue on the path.”

Her situation with the national team did not provide any alleviation. After missing out on the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the first major tournament she has not played in during her career, Scott was determined to make the roster for this year’s Paris Olympics. But in another blow, she was not one of the 18 players named to the team, although she was later brought in as an alternate after a roster shuffle due to injury.

“Full transparency and honesty, it was very tough for me when you are used to a role of having impact, regular minutes, being on a roster,” she said. “To then come back through injury, get fit, and then to not make the roster was very heartbreaking. I was devastated.”

Despite the difficulties of the change, Scott embraced her new role, knowing it could very well be her last time with the national team. She was part of the leadership group that helped the players navigate a tumultuous Olympics, thanks to sanctions handed out after allegations of spying by members of the staff.

Scott referred to it as her “proud mom era,” and her cheering from the stands during Canada’s matches could often be heard on the broadcasts.

“I never saw the pitch, but you heard me, you felt my presence, and I was just there to support the team in any way possible,” she said.

But even before her omission from the Olympic roster, Scott felt like her time with the national team was drawing to a close. Fellow veterans like Christine Sinclair, Sophie Schmidt and Erin McLeod had all moved on. They would joke in their group chat that Scott needed to hold it down for the vets.

“It's definitely different when your friends start to retire or are not in the environment,” she said. “I get along with anyone on our team. I love my team, but those are my people that I grew up with playing on that team.”

Scott recalls an instance in one of her last camps during an off day. Usually, she said her phone would be blowing up with texts asking where they would go for coffee. But on that day, her phone was silent.

“That was a big realization, like, ‘Okay, you are the last one here standing,’” she said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, it's time.’ You just kind of get a vibe.”

While Scott never garnered the amount of headlines as fellow veteran Sinclair, she came to quickly embrace the unsung hero role as a defensive midfielder. She first joined the national team in 2010 and started her career as an attacker, but she was thrust into the No. 6 position during the 2011 Pan Am Games after an injury.

“I just felt like it was an ‘Aha’ moment of like, ‘Yeah, this is where I belong,’” she said. “I was able to connect. I was able to break up play. I was able to enjoy the position and the work that it entailed.”

That gritty work would soon come to define her career, but it was in the 2012 London Games that Scott made a name for herself – literally, as The Destroyer moniker was born from that tournament. Despite her diminutive stature at 5-foot-3, Scott’s alternate persona became synonymous with merciless tackles and body-on-the-line defensive plays.

She played every minute for Canada at that tournament, and while Matheson may be remembered for scoring the winner in the bronze-medal match, that moment would not have been possible if Scott hadn’t made a goal-line clearance in the 70th minute.

“One of the best sixes this world has ever seen,” McLeod, Canada’s starting goalkeeper in the London Games and Scott’s teammate for over 10 years, told TSN. “The name The Destroyer I think is pretty darn accurate. Her presence on the field, her work rate, was second to none.”

Scott became a fixture at major tournaments for Canada. She started all but one game at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups combined, as well as starting in five of Canada’s six matches at the Tokyo Games, playing every minute of the knockout round en route to winning gold.

As she reflects on her career, she admits it’s exceeded her wildest expectations.

“Did I ever think I would be sort of a mainstay in that team? No, and I just think that's kind of what kept me going and motivated. I wanted to continue to be that rock for my team,” she said.

Kansas City made sure to give Scott her flowers – literally and figuratively – as she was honoured at the team’s last regular season game at home on Oct. 19. Her teammates wore T-shirts sporting moments from The Destroyer’s club career, and fans were given pink headbands, a signature accessory for Scott.

“It was an unforgettable day,” she said. “I'm a pretty humble person, and I don't like to be the centre of attention, but at the same time, I think I have had an amazing career that deserves to be celebrated a little bit…. To get my flowers and just kind of take a look at the impact I've had I think is something that I needed, because sometimes you forget where you've been and what you've given to the sport.”

Scott played with the first NWSL club in Kansas City in 2013. She recalls having to change in her car after games, with the team playing in a high school football stadium. Fast forward to today, where the Current started the season with the opening of CPKC Stadium, the first stadium built specifically for a women’s professional team.

“Did I ever think we could get here in those early days? No, but as you're living through it, the years go by, you're seeing the investment continue. You're seeing fans continue to show. The brand starts to take form,” Scott said.

While her on-field persona as The Destroyer may be diminished this season, Scott is more than happy to embrace her role as hype woman. Despite her menacing nickname, her upbeat personality keeps the mood light for her teammates and friends.

“She's been tremendous in the environment, and she sets a tone in different ways,” Vlatko Andonovski, head coach of the Current, told the media last month. “She probably didn't get as many minutes this season, but her experience and her presence in training, around the team, in the locker room, is tremendous. She has so much to do with the success that we have had this season.”

Once this NWSL season ends, Scott will return home to Winnipeg to be closer to her family, including her foster brother, DeeJay, who she formally adopted in 2021. Scott bought a house in her hometown a year ago but has yet to unpack, so she’s looking forward to settling down and hanging Christmas decorations.

After that, she plans to stay close to the game and mentions a possible involvement in the upcoming Northern Super League, the first women’s professional soccer league in Canada that’s set to kick off in April.

Scott is a proud Manitoban who spent five seasons playing at the University of Manitoba, making her one of the only national team standouts who spent their collegiate career in Canada.

While she has hopes of helping to bring a professional team to Winnipeg, she also said she received some “good offers” from several NSL clubs and seriously considered extending her playing career in the new domestic league, hinting that the door may not be completely closed on that option.

“Having a league in Canada has been a dream for years for a lot of us national team players,” she said. “Have I completely made a decision? No, but that's kind of as much as I can say there. Still percolating.”

In the meantime, Scott is focused on getting the Current an NWSL championship. Two years ago, she captained her club to the championship game, ultimately losing to Sinclair’s Portland Thorns.

This year, whether she’s The Destroyer or Hype Woman, Scott is going all in.

“Man, that's the one thing I don't have,” she said. “So let's go.”