Vanessa Brigitte Gilles (born March 11, 1996) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a centre-back for French club

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

(on loan from

Angel City FC Angel City Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League expansion team that began play in 2022. The team is based in Los Angeles, California, and was announced on July 21, 2020. The team has many high-profile owners, including Becky G, Natal ...

) and the Canada national team.

Early career

Originally a tennis player, in her teenage years, Gilles quit the sport to switch to soccer. After briefly attempting to play as a goalkeeper, she became a defender. She played for FC Capital United in Ottawa, Ontario, winning a league title in 2013. At the 2013 Canada Summer Games, she won a bronze medal with Team Ontario.

College career

She then played for the

Cincinnati Bearcats The Cincinnati Bearcats are the athletic teams that represent the University of Cincinnati. Though they will move to the Big 12 Conference (XII) the teams are currently a part of the American Athletic Conference (The American), which from 1979 ...

in the United States from 2014 to 2017. She was named 2015 American Athletic Conference Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the Tournament and, in 2016, became the first Bearcats women's athlete to earn all-conference first team accolades in both the preseason and postseason in American Athletic Conference history. In 2017, she was named American Athletic Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Year. When she won an Olympic gold medal in 2021, she became the fifth athlete in Bearcats history to do so.

Club career

West Ottawa SC

In May 2017, Gilles joined

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's association football, soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league ...

side

West Ottawa SC West Ottawa Soccer Club was a Canadian women's semi-professional soccer club based in Kanata, Ontario, just west of Ottawa that competed in the women's division League1 Ontario. The club continues to operate as a youth club. History The club ...

. She scored 2 goals in 9 appearances in the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

, and was selected to the 2017 League1 Ontario All-Star third team. She was also selected to represent League1 Ontario in the

All-Star game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or d ...

against the Team Ontario squad competing in the

2017 Canada Games The 2017 Canada Summer Games, officially known as the XXVI Canada Games, were held in Winnipeg, Manitoba from July 28 to August 13, 2017. Venues *Axworthy Health and Recplex - Winnipeg (basketball, wrestling) * Bell MTS Place - Winnipeg (Opening ...

Apollon Limassol

In January 2018, Gilles signed a short-term contract with

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

side Apollon Limassol. She made her professional debut for the club on January 14, starting in a 1–1 draw with

Anorthosis Famagusta Anorthosis Famagusta ( el, Ανόρθωση Αμμοχώστου, translit=Anorthosi Ammochostou), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Anorthosis Famagusta multi-sport club fo ...

. She scored 10 goals in 11 appearances for the club in the regular season, and made 3 appearances in the Cypriot Women's Cup tournament, helping Apollon Limassol win the final against Pyrgos Limassol on penalties.

Bordeaux

In July 2018, Gilles signed a two-year contract with

Division 1 Féminine The Division 1 Féminine, shortened as D1 Féminine or D1F, and currently known as D1 Arkema for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in France. Run by the French Football Federation, the league is contested by twel ...

side Girondins de Bordeaux. In May 2020, she signed a two-year extension with Bordeaux.

Angel City FC

After 3.5 years at Bordeaux, Gilles would transfer to NWSL club

for an undisclosed fee. She would sign a contract for 2022 with an option for 2023.

Lyon (loan)

In September 2022, Gilles signed for

on a season-long loan.

International career

Although born in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Gilles was eligible to play for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

as her father was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. In November 2018, Gilles was called into the France U23 camp, and played for ''Les Bleues'' in a 5–2 victory against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Canada

On January 18, 2019, she made her unofficial debut for

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 ...

in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Switzerland. On November 10, she made her official debut in a 3–0 victory against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at the

2019 Yongchuan International Tournament The 2019 Yongchuan International Tournament () was the 5th edition of the Yongchuan International Tournament, an invitational Women's association football, women's football tournament held in Yongchuan District, Chongqing, China. Unlike the previo ...

. She was named to the Canadian national team for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. She scored the decisive penalty shootout goal for Canada in the quarterfinals against Brazil. Although her penalty shootout attempt in the final of the tournament against Sweden hit the crossbar, Canada won the game and she would earn her first Olympic gold medal.

Personal life

On March 20, 2019, Gilles spoke at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, as part of the 63rd Session of the

Commission on the Status of Women The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gend ...

. For the first twelve years of her life, her family lived in Shanghai, before returning to Canada to live in Ottawa. She graduated high school from

École secondaire publique Louis-Riel ''École secondaire publique Louis-Riel'' (Louis Riel Public Secondary School) is a high school in the Blackburn Hamlet neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, part of the '' Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario'' (Eastern Ontario ...

and then graduated with a bachelor's degree from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...

with a major in criminal justice and a minor in IT.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Apollon Limassol * Cypriot Women's Cup: 2018 Canada * Summer Olympics:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Individual *

CONCACAF W Championship The CONCACAF W Championship (previously known as the CONCACAF Women's Championship, CONCACAF Women's Invitational Tournament, CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup and CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying) is a football competition organized by the Confede ...

Best XI:

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

References

External links

Vanessa Gilles
at University of Cincinnati *
Vanessa Gilles
at Cyprus Football Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilles, Vanessa 1996 births Living people Canadian women's soccer players Expatriate women's footballers in France Women's association football defenders People from Châteauguay Soccer people from Quebec Cincinnati Bearcats women's soccer players Division 1 Féminine players FC Girondins de Bordeaux (women) players Canadian people of French descent Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players of Canada Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Canada Franco-Ontarian people Canadian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's footballers in Cyprus Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Angel City FC players West Ottawa SC players National Women's Soccer League players Canada women's international soccer players French women's footballers France women's youth international footballers