The history of Canadian soccer can be thought of a long wandering through the desert from which we have only begun to emerge over the last decade or so. This view is simplistic in that Canada did reach the 1986 World Cup and did win the 2000 Gold Cup. However, neither triumph proved a catalyst for the level of growth we are seeing today. They never felt truly sustainable. Fast forward to 2023 and we have a Canadian men’s team fresh off of reaching the World Cup for the first time since 1986 and gearing up to host in 2026. We hear talk of Canada playing in Copa America and of players playing the Champions League for some of the best clubs in Europe.
These developments were not fostered in a vacuum. They were the product of earlier triumph, and many of these were on the often neglected female side of the game. A consistent track record of triumphs by the Canadian women’s teams made our nation believe that we could play winning soccer. Note, many of those triumphs had one common denominator. And so we come to the subject of today’s article. In a cryptic social media post featuring hanging soccer boots, Christine Sinclair hinted at what she later announced, her international retirement. We often say it is the end of an era when a star athlete retires, but in this case it is so much more than just cliche. When she made her debut at age 16, she was a wonderkid to be sure, but few could have imagined the profound impact she would have on the game in her home country come the time to hang ‘em up two decades later.
For starters, as much as Canada has been a leader when it comes to women’s sports, the Canadian women’s soccer team was not exactly prominent in the sporting discourse of 2003. There was a Women’s World Cup that year in which Canada finished fourth, a result not achieved since. In a sign of things to come, the then teenage Sinclair netted two goals in the group stage and another in the third place playoff. By the time she posted the hung boots, she would have 190 international goals, the most ever by any player, male or female. Add to that the goals she’s scored at club level and you have a truly prolific scoring record. There are other honors that mark her as a member of the inner circle of Canadian sporting greats; a Lou Marsh Award, a Bobbie Rosenfeld award, star on Canada’s Walk Of Fame and membership of the Order Of Canada.
All this having been said though, the reason why Christine Sinclair became a transcendental figure in Canadian soccer is not so much the accumulation of personal accolades, but the era of consistent team success that she helped usher in. Unfortunately, she never did get to lift the World Cup, but Canada has been a consistent qualifier and fixture in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings over these twenty years. The Canadian women’s team did achieve something however that no Canadian team had ever achieved during her tenure, Olympic gold. Before that, there were two bronzes, the first of which was the first any Canadian team had won since the 1936 Berlin games. The 2012 bronze also featured the very peak of Sinclair the player and no doubt helped move the needle in her favor for the Lou Marsh Award. Repeating a bronze medal in Rio four years later showed that Canada was a veritable soccer power. The gold in Tokyo was the breakthrough that showed that Canadian soccer was here to stay and that the Canadian women really could be the best, not merely among the best. Yes, there were other stars by that point and Sinclair was arguably not the best player on the team anymore, but stars are not just measured by what they do individually but by the effect they have on those that come after them. And it is clear looking at the young talent coming along in the women’s game over the last decade that Canadian women’s soccer is in a good place. And as for coverage? We have come a long way since 2003. At this year’s World Cup, we saw wall-to-wall coverage for the women’s game across the major networks. Large corporate sponsors like CIBC and BMO want to see their logos associated with soccer and specifically with the Canadian women’s team. People across the country can recognize the names and faces that make up our national outfit like never before.
The men’s game too has benefited from the success over on the women’s side. As success on the women’s side helped the game grow in popularity, the men’s side found itself with a stronger following and as time would have it, a new, talented generation of stars that would have them do something that looked so remote and far-fetched in the 2000’s and 2010’s, reach the World Cup. And unlike 1986, this set of players is young and most likely has not yet peaked. Going into our World Cup in 2026, the panorama looks great for soccer in our country. You can see jerseys, hats and other apparel at shopping malls and grocery stores like never before. The young generation in particular is more enthusiastic about soccer than ever before, and that is very good.
As we look towards the future, we can see something of a demarcation line, a before and after, when looking at the trajectory of Canadian soccer. Like anything in history, it isn’t quite a neat line with a hard date or singular moment, but we can point to a key figure and it is this superstar player that never acted like one. Christine Sinclair never seemed to revel in the limelight, never courted controversy or notoriety, simply letting the goals and assists speak for themselves. She was a Canadian sports star that was quintessentially Canadian, and perhaps that is why she had and will continue to have a profound effect on the sports scene in this country. The future soccer stars in Canada, both male and female, will be measured against Burnaby’s great goalscorer.
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