Sinclair set to make milestone 50th home appearance in upcoming series in Montréal and Halifax

Story by Richard Scott.

Christine Sinclair will reach yet another milestone when she becomes the first player to make 50 career international “A” appearances in Canada. She recently made her 49th appearance when Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a 2:1 home win in Toronto. Her next home appearance should come as early as Saturday 28 October when Canada faces Brazil at Stade Saputo in Montréal.

Fans have just four more opportunities to watch Christine Sinclair in Canada colours before the end of the year, the 24th and last international season of her storied career. Canada have a two-match series against Brazil in Montréal and sold-out Halifax (Tuesday 31 October) followed by a two-match series with Australia on Vancouver Island (Friday 1 December) and mainland Vancouver (Tuesday 5 December). Tickets to the Montréal match are on sale now while tickets to the December matches are available starting Wednesday 25 October through a pre-sale window and continuing Monday 30 October with public on-sale date.

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.

Sinclair has played in 49 of Canada’s 58 international home matches since the turn of the century , sometimes only missing matches through illness, injury or school commitments. She made her international home debut way back on 30 June 2001 when she scored the 2:2 equaliser against the Americans in front of a sold-out crowd of 9,023 fans at Varsity Stadium, at the time largest attendance for a women’s football match in Canada. With Sinclair in the lineup, Canada have posted 29 wins, 11 draws and just nine losses against opponents from all six confederations from around the world. She has scored 29 goals at home and she has scored those goals in 20 matches (both numbers rank second all time behind Charmaine Hooper, who scored 33 home goals and scored those goals in 24 of her 42 home matches).

That home record doesn’t include her 15 matches as a youth player in 2002, with nine matches on tour across six provinces followed by six official matches at the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship. Sinclair scored 12 goals on the tour (including two hat tricks) plus 10 goals at the FIFA tournament. After 23,595 fans watched Sinclair scored five goals against England in the Quarterfinals, there were 37,194 fans at Commonwealth Stadium for the Semifinals plus another 47,784 fans for the Final (Canada lost to the Americans, but Sinclair took home both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot).

On 30 October 2002 (her third match at home), she scored her first home hat trick at Centennial Stadium in Victoria, British Columbia. She actually scored four goals that day as Canada won 11:1 over Haiti in their first of three group matches in Concacaf’s FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. She scored another two goals two days later in a 9:0 win over Jamaica, then scored again another two days later in a 3:0 win over Costa Rica. By finishing first in their group, Canada advanced to the Concacaf Semifinals and beat Mexico 2:0 in Seattle to qualify for the 2003 FIFA World Cup.

On 31 August 2003 (her sixth match at home), she scored a goal and two assists in a big 8:0 win over Mexico in a FIFA World Cup send-off match at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium. That match featured 29,953 fans in attendance, a new home record for a Women’s National Team (and the third-largest crowd ever for a Canadian women’s football match in Canada). Four days later, she scored a hat trick in a 6:0 win over Mexico at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, her first-ever Women’s National Team match in her hometown and her milestone 50th international “A” appearance across just four years as an international footballer.

In August 2006, she played her first two matches at King George V Park in St. John’s, Newfoundland, both a 0:0 and 1:1 draw with China PR (she did not score in the series). Then on 10 July 2008 in Toronto, she scored against Brazil and earned Player of the Match honours in an Olympic Send-Off Match in her first-ever match at the National Soccer Stadium (a 1:1 draw in her 14th home match).

In January 2012, she played five matches in Vancouver as Canada qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games. She scored four goals in the Concacaf Olympic Qualifiers opening match against Haiti (her first match at BC Place), then scored once against Cuba and twice against Costa Rica in the group phase. On 27 January 2012, she scored two goals in a 3:1 win over Mexico to qualify Canada for the London 2012 Olympic Games (Canada lost the Final, but Sinclair won the scoring race with nine goals in those first four matches).

On 6 June 2015, she scored her biggest goal on home soil in front of a Canadian record 53,058 fans at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 opener. Sinclair’s goal was the 1:0 winner in the 92nd minute and the crowd was the largest ever for a Canadian National Team of any sport and any gender for an in-stadia sporting event held in Canada. Needless to say, the crowd went wild when she scored the match winner from the penalty spot.

All five Canada matches at the home FIFA World Cup drew 35,000 or more spectators. The 6 June record in Edmonton was also broken twice at BC Place in Vancouver, with 53,855 fans at the Round of 16 match on 21 June and then 54,027 fans at the Quarterfinals match on 27 June.

Since the FIFA World Cup, every Sinclair home match has either drawn more than 10,000 spectators or (just once with a smaller venue) been sold out. That trend is expected to continue for Canada’s next four home matches in Montréal, Halifax, Langford and Vancouver. She has played in seven different Canadian provinces across her career, with Nova Scotia expected to be the eighth when Canada plays there at Halifax’s Wanderers Ground on Tuesday 31 October.

For those that can’t travel across Canada for some or all of Canada’s upcoming matches, rest assured that they will be broadcast live on OneSoccer, available on the fuboTV Canada platform, as a linear channel on Telus’s Optik TV (Channel 980), as well as online at OneSoccer.ca and through the OneSoccer app. Against Brazil, the Saturday 28 October match kicks off at 14.30 ET / 11.30 PT while the Tuesday 31 October match kicks off 18.30 ET / 15.30 PT. Fans will find extended coverage across Canada Soccer’s digital channels on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube featuring the hashtag #CANWNT.

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.

An Officer of 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.