Canada international Sinclair announces retirement

Canada women international and world’s all-time leading international goal scorer,Christine Sinclair has announced her retirement from the Canada women’s national team but said she still planned to play for Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) next seaso

The 40-year-old’s illustrious international career includes 190 goals for Canada in 327 games, an Olympic gold medal and six World Cup appearances.

“Honestly, you can’t play forever,” Sinclair told Reuters. “And this seems like a good time to be done.”

The forward, one of Canada’s most recognisable athletes, said her incredible run with the national team will end with a pair of send-off games during the Nov. 27 to Dec. 5 FIFA international window.

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“Canada Soccer is working on announcing more matches, which will be made public next week,” said Sinclair, the most-capped active women’s player. “The way the schedule is lining up, it’ll be a nice way to end it.”

Sinclair’s departure means she will not make a fourth Olympic appearance next year in Paris.

“After Tokyo, I knew I didn’t want to play in Paris,” Sinclair said. “And then I wanted to give the World Cup another shot [this year] just with our team’s lack of success in World Cups in general. So, I knew it was coming to an end just based on what I wanted to do in terms of a timeline.”

Canada’s World Cup ended in the group stage with a 4-0 thrashing by hosts Australia and Sinclair said she did not want her international career to end like that.

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“So, it was important to be part of the group trying to qualify for Paris, just to go out on a little bit better of a note than the World Cup,” she said.

Sinclair helped Canada clinch a Paris Olympic berth with a Sept. 26 win over Jamaica in Toronto.