Christine Sinclair, soccer’s ‘silent superstar,’ opens up about MS awareness, gender equality and using her voice

Not only is Christine Sinclair the most successful soccer player to ever compete for Canada, but the standout forward also stands atop one of the sport’s most notable all-time lists with 190 international goals scored. That’s 68 more goals than the men’s scoring leader, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, 88 more than seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, and six more than her next closest female player, USWNT legend Abby Wambach (184).

But we’re not surprised if you didn’t know this stat – or much else about Sinclair, for that matter. Known as a “silent superstar,” Sinclair does her best to avoid the spotlight. Yet ahead of her sixth FIFA Women’s World Cup appearance, the 39-year-old is sharing more than ever before, and she recently sat down with NBC Sports as part of its new 12-episode podcast, “My New Favorite Futbolista.” Hosted in English by World Cup champion Meghan Klingenberg and in Spanish by Mexico’s Janelly Farías, the podcast introduces listeners to the World Cup’s most inspiring players, their personal stories and the causes they’re fighting for off the pitch.

For Sinclair, those causes include pulling back the veil on life as a professional athlete, championing gender equality and spreading awareness about multiple sclerosis, a disease that her mother Sandra Sinclair battled for 40 years before her death in February 2022. She addressed both topics and more in her recent memoir, “Playing the Long Game,” which she penned following a triumphant performance for Team Canada at the Tokyo Olympics where the team won its first ever gold medal.

“As athletes, we kind of like just suffer in silence at times, and people just see what happens on the soccer field and they don’t see what goes on behind the scenes,” says Sinclair, who’s also a three-time Olympic medalist, 14-time Canadian Soccer Player of the Year, Concacaf champion and three-time NWSL champion with the Portland Thorns, with whom she’s played since 2013.

Born in Burnaby, British Columbia, Sinclair started playing soccer at just 4 years old, and she made her debut with the CWNT at age 16. But she wasn’t even 10 years old when she noticed her mom – who also served as her youth soccer coach – started having difficulty walking. When she was 12 or 13, Sinclair remember her mother revealing why.

“My brother and I were so young, we didn’t even know what it meant,” she recalls regarding her mother’s diagnosis. “And then at that time, you [couldn’t] just look at your phone and Google what ‘MS’ was. So, I didn’t understand what an MS diagnosis meant. All I could see was her physical capabilities being taken away from her; she was walking with a cane… At that moment in time, I didn’t know what that meant for the rest of her life.”

Sinclair also admits that she initially felt some embarrassment around the diagnosis as a child, but thanks to the support from her large, extended family and eventually some teammates who could empathize with having a parent with MS, she found her way past insecurity and into a role as a public advocate.

“I think MS is a disease a lot of the time that people suffer through in silence and suffer with in silence,” shares Sinclair. “People have heard of MS, but they don’t really know what it is. So for me, I just want people to know that they’re not alone.”

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To that end, she partnered with A&W Canada in 2017 as a spokesperson for the company’s annual “Burgers to Beat MS” campaign, and Sinclair also approached her mother about sharing Sandra’s battle with the disease in her memoir.

“I asked my mom for her permission because it’s ultimately her story to tell, and she was like, ‘Oh my God, do it,’” Sinclair remembers. “And yeah, it’s been one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.”

But writing her memoir wasn’t stress-free by any means. The normally fiercely private athlete described the process as “painful.”

“I’m not going to lie: There were days where I was like, ‘This is the last thing I want to do. I just want to plug out,’” she recalls. “Then there were days where time flew by and I was like, ‘Oh my God, we covered so much today.’ And it almost felt like therapy.”

When Sandra died in 2022 — just months before the memoir was published – Sinclair wrote the dedication to her mother, calling her “the strongest person I have ever known.”

“My mom lived with MS for 40 years and as a kid, just I saw her battle,” she says. “I saw her struggle. I saw her never give up. I saw her face the world bravely. She taught me a lot of perspective in life. And yeah, just those days when I thought I was having a bad day. In the grand scheme of things, I have nothing to complain about.”

This new-found perspective has translated into roles as a leader and mentor to teammates in the locker room and as a vocal champion for gender equality on the pitch. This includes as an advocate for the Canadian Soccer Players Association in ongoing negotiations with Canada Soccer over proposed cuts to both the women’s and men’s national team programs in 2023.

“Obviously this is not ideally where us players would like to be. We feel much more comfortable being on the soccer field and training and preparing for games,” Sinclair said while addressing the heritage committee of Canada’s Members of Parliament earlier this year.

“However, our team and the players on the team have a motto that when we joined the national team that when we leave the national team the sport will be in a better place than when we found it, and sitting here there is no greater honor to try to make change and significant change for the young kids in Canada. We are here to do right by them.”

My New Favorite Futbolista, hosted by World Cup champion Meghan Klingenberg and Mexico national team star Janelly Farías, will introduce you to more inspiring soccer players leading up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Check out the podcast feed or watch the video version on the NBC Sports YouTube page. For more on Christine Sinclair and other superstars expected to feature in World Cup action, stay tuned to On Her Turf all summer long.

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Christine Sinclair, soccer’s ‘silent superstar,’ opens up about MS awareness, gender equality and using her voice originally appeared on NBCSports.com