Maxime Rouyer (born July 16, 1994) is a French professional

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL). He has also played for the

Edmonton Elks The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

of the CFL and the

Panthers Wrocław The Panthers Wroclaw are an American football team in Wrocław, Poland, which was merged from Giants Wrocław and Devils Wrocław (both founded in 2005). They currently play in the newly formed European League of Football since 2021. In the past ...

of the

European League of Football The European League of Football (ELF) is a professional sports#American football, professional American football sports league, league. The league (as of the 2023 season) consists of 17 teams located in Germany, Poland, Spain, Austria, Italy, S ...

(ELF).

College career

Born in

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

, where he started practicing

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

with Pygargues de Troyes when he was sixteen, Rouyer moved 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 ...

and started playing

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

, first, two seasons at the

Cégep de Jonquière The Cégep de Jonquière is a public French-language college located in the Jonquière borough of Saguenay, Quebec, Canada. It is one of four pre-university colleges in the Saguenay – Lac-St-Jean region. It is the largest college in the re ...

. He then played

U Sports football U Sports football is the highest level of amateur play of Canadian football and operates under the auspices of U Sports (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport). Twenty-seven teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athletic confer ...

from 2015 to 2018, for the

McGill Redmen The McGill Redbirds (formerly the McGill Redmen) and McGill Martlets are the varsity athletic teams that represent McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Team name According to Suzanne Morton, a professor of history at McGill, the name ...

, while also earning a major in Physical Education & Health. During his time as a linebacker for the Redmen, Rouyer played 23 games and recorded 103 total tackles and 4.5 quarterback sacks.

Professional career

Edmonton Eskimos / Elks

Rouyer was selected by the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

as the fourth overall selection of the 2019 European CFL Draft and was signed by the team on May 16, 2019. He made the team's active roster following training camp and made his professional debut on June 14, 2019, against the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

. Rouyer played in 17 regular season games and was credited with three special teams tackles, as well as both playoff games where he recorded another special teams tackle. In the final regular season game of the year, Rouyer and teammate

Diego Viamontes Diego Jair Viamontes Cotera (born September 23, 1990) is a Mexican free agent professional gridiron football wide receiver and kickoff returner who most recently played for the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was t ...

became the first Global teammates to be active in the same game. Rouyer did not play in 2020 following the cancellation of the

2020 CFL season The 2020 CFL season would have been the 67th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it would have been the 63rd season of the Canadian Football League. It was originally scheduled to begin on June 11; on April 7, the start of the s ...

. He re-signed with Edmonton on a contract extension through 2021 on December 26, 2020. He played in one regular season in 2021 where he had one special teams tackle. He was released on February 28, 2022.

Panthers Wrocław

On May 19, 2022, the

announced that Rouyer had joined their

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 ...

roster. He had 89 tackles, 4.5 sacks, and three fumble recoveries, including one that he returned for a touchdown.

BC Lions

Following the end of the Panthers' 2022 season, Rouyer signed with the

on September 14, 2022.

References

External links

BC Lions bioELF bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rouyer, Maxime 1994 births Living people American football linebackers BC Lions players Canadian football linebackers Edmonton Elks players Panthers Wrocław players French players of Canadian football French expatriate sportspeople in Canada French expatriate sportspeople in Poland McGill Redbirds football players Sportspeople from Troyes