Canadian striker Christine Sinclair has beaten the all-time International goals record for both men and women’s international football.
She has leapfrogged of retired American Abby Wambach on 185 goals after scoring twice in the first 20 minutes as Canada defeated Saint Kitts and Nevis 11-0 in a 2020 Olympic qualifier.
The highest goal scorer in the men’s category in international football is Iran’s Ali Daei on 109 goals.
Sinclair, 36, was making her 290th international appearance when she reached the historical feat.
“I remember starting my career and thinking, ‘I have so many goals to get to’ but sort of having my eye on the record as a 16-year-old,” Sinclair told BBC Sport last year as she played at her fifth World Cup.
| All-time top goalscorers in international football (*still playing) | |
|---|---|
| 1) Christine Sinclair* (Canada) – 185 | 6) Carli Lloyd* (USA) – 122 |
| 2) Abby Wambach (USA) – 184 | 7) Julie Fleeting (Scotland) – 116 |
| 3) Mia Hamm – (USA) – 158 | 8) Marta* (Brazil) – 112 |
| 4) Kristine Lilly (USA) – 130 | 9) Patrizia Panico (Italy) – 110 |
| 5) Birgit Prinz (Germany) – 128 | 10) Ali Daei (Iran) -109 |
Sinclair began her career in Vancouver but in the past 10 years had played in the United States, playing for Gold Pride, Western New York Flash and Portland Thorns.
The Canadian broke the record for most goals scored at the Olympic in London 2012 hitting a hat-trick in a 4-3 semi-final defeat by the USA before picking up a bronze medal, scoring six goals in total.
At the end of the tournament, she was Canada’s flag bearer and 4 years later she got them to another third-place finish.
Sinclair who is Canada’s most capped footballer and is gearing up to compete in this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. Only 12 players have scored more goals at the women’s World Cup than her despite only going beyond the quarter-finals on one occasion.
Sinclair’s goals-per-game ratio and the women’s World Cup is lower than some of our rivals at 0.48 goals per game compared with Marta’s 0.85 and Rapinoe’s 0.53.