Cloé Zoé Eyja Lacasse (born July 7, 1993) is a Canadian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and the Canada national team.

Early life

Lacasse began playing soccer at age five with the Sudbury Canadians before moving on to Brampton Brams United in 2010. She attended

École secondaire Macdonald-Cartier École secondaire Macdonald-Cartier, in Sudbury, Ontario, opened its doors in 1969. École secondaire Macdonald-Cartier was the second public high school French language in Ontario to offer free education to all young francophones. The school i ...

, where she helped her team with the provincial

OFSAA The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) is an organization of student-athletes, teacher-coaches, student-coaches, teachers, principals, and sport administrators in Ontario, Canada. OFSAA is the second largest high school ath ...

championship twice in 2010 and 2011. In her youth, she made the national team for taekwondo, where she is a black belt, before deciding to focus solely on soccer at age 12.

College career

Lacasse began attending the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, where she played for the women's soccer team on a scholarship. In her freshman season in 2011, she led the team in scoring with 12 goals, appearing in all 20 of the team's games, also being named Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice, and was named the team's Most Valuable Offensive Player and to the Big Ten All Freshman Team. In 2012, she was named to the NSCAA All-Great Lakes Region second team and was the co-winner of Iowa’s Most Valuable Player award and was named team’s Offensive Player of the Year again. In 2013, she was a Second-team All-Big Ten selection and a Second Team NSCAA All-Great Lakes Region selection. In her senior season, she was named to the All Big Ten First Team and was also a First Team NSCAA All-Great Lakes Region, First Team All-Big Ten, was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament team, and was named Iowa’s Offensive MVP for a fourth straight season. Lacasse was the school's top scorer during all her four seasons there. She led the Hawkeyes to their first two Big Ten Tournament Championship games in her final two years at Iowa, and their first NCAA national tournament berth in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

. Lacasse finished her Iowa career tied for the school record with 112 points (43 goals and 26 assists), while ranking second all-time with 43 goals. She also finished tied for first in shots (306) and second in game-winning goals (13) and assists (26).

Club career

In 2012, Lacasse played with the

Toronto Lady Lynx Toronto Lady Lynx was a Canadian women's soccer team, founded in 2005. The team was a member of the USL W-League, formerly the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States and Canada. The team played in the Great Lakes Division of the Cent ...

in the USL W-League. After receiving offers to play for teams in the United States and Europe, Lacasse signed with Icelandic club ÍBV in the Úrvalsdeild kvenna in 2015. In 2016, she won the League Cup and in 2017, she won the Icelandic Cup with ÍBV. In 2018, the team were runner-ups in the

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

and she was named IBV's Player of the Year, and was she was named the league's best player by the newspaper

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. History ''Morgunblaðið'' was founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen and Ólafur Björnsson, brother of ...

Benfica

After being spotted by a Portuguese agent while playing in Iceland, Lacasse signed a two-year contract with in July 2019 with Portuguese club Benfica in the

Campeonato Nacional Feminino The Campeonato Nacional Feminino (English: Women's National Championship), also known as Liga BPI for sponsorship reasons, is the top-tier women's association football league in Portugal. It is run by the Portuguese Football Federation and began ...

. On November 17, 2021, she became the first player to score a goal for a Portuguese club in the group stage of the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

after scoring the opening goal in a 2-1 victory over

BK Häcken FF Bollklubben Häcken Fotbollsförening are a women's football club based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Founded in 1970 as Landvetters IF and known as Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC between 2004 and 2020, the club became the women's section of the men's club B ...

. In 2021, she extended her contract until 2024. With Benfica, she is a three-time

winner (2020–21, 2021–22, 2022-23), a three-time

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

winner (2020, 2021, 2022), and a two-time Supertaça de Portugal winner (2019, 2022). In the 2022-23 season, she was voted top player in the league by the players union. In her final season with the club, she scored 35 goals and added 18 assists in 43 games across all competitions. Over her four seasons, she scored over 100 goals and won eight trophies.

Arsenal

On 29 June 2023, Lacasse signed for

giants

. She called the move a "dream", citing a desire to be part of a team with strong internal competition for playing time. On 6 October 2023, Lacasse came on as a substitute in an away match against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, scoring her first Arsenal goal in second-half stoppage time to help salvage a point in a 2–2 draw. Lacasse scored a goal in the 3–1 victory against Manchester United in front of the first sold out crowd for a

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

match at

Emirates Stadium The Emirates Stadium (known as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Holloway, London, England. It has been the home stadium of Arsenal Football Club since its completion in 2006. It has a current seated capacity ...

