Olympic champion, world record holder and forever Canadian hero Christine Sinclair will play her last international match in 2023. It will mark the end to a remarkable 24-year international career in which Canada’s “Captain Everything” has both carried and transformed a nation like few other athletes in the history of Canadian sport.
Sinclair, a native of Burnaby, BC, played for Vancouver Breakers from 2001-02. The Breakers would then become the Vancouver Whitecaps, where Sinclair played again in the USL W-League from 2006-08. In total, Sinclair had 23 goals and 10 assists in 21 appearances. This included the 2006 season, where she led the team with 12 goals and four assists during an undefeated season that culminated with winning the W-League championship at Swangard Stadium.
Sinclair holds the world’s all-time international goalscoring record with 190 goals scored in all “A” matches and she has scored those goals in 22 different nations and against 43 opponents. In major competitions, she has scored 10 goals at the FIFA World Cup, 12 goals at the Olympic Games, and another 46 goals in all Concacaf competitions. In recognition of her world record, she was a recipient of The Best FIFA Special Award as well as the Canada Soccer President’s Award.
Since March 2000, Sinclair has made 327 career international “A” appearances, second most in the history of world football. She has captained Canada to a Concacaf Championship in 2010, a Pan American Games Gold Medal in 2011, back-to-back Olympic Bronze Medals in 2012 and 2016, and an Olympic Gold Medal in 2021. She has also helped Canada finish fourth at the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup and sixth at the record-setting FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada back in 2015.
An Officer in the Order of Canada, Sinclair is a 14-time Canada Soccer Player of the Year and a two-time Canadian Athlete of the Year. She was the Canada Soccer Player of the Decade from 2010 to 2019 and she was the captain of Canadian Team of the Year three times from 2012 to 2021. She is also an eight-time top-five finalist for The Canadian Press Athlete of the Year and a 10-time finalist for the FIFA World Player of the Year.
With just two international windows left on the FIFA calendar this year, fans will have just a few chances left to watch the iconic star in Canada colours before she says her goodbye. Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team play Brazil next in a two-match home series with both a date in Montréal at Stade Saputo on Saturday 28 October and then a date in Halifax at sold-out Wanderers Ground on Tuesday 31 October.
Sinclair’s next home match will be her milestone 50th international “A” appearance played in Canada since June 2001 when she scored the 2:2 match equaliser against the visiting Americans at Toronto’s old Varsity Stadium. She has featured in seven different provinces with Nova Scotia expected to become the eight Canadian province in which she has played an international “A” match. Along with the home FIFA World Cup in 2015, she has helped Canada qualify for two Olympic Games with the home crowd behind her: in January 2012 at Vancouver for the London 2012 Olympic Games and most recently in September 2023 at Toronto for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
