Canada's Christine Sinclair (right) celebrates with Julia Grosso, who scored the winning penalty kick goal against Sweden, during the women's soccer gold medal game at the Tokyo Olympics in Yokohama, Japan on Aug. 6, 2021. The star Canadian soccer player has announced her retirement. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Canada captain Christine Sinclair has announced plans to retire from international soccer at the end of the year. A look at her glittering resume.
– Sinclair is the world’s all-time leading goal-scorer with 190 in 327 international appearances. That earned her The Best FIFA Special Award in January 2022.
– Sinclair has won Canada Soccer’s female player of the year 14 times – including a stretch of 11 straight years from 2004 to 2104 – and led the national team in scoring 16 years.
– She led Canada to bronze, bronze and gold medals at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games
– In December 2019, she was named the Canada Soccer player of the decade. Steven Reed, Canada Soccer’s then-president, called Sinclair “a once-in-a-generation athlete that has been at the heart of Canadian sport for over 20 years.”
– In 2012, Sinclair won both the Lou Marsh Trophy (Canadian athlete of the year, now known as the Northern Star Award) and The Canadian Press Female Athlete of the Year Award.
– Canada’s flag-bearer at the London Olympics’ closing ceremony in 2012, the veteran forward is a four-time finalist for FIFA World Player of the Year.
– Sinclair is also the first soccer player appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the first to have her name engraved on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
– The Burnaby, B.C., product twice won the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy as the top NCAA women’s soccer player while at the University of Portland.
– She won WPS club titles with FC Gold Pride and the Western New York Flash in 2010 and 2011, and the NWSL championship in 2013, 2017 and 2022 with the Portland Thorns.
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This story by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2023
