Christine Sinclair, the top goal scorer in international soccer, has announced she will retire from the Canadian national team at the end of this season.
Sinclair, 40, announced her decision Thursday night on Instagram in a video that showed a pair of cleats swinging in the breeze on a goal.
Sinclair has scored 190 international goals, most among both men and women, since she made her national team debut in 2000.
She is among just five players to appear in six Women’s World Cups, and one of just three players to score in five. But a title in soccer’s biggest tournament eluded her.
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She has won a pair of Olympic bronze medals and won Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games.
She scored the game winner over Brazil for the bronze medal at the 2016 Brazil Olympics.
She was on the University of Portland’s two NCAA championship teams and has played since 2013 for the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League.
“Very few players can lace up their boots and transcend a sport both in this country and globally. Sinc has done just that — both as a player and a person. She is known and admired by all Canadians and has been pivotal in every single country stopping moment,” Canadian coach Bev Priestman said in a statement Friday. “I feel very fortunate and privileged to have worked with Sinc, the greatest of all time, not only in what she has done but in how she has done it.”
There are just two international windows left this year. Canada plays Brazil on Oct. 28 in Montreal and Oct. 21 in Halifax.
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