Portland Thorns great Christine Sinclair announces retirement

We have breaking news right now. Portland soccer fans knew this day would come, and now we know that Christine Sinclair is going to call it a career at season's end. The Thorns' all-time leading goal scorer just announced on social media her intentions to retire at the end of the year. The captain is the queen of goals as the club's all-time scoring leader in her 12 seasons for the Thorns. That's nearly half of her 25-year professional career that spanned the globe. Sinclair holds the all-time international goal scoring lead as well for any woman or man who's ever played. The 41-year-old has been a mainstay in Portland for more than two decades. She played a starring role on both of the Portland Pilots' NCAA National Championships, where she was a consensus All-American and twice named the top player in the country. Then came the league's best three NWSL titles. Born and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia, Sinclair retired from the Canadian national team a year ago after playing in six World Cups and four Olympic Games. Fox News' Nick Krupke spoke with Sinclair three summers ago to discuss her impact on the game in North America and beyond after returning from Tokyo with gold to go along with her two prior bronze medals with Team Canada. You've seen a lot. You've been through a lot. You've empowered so many. You've inspired so many. Between kids in Portland, adults in Portland, and back home in Burnaby and across Canada, what's the significance for you to have such an impact on so many people? I mean, I think it's like my biggest role. It's my biggest job is to try and, I don't know, like inspire, inspire the youngsters. Whether it was back in London, our whole goal as a team was to inspire the next generation. And now I'm playing with players on the national team that have told me that they've watched those games in London and in that moment wanted to play for Canada. Yeah, so, yeah, you know you're doing something right, but I don't know, I just want to help the game grow. I want to help young girls in Canada like dream crazy dreams. And now some of them are coming true. It's pretty special. I mean, I remember watching the 99 World Cup here and sat right up there and that's where my life changed. And that's, you know, I knew that's what I wanted to do. And so now to have teammates that have that same experience is pretty cool. Well, listen, when they make the statue of Christine Sinclair here on Providence Park, they're going to make it in gold. Thank you very much. So it better not be a statue. Oh, Sinclair and the Thorns have three more regular season home matches. First on October 5th, then again on the 11th before fan appreciation night and an evening to honor her on Friday, November 1st. So mark your calendars. The Thorns are currently in seventh place with a road match on Saturday in San Diego. The top eight clubs make the NWSL post-season. Three of Portland's last five games will be at home. But once again,