Christine Sinclair has been announced as the newest owner of Vancouver’s women’s professional soccer team.
Vancouver Rise FC says the 41-year-old Canadian soccer legend will join majority owner Greg Kerfoot ahead of the National Super League’s first season, starting in April.
Sinclair, who hails from Burnaby, B.C., announced last month she will retire from playing professional soccer later this year, following 11 seasons with the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League.
She ended her run with the national team last year after helping Canada win gold at the Tokyo Olympics and bronze at both the 2016 Games in Rio and the 2012 Games in London. She finished her international career as the world’s top goal scorer with 190 goals.
Sinclair says in a statement she is excited to share her passion to help Vancouver Rise grow, and wants “every little girl in British Columbia and Canada to be inspired to play or coach or manage.”
The Thorns are set to play the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite team in a CONCACAF W Champions Cup match at B.C. Place in Vancouver on Oct. 15 before closing out the regular season campaign on Nov. 1.
WATCH | 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.
Sinclair resumé
- Has won Canada Soccer’s female player of the year 14 times, including a stretch of 11 straight years from 2004 to 2015, and led the national team in scoring 16 years.
- In December 2019, named the Canada Soccer player of the decade. Steven Reed, Canada Soccer’s then-president, called Sinclair “a once-in-a-generation athlete that has been at the heart of Canadian sport for over 20 years.”
- In 2012, won both the Lou Marsh Trophy (Canadian athlete of the year, now known as the Northern Star Award) and The Canadian Press female athlete of the year award.
- Canada’s flag-bearer at the London Olympics’ closing ceremony in 2012, the veteran forward is a four-time finalist for FIFA world player of the year.
- The first soccer player appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the first to have her name engraved on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
- Won the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy as the top NCAA women’s soccer player while at the University of Portland.
- Won WPS club titles with FC Gold Pride and the Western New York Flash in 2010 and 2011, and the NWSL championship in 2013, 2017 and 2022 with the Portland Thorns.
- After announcing her retirement from international soccer, Sinclair played her final game with Canada, a 1-0 win over Australia in a friendly in front of 48,112 hometown fans at Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium on Dec. 5, 2023.
— The Canadian Press