Emiliano Díaz Brienza (born 9 May 2002) is a Mexican professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

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 ...

. He has been called-up to the Canada under-17 national team but has never appeared for Canada.

Early life

Brienza was born in

Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta ( or simply Vallarta) is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Puerto Vallarta is the second largest urban agglomeration in the state after the Guadala ...

, Mexico, with his family moving to Coquitlam, British Columbia in Canada in 2015 when he was 13-years old. He was part of the Mountain United FC team at club level before joining the

Whitecaps FC Academy Whitecaps FC Academy is a Canadian soccer team, the academy of professional team Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as ...

in September 2018. In 2019, Brienza started 18 matches with the under-17 team, including three playoff matches, scoring six goals. He also made three appearances with the under-19 team

Club career

On 25 February 2022, it was announced that Brienza had signed with Whitecaps FC 2, Vancouver's reserve team who would compete in the newly formed MLS Next Pro. It was also announced he would join the Vancouver Whitecaps FC MLS roster on a short-term deal. On 26 February, Brienza made his professional debut, appearing as an 88th-minute substitute during a 4–0 loss to Columbus Crew on the opening game of the season.

International career

Brienza was first called up to a Canada under-17 national camp for the

2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 18th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was ...

. He appeared on the bench for three matches without making an appearance.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brienza, Emiliano 2002 births Living people Sportspeople of Mexican descent Canadian people of Mexican descent Mexican emigrants to Canada Soccer people from British Columbia Canadian men's soccer players Men's association football forwards Canada men's youth international soccer players Vancouver Whitecaps FC players Whitecaps FC 2 players Major League Soccer players MLS Next Pro players