Home » From Northern Lights to North London: Cloe Lacasse joins Arsenal

From Northern Lights to North London: Cloe Lacasse joins Arsenal

FA WSL, Football, Sports / By / / Arsenal, WSL

London, UK – In an exciting