Canada captain Christine Sinclair will wrap up her international career in December with two games in her backyard.
Sinclair announced plans last week to retire from international football at the end of the year but will spend one more season with her club team, the NWSL’s Portland Thorns.
First up for the 40-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., are two games against No. 9 Brazil, on Saturday in Montreal and Oct. 31 in Halifax. Sinclair is the world’s all-time leading goal-scorer with 190 goals in 327 appearances.
WATCH | Sinclair always came up big when it mattered most:
Featured VideoChristine Sinclair saved some of her best performances for the Olympics; moments that helped Canada reach new heights.
Canada has an all-time 8-8-3 record against Australia, which finished fourth at the World Cup after losing 2-0 to Sweden in the bronze-medal game and 3-1 to England in the semifinal.
The Canadians had beaten Australians in three straight games prior to the World Cup loss.
The Olympic champion Canadians are coming off a 4-1 aggregate victory over Jamaica in a September Olympic qualifying playoff series.
Brazil, which like Canada failed to survive the group round at the World Cup, has already qualified for the Paris Olympics. Australia begins its Olympic qualifying campaign in this month’s international window with games against Iran, the Philippines and Taiwan.
WATCH | Epic 2012 Olympic performance cemented Sinclair’s legend:
Featured VideoThe performance of Sinclair and the rest of the Canadian team helped ignite a passion for women’s soccer in Canada. The team went on to win bronze after a hard-fought loss to their rivals, the United States, an achievement no Canadian team had accomplished at a Summer Olympics since 1936.
Australia coach Tony Gustavsson’s 23-player roster for the Asian qualifiers features 21 members of the World Cup squad, including captain Sam Kerr and vice-captain Steph Catley. The new faces are under-23 internationals Amy Sayer and Charlie Rule.
The Nigeria games were part of a “celebration tour” to honour the Olympic champions.
Canada’s 2-0 win at B.C. Place on April 8, 2020, served as a celebration for Sinclair setting the goal-scoring record. Three days later, Sinclair added to her total with a goal in Canada’s 2-2 comeback draw with the Super Falcons.
WATCH | Sinclair becomes all-time goal-scoring leader:
Featured VideoCanadian Christine Sinclair scores the 185th goal of her career, passing American Abby Wambach on the all-time goals list.