International career

In August 2012, Lacasse attended a training camp with the Canada U20 team for the first time, but did not make the team's final roster for their upcoming matches. After being granted Icelandic citizenship in June 2019, the head coach of the Iceland national team, Jón Þór Hauksson, stated that she would be considered for a call-up for the team's next games. Lacasse applied to FIFA and UEFA to be eligible to represent Iceland internationally, however, it was confirmed in July 2020 that her application was denied, as it was ruled she did not meet FIFA's residency requirements to be eligible to represent a new national association. In April 2021, Lacasse was called-up to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

ahead of friendlies against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, but did not appear in either match. She was one of the final players cut from the final selections for the Canadian Olympic team for

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

shortly afterward, thus missing the team's eventual gold medal win. Given her minimal experience with the national team to that point, she later acknowledged "I knew it was ambitious" to hope to make the squad. She then made her debut for the national team on November 27, 2021 in a friendly against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and was named Canada's player of the match. Lacasse made her first appearance at a major international tournament as part of the national squad for the

2022 CONCACAF W Championship The 2022 CONCACAF W Championship was the 11th edition of the CONCACAF W Championship, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the senior women's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF, the regional ...

, winning the silver medal, after a loss to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. She later scored her first goal for the national team on October 6, 2022 in a 2–0 victory over

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in a friendly. Continuing to make appearances with the team into 2023, Lacasse was named to the Canadian roster for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the women's national association football teams organised ...

. She appeared in all three of the team's matches, before Canada was eliminated in the group stage. Following the disappointing results at the World Cup, coach Bev Priestman sought to reorganize the team, and opted to start Lacasse in both of the team's next matches, the CONCACAF Olympic qualification playoff against

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. In the second match, held on home soil at BMO Field, Lacasse scored in the first half to equalize a game that Canada would eventually win 2–1, clinching their fifth consecutive Olympic berth.

Personal life

In 2017, Lacasse stated she was working towards applying for Icelandic citizenship, and said it would be an honour for her to be named to the Icelandic national team. In June 2019, the Icelandic

Judicial Affairs and Education Committee The Judicial Affairs and Education Committee ( is, Allsherjar- og menntamálanefnd) is a standing committee of the Icelandic parliament. Jurisdiction According to la№ 55/1991, with later amendments all matters relating to the following subjects ...

recommended that Lacasse's application to be granted Icelandic citizenship be approved. On June 19, 2019, she was officially granted Icelandic citizenship.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

Honours

ÍBV *

Icelandic Women's Football Cup The Icelandic Women's Football Cup ( is, Bikarkeppni kvenna í knattspyrnu) is the national women's football cup competition in Iceland. The first edition of the cup was played out in 1981. List of finals The list of finals: By team See al ...

: 2017 *League Cup Women A: 2016 Benfica *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Taça da Liga Feminina The Taça da Liga Feminina of football is a league cup competition in Portugal. It is due to start during the 2019–20 season involving the top four teams at the end of the first half of the Campeonato Nacional. It is scheduled to start in Ja ...

: 2019–20, 2020–21, 2022–23 * Supertaça de Portugal Feminina: 2019, 2022 Arsenal * FA Women’s League Cup: 2023–24 Canada * CONCACAF W Championship runner-up:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

* SheBelieves Cup runner-up:

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

Individual * Campeonato Nacional Feminino Player of the Year:

* Campeonato Nacional Feminino Golden Boot: 2019–20, 2022–23 * WSL Goal of the Month: October 2023

References

External links

* * *
Iowa Hewkeyes profile

Cloé Lacasse
at playmakerstats.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacasse, Cloé 1993 births Living people Canadian emigrants to Iceland Sportspeople from Greater Sudbury Canadian women's soccer players Icelandic women's footballers Soccer people from Ontario Women's association football forwards Canada women's international soccer players Campeonato Nacional de Futebol Feminino players Iowa Hawkeyes women's soccer players Toronto Lady Lynx players Cloé Lacasse S.L. Benfica (women) footballers Arsenal W.F.C. players Canadian expatriate women's soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Expatriate women's footballers in Iceland Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate women's footballers in Portugal Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players