Over the next few weeks, Oregonians will have their last chance to watch a one-of-a-kind legend.
With Christine Sinclair announcing her retirement at the end of the current Portland Thorns season, the farewell tour can begin, culminating in her final match with the Thorns on Nov. 1.
And if any player deserves the accolades, it’s “Sinc.”
Over the 20-plus years, she has left a lasting mark on the Oregon sports scene. It’s not an understatement to say that women’s soccer would not be in the place it is today without Sinclair.
From a statistical standpoint, there will never be another like her, and this isn’t even a full list of her achievements because that would take up the rest of this article:
- Three NWSL Championships with the Thorns
- Two League titles in its predecessor league, Women’s Professional Soccer
- One Olympic Gold and two bronze medals
- Canada’s all-time leading goal scorer (women and men)
- Two-time collegiate Mac Hermann Trophy winner
- Two-time national champion in college
While she made her way to international fame playing for her home country of Canada, Sinclair has been a hero in Portland since her arrival. Playing for legendary coach Clive Charles, Sinclair brought home the University of Portland’s first team sport national title with a dramatic sudden-death goal in overtime against Santa Clara in 2002.
From that moment on, there was never a doubt she would be a star.
She would lead the Pilots to another national title in 2005 while setting a single-season goal-scoring record. She made her World Cup debut before graduating, taking a redshirt year to feature for the Canadian team in 2003, even playing a match (a 1-0 victory over China) in Portland. She would go on to captain the team through lows (a winless performance in the 2011 World Cup) to highs (a gold medal in the 2020 Olympics, and everything in between. That included what may be the most incredible women’s soccer game ever seen, the 2012 Olympic semi-finals between the United States and Canada, in which Sinclair scored a hat trick, only for the U.S to score a late equalizer on a penalty kick granted for time wasting by Canada and for the Americans to go on to win in extra time.
Sinclair and the Canadians would get their revenge with a semi-final win over the Americans in 2020 to win Sinclair her first Olympic gold.
She has been a rock wherever she has played, helping to steady teams buffeted by storms. She helped the Canadian team through some of its lowest points and has similarly been a steady presence for the Thorns through the highs of championships to the lows of scandals and coaching changes. While she may not be as fast or as physical as she was in her younger days, she has never stopped grinding. She has remained intensely private throughout her career but has never hesitated to advocate for equal play and playing conditions in women’s soccer.
She has never hesitated to show emotion on the pitch, screaming out of the net after knocking in the game-winner in the 2002 national title. Still, she has always tried to give credit to others and has spent much of the last half of her career trying to set the stage for others to build on what she has achieved. To be fair, she has always been that way. In 2003, while she was on break from the University of Portland to play for Canada, I interviewed her following Canada’s win over China in Portland. The interview aimed to talk about Sinclair and how it was playing back in Portland. Instead, she wanted to talk about the rest of their team, their mutual success, and how great it was to be back in front of Portland fans again.
That’s how you can tell a true leader – when allowed to talk about themselves, they instead want to build up everyone around them. And that is what Sinclair has been doing in Portland for the last two decades. To be sure, the success of the Thorns is due in no small part to her efforts. The legacy of success of University of Portland women’s soccer is due in no small part to her efforts. But she wouldn’t want to tout that.
Instead, just as she has done at every level, she would point to those who are taking up the mantle after she hangs up her boots. No North American player, women’s or men’s, may ever have the same lasting impact Sinclair will have had at the collegiate, club, and international levels.
Now Portland has the chance to say thank you to a legend for all that she has done.
And it’s a thanks she richly deserves.
