Helen Stoumbos (born October 18, 1970) is a Canadian retired

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 and television broadcaster. A Center Midfield, she represented Canada at the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

edition of the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

and scored the team's first ever goal at World Cup level. Stoumbos was a member of the winning Canadian squad at the

1998 CONCACAF Women's Championship The 1998 CONCACAF Women's Championship was the fourth staging of the CONCACAF Women's Championship, the international women's association football tournament for North America, Central America and Caribbean nations organized by CONCACAF. The final ...

and was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2008. After injury curtailed Stoumbos' playing career, she moved into television broadcasting, working on football coverage from

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then ...

CBC Sports CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca, and CBC Radio One. (The CBC's French-languag ...

and GolTV. Helen went on to host and produce a number of sports related TV Series: Direct Kicks, Direct Kicks for Chicks, Slapstick TV: The Hockey Show, SportsTrek and most recently We Live Soccer. These series aired on various networks in Canada, the US and Malaysia. Currently Helen is the Founder/CEO o
The GOOD Games
Canada's biggest festival of sport. The event includes sports competitions for athletes 20+ as well as a massive Olympic style sports festival. In 2016, together with 3 former teammates, Helen launched th
Canadian Women's Soccer Alumni Association

Club career

Stoumbos played local soccer in Guelph from the age of 10, encouraged and supported by her Greek father John. From 1989 to 1993 Stoumbos played college soccer for Wilfrid Laurier University. Helen was an All Canadian All Star 4 times and received the Presidents Award for Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year a record 3 times. She returned to

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

the team in 1996 and was inducted into the University's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. During the late 1990s Stoumbos played professionally in the North American W-League for

Buffalo FFillies The Buffalo FFillies were a W-League women's soccer club based out of Buffalo, New York. The team began play in 1996 and folded during the 1998 season. The team name was conceived as an equine homage to the Buffalo Stallions, but two F's were intr ...

and

Toronto Inferno The Toronto Inferno were a W-League professional women's soccer club based in Toronto, Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has h ...

International career

Stoumbos represented Canada at the

World Student Games In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

in July

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. She had already made her senior national team debut the previous month, in a 4–0 defeat to Italy in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. At the

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway women's national football team, Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament fea ...

, Stoumbos became the first Canadian player of either gender to score a World Cup goal. With Canada 3–0 down to England in their opening match, she scored direct from a corner kick in the 87th minute as England goalkeeper

Pauline Cope Pauline Cope (born 16 February 1969), whose married name is Pauline Cope-Boanas, is an English former football goalkeeper. She won 60 caps for the England women's national football team between her debut in 1995 and retirement from internation ...

missed her punch. Geri Donnelly pulled another goal back in

injury time 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 t ...

but Canada lost 3–2. Canada qualified for the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

by winning the

, in the absence of the United States who had qualified automatically as hosts. Stoumbos was not named in the squad for the finals, undergoing knee surgery just before the tournament.

International goals

References

External links

* * /

Canada Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2019, the Canada Soccer Hal ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stoumbos, Helen 1970 births 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players Association football commentators Women's association football defenders Canada women's international soccer players Canada Soccer Hall of Fame inductees Canadian people of Greek descent Sportspeople of Greek descent Canadian women's soccer players Living people Sportspeople from Guelph Soccer people from Ontario USL W-League (1995–2015) players Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks women's soccer players University and college women's soccer players in Canada Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States

Club career

International career

International goals

Further reading

References

External links