Christine Sinclair’s Canadian career is over, but her impact will be felt for generations

Before Christine Sinclair’s last game for Canada on Tuesday night, 190 youth soccer players walked in long lines onto the field, one for each of her 190 international goals. They wore red jerseys like hers, some of them down to their knees, 190 little Christine Sinclairs.

Their idol stood nearby, at the centre of the pitch, looking up at the big screen at Vancouver’s BC Place, renamed Christine Sinclair Place for the night for good measure.

A tribute video included grainy footage from 2000, when she made her national-team debut. She was 16 years old, not much older than the chorus of admiring girls in front of her. Tears filled her eyes, seeing so many versions of her younger self.

Today she is 40, and her final appearance, a friendly against Australia not far from her hometown of Burnaby, B.C., took place in higher definition. Canada won, 1-0, and 48,112 fans — the largest for a women’s soccer friendly in Canadian history — saw it with the clarity that only time brings.

WATCH | Sinclair honoured in pre-game ceremony:

It’s hard to encapsulate such an enormous career. Sinclair played for her country 331 times over more than 23 years, which somehow feels like forever and an instant.

Her 190 international goals are the most for any soccer player in history. She scored her first on March 4, 2000, when she was that 16-year-old on the big screen. It came in only her second official game, against Norway at the Algarve Cup.

She scored her last on July 5, 2022, when she was 39 years old, against Trinidad and Tobago at the CONCACAF W Championship. That was in her 311th game.

In between, she scored against 40 more countries.

WATCH | Sinclair plays part on Canada’s winning goal:

Christine Sinclair on pitch for Canada’s match-winning goal against Australia

Quinn lifts Canada to a 1-0 victory over Australia in Christine Sinclair’s final international match of her career.

She didn’t score against Australia, but Canada’s only goal came from Quinn after Sinclair leapt into the air to flick on a corner kick, earning her one last meaningful touch. It was fitting that it was with her head, and she had to fight for it.

When Sinclair sat down with the CBC Sports before the game, she was asked how she’d like to be remembered.

She really did give us everything she had. She has always been intensely private with deep reserves of public resolve. She looked emptied of it when she finally walked off the turf.

She was substituted in the 57th minute — after all the hugs, it was the 59th by the time she came off — and she didn’t cry when she removed her captain’s armband and put it on her friend and fellow retiree Sophie Schmidt. She smiled, and applauded the standing crowd, and staggered toward the bench, finished.

WATCH | Sinclair acknowledged by crowd as she subs off for final time:

Christine Sinclair exits final international match of career to standing ovation

Canadian soccer icon Christine Sinclair is substituted out of the match for the last time of her international career. Sophie Schmidt, who’s also playing her final match for Canada, replaces Sinclair on the pitch.

The game continued without her. It wouldn’t be long before the clock struck midnight, and Christine Sinclair Place became BC Place again. Like all glories, the honour was fleeting. Like all sporting greatness, the gift was temporary. Nobody plays forever. Every winning streak ends.

But the greatest athletes play so well, for so long, they become something like permanent. We turn them into statues and plaques. We hang their numbers from rafters and put their names on walls. Sometimes, we afford them lifelong places in our hearts.

WATCH | Sinclair reacts to retirement message from Ryan Reynolds:

Christine Sinclair reacts to retirement message from Ryan Reynolds

Wrexham AFC co-owner and Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds sends heartwarming message to Christine Sinclair upon retirement from Canadian women’s national team.

After one last professional season with the Portland Thorns, and maybe a little vacation, Sinclair will assume her role in the athletic afterlife. She’s said she’d like to coach someday. She will continue to fight for equality, to raise up the women’s game.

She will be quiet about her work. Whenever she hears applause again, she will be embarrassed by it. She deflected attention from the beginning of her special night. Every one of Sinclair’s teammates wore her No. 12 during warmups. She wore Schmidt’s No. 13.

Her future influence will be equally subtle, a careful, gentle accumulation of contributions. It will surface in glimpses and flashes — best seen through her generations of aspirants.

There were far more than 190 of them watching her on Tuesday night. They were there by the thousands, wearing her name across their narrow shoulders, the stadium lights reflected in their shining eyes.

That’s the real reward for the best of us. We tell our children to try to be like them, and from now on, whenever a girl grows up to be a woman who makes up her mind to play like Christine Sinclair, there she will be, making us proud again.

WATCH | Sinclair reflects on record-breaking career:

Christine Sinclair reflects on record-breaking career

The all-time international goal scorer sits down with CBC Sports’ Andi Petrillo ahead of her final two matches in a Canada jersey.