It's time for Christine Sinclair's last waltz

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Friday night on Vancouver Island, the most prolific player in Canadian soccer history begins the final leg of her farewell tour.

Christine Sinclair, the longtime captain of Canada's Olympic-champion women's national team and the all-time leading goal scorer in all of international soccer, will play in a pair of exhibition matches over five days near her hometown of Burnaby, B.C., and then retire from the Canadian team.

Sinclair's last waltz starts Friday night against Australia in Langford, B.C., and finishes Tuesday night vs. the Aussies at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium. The first match, at 6,000-seat Starlight Stadium, is sold out, while more than 40,000 tickets have reportedly been sold for Sinclair's final curtain call at one of Canada's largest venues, which will be temporarily renamed Christine Sinclair Place for the occasion.

Sinclair, 40, joined the senior national team in 2000, when she was just 16, and scored three goals in her first tournament. She went on to play in 329 matches for Canada and pile up 190 international goals — more than Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Pelé, Abby Wambach, Mia Hamm or any other soccer player in history. Sinclair has appeared in six of the nine Women's World Cups held to date, helping Canada reach the semifinals in 2003 in the United States and the quarterfinals in 2015 in Canada.

Sinclair does not seek the spotlight, but her potent blend of talent, toughness and determination grabbed Canadians' attention at the 2011 World Cup in Germany, where she scored on a brilliant free kick in front of more than 70,000 fans in Canada's