Christine Sinclair

Christine Sinclair (born June 12, 1983 in Burnaby, British Columbia) is a Canadian soccer player. Sinclair is currently a striker for Canada and the Vancouver Whitecaps in the W-League, the de facto top-level league in North American women's soccer.

Youth

Sinclair is the niece of former Canadian international and NASL player Brian Gant. She proved to be a potential star at a very young age, as she was first selected to British Columbia's under-14 girls' all-star team at age 11. She went on to lead her club teams to six league titles, five provincial titles, and two top-five national finishes, as well as leading her high school team at Burnaby South Secondary School to three league championships. She played for Canada's under-18 national team before making her debut at senior level in the 2000 Algarve Cup, leading Canada in goal scoring at that event (3 goals).

Collegiate & International

In 2001, Christine arrived at the University of Portland where she made an immediate impact on an already formidable program. She recorded 23 goals and 8 assists in her first season, leading all freshmen in NCAA Division I total scoring. She was named Freshman of the Year by Soccer America magazine, and was a consensus All-America selection.

In 2002, she scored seven goals for Canada in the Women's Gold Cup, tying her for the tournament lead with teammate Charmaine Hooper and USA's Tiffeny Milbrett, a fellow Portland alumni. She played for Canada in the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship. Sinclair's 10 goals in the tournament, still a record, helped lead Canada to a surprising second-place finish, and earned her both the Golden Boot as leading scorer and Golden Ball as tournament MVP.

In the 2002 college season for Portland, she led Division I in goals with 26. Her last two goals were in that season's national championship game against conference rival Santa Clara, the second of which was a golden goal that gave the Pilots the national championship. Sinclair earned three different national Player of the Year honors, and was a finalist for the Hermann Trophy, the most prestigious Player of the Year award in college soccer. She was also West Coast Conference Player of the Year, and was again a consensus All-American. In the wake of her success for Canadian national teams and in U.S. college soccer, she was also named by The Globe and Mail (Toronto) as one of the 25 most influential people in Canadian sports in 2002.

Sinclair chose to redshirt in 2003 in order to play for Canada at the Women's World Cup. She scored three goals in that tournament as Canada finished a better-than-expected fourth. She returned to Portland in 2004, scoring 22 goals that season, and was again named WCC Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. She also won the Hermann Trophy that season.

Sinclair's senior year at Portland proved to be historic, as she set an all-time Division I goal-scoring record with 39. She capped off her collegiate career with two goals in a 4-0 rout of UCLA in the national title game. This performance also gave her a career total of 25 goals in NCAA tournament play, also a record. She was again named WCC Player of the Year, becoming only the second player in conference history to be so honored three times. Sinclair was also named Academic All-American of the Year by ESPN The Magazine (she graduated with a 3.75 grade point average in life sciences). She also won the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy, becoming only the fourth player and third woman to win it in back-to-back years. As a result of her record-setting season, Sinclair went on to win the Honda-Broderick Cup as the college woman athlete of the year. She became the third soccer player to win the award, joining Mia Hamm and Cindy Daws.

At the age of 24, she is already the all-time in leader goals scored for the Canadian national team with 84 (as of September 20, 2007). She earned her 100th cap on August 30, 2007 in a pre-World Cup friendly match against Japan.

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