Vanessa Gilles

Vanessa Gilles... she/her... speaks French, English... sports family (brother Sebastian)... her mother Giuseppina was born in Montréal, QC, CAN while her father Denis was born in Paris, FRA... she was born in Châteauguay, QC, CAN although her family was living in Shanghai, CHN (they flew to Canada before her birth); she was 12 years old when her family moved from Shanghai to Ottawa, ON, CAN... grew up participating in tennis and soccer... she was 16 years old when she started playing soccer for Ottawa Capital United SC... enjoys board games, baking, exploring... growing up, favourites included Thiago Silva, Marcello, Virgil van Dijk, Manchester United FC... other favourites included Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Tiger Woods...

Canada Soccer Player of the Year in 2024... on 20 December 2021, the Vanessa Gilles Park in Gloucester was named in her honour by the City of Ottawa... was part of Team Canada that won an Olympic Gold Medal at Tokyo in 2021, recognised as a Canada Soccer Team of Distinction...

won a gold medal with Canada at the Olympic Games (Tokyo 2021)... represented Canada at one FIFA World Cup (Australia & New Zealand 2023) and two Olympic Games (Tokyo 2021, Paris 2024)... won a Concacaf medal with Canada (2022 silver)...

with FCF Olympique Lyonnais, a two-time Championnat de France winner (2022-23, 2023-24), a Coupe de France winner (2023), and a Trophée des Champions winner (2023)... with Apollon Limassol, a Cyprus Cup winner (2018)...

part of the Canada Soccer team that met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Langford ahead of their international match on 8 April 2022 (a surprise visit by the Prime Minister at the team hotel)...

said Gilles in 2018, “I couldn’t have asked for a better college career. I think my time at the University of Cincinnati has not only prepared me for the pro game, but also for life in general”...

said coach Neil Stafford in 2018, “she is a very driven young lady, competitive, relentless and has an incredibly strong mentality to compliment her soccer ability”...