Newsmaker: Christine Sinclair (Canada)

By Jesse Campigotto

If Canada is to make a run at its first FIFA Women's World Cup crown, there's no question about who will have to be the queen of the pitch.

Christine Sinclair, the high-scoring forward who serves as the team's captain and undisputed best player, will carry the hopes of her country on her lanky frame when Canada begins play on Sept. 12 in Hangzhou, China, against Norway.

And with good reason. At 24 years of age, the five-foot-nine forward from Burnaby, B.C., is already the Canadian women's team's all-time leading scorer with a remarkable 79 goals in 100 games.

Buoyed by Sinclair's blistering offensive output, the national team heads into China ranked a best-ever ninth in the world, fuelling hope that the team is poised to improve on its fourth-place finish at the 2003 World Cup and, if it gets the right bounces, maybe even win the whole thing.

"We did pretty well at the 2003 World Cup," Sinclair told CBCSports.ca in March. "I think for most people, unexpectedly, we did quite well when we finished fourth. So we have a lot to prove this September."

While Canada remains below the United States, Germany and Sweden in the world pecking order, it boasts in Sinclair a player who belongs in any discussion of the best female players on the globe.

Going back at least to her days on the Canadian youth team, where she racked up 22 goals in 15 caps and won top scorer and MVP honours at the 2002 FIFA U-19 championship, Sinclair has dominated at every level.

During a remarkable U.S. collegiate career at the University of Portland, she potted 110 goals, including an NCAA Division I record 39 in 2005. Sinclair led Portland to a national title that year, as she did in 2002, and won back-to-back Hermann trophies as the top female player in American college soccer in 2004 and 2005.

Sinclair didn't miss a beat upon going pro, capturing MVP honours in the 2006 W-League championship tournament as she propelled the Vancouver Whitecaps to the league title. And she's been just as brilliant on the international stage, earning the Canadian Soccer Association's women's player of the year award in 2005 and 2006 while making the short list for FIFA world player of the year in each of those seasons. In June of this year, Sinclair blew past Charmaine Hooper's Canadian women's record of 71 career goals by booting home a pair in an international friendly against New Zealand.

No surprise then that Sinclair's teammates will be looking for her to lead them to the promised land in China, something the soft-spoken captain is more likely to do by example than with a fire-and-brimstone speech in the dressing room.