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Christine Sinclair (born June 12 , 1983 in Burnaby, British Columbia ) is a Canadian Soccer player. She is a Striker for the National Team and the women's section of the Vancouver Whitecaps in the W-League , the de facto top-level league in North American women's soccer. Sinclair completed an extremely successful College career at the University Of Portland with a National Championship in 2005 , her second with the Pilots. She is already second all-time in goals scored for the Canadian national team; her 53 (as of December 4 , 2005 ) trails only Charmaine Hooper . Sinclair proved herself to be a potential star from childhood, as she was first selected to British Columbia 's under-14 girls' all-star team at age 11. She went on to lead club teams to six league titles, five provincial titles, and two top-five national finishes, as well as leading her high school team at Burnaby South Secondary School to three league championships. She also played for Canada's under-18 national team before making her debut at senior level in the 2000 Algarve Cup , leading Canada in goal scoring at that event with three. In 2001 , she arrived at the University of Portland, and made an immediate impact on that already-strong program. She had 23 goals and 8 assists, leading all freshmen in NCAA Division I in total scoring, was named Freshman of the Year by ''Soccer America'' magazine, and was a consensus All-America. She was also very active internationally during this time. In 2002 , she scored seven goals in the Women's Gold Cup, tying her for the tournament lead with Hooper and The USA's Tiffeny Milbrett , a Portland alum. Also in 2002, she played for Canada in the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship . Sinclair's 10 goals in the tournament, still a record, helped lead Canada to a surprising second-place finish, and earned her both the Golden Boot as leading scorer and Golden Ball as tournament MVP. In the 2002 college season for Portland, she led Division I in goals with 26. Her last two goals were in that season's national championship game against conference rival Santa Clara , the second of which was a Golden Goal that gave the Pilots the national championship. Sinclair earned three different national Player of the Year honors, and was a finalist for the Hermann Trophy , the most prestigious Player of the Year award in college soccer. She was also West Coast Conference Player of the Year, and was again a consensus All-American. In the wake of her success for Canadian national teams and in U.S. college soccer, she was also named by '' The Globe And Mail '' ( Toronto ) as one of the 25 most influential people in Canadian sports in 2002. Sinclair chose to redshirt in 2003 in order to play for Canada at the Women's World Cup . She scored three goals in that tournament as Canada finished a better-than-expected fourth. She returned to Portland in 2004 , scoring 22 goals that season, and was again named WCC Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. She also won the Hermann Trophy that season. Her 2005 senior season at Portland proved to be historic, as she set an all-time Division I goal-scoring record with 39. Sinclair capped off her career for the Pilots with two goals in a 4-0 rout of UCLA in the national title game. This performance also gave her a career total of 25 goals in NCAA tournament play, also a record. She was again named WCC Player of the Year, becoming only the second player in conference history to be so honored three times. Sinclair was also named Academic All-American of the Year by '' ESPN The Magazine '' (she graduated with a 3.75 Grade Point Average in life sciences). She also won the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy, becoming only the fourth player and third woman to win it in back-to-back years. As a result of her record-setting season, Sinclair went on to win the Honda-Broderick Cup as the college woman athlete of the year. She became the third soccer player to win the award, joining Mia Hamm and Cindy Daws. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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