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In 250 internationals for Canada, she has scored 165 goals, nine during four World Cup tournaments where the elite of the elites compete, and another 11 during three Olympic Games. Her importance to Canada, now ranked fourth in the world, can be summed up with two numbers: in 12 World Cup qualifying matches, Sinclair scored 15 goals; in 18 Olympic qualifying matches, she scored 17. She ranks second overall in the world for goal scoring, only 19 behind U.S. star Abby Wambach, who is now retired. Sinclair is 33.

Perhaps that is why Hope Solo, the flamboyant, often-provocative goaltender for the U.S. team that has been Canada’s nemesis, was uncharacteristically humble when she told the CBC that “Christine Sinclair is the best player in the world. You don’t always see how brilliant she is because she doesn’t always have the support players. … She reads the game, she passes, she gets assists, and she’s dangerous every time she gets the ball.”

Sinclair has been nominated as FIFA’s world player of the year eight times; every professional team for which she has played has won its league championship; she has been honoured with the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year and the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award for female athlete of the year; she has two Olympic medals.

It is a stunning athletic record for the modest superstar born in Burnaby in 1983 to Bill and Sandra Sinclair, a little sister for brother Michael. She began playing soccer at the age of four because she wanted to do everything her brother did. She gets pumped up for games listening to Michael Jackson. She puts on her gear left side first. She graduated from the University of Portland and has an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University.

“I’m not a rah-rah person,” she once said. “I do my talking on the field.”

As her record shows, she doesn’t exactly whisper.

shume@islandnet.com