The first time she laid eyes on Christine Sinclair, a few things struck Andrea Neil. First, she was sure she’d be seeing a whole lot more of her — and soon. Secondly, and not unrelated, Neil wondered how a youngster in her early teens could bring so much calm to the chaos of the youth soccer pitch in Dunbar-Southlands, in Vancouver’s west.
“My first impression with Christine was that you could recognize a remarkable player — at 13 or 14. She had a maturity and a calm about her that wasn’t just beyond her years but beyond any player at the time,” Neil recalls. “I remember reflecting then that it’s going to take a lot for this young one to be blocked from national team aspirations. At 13 and 14 she showed a knack of knowing how to create and have vision.
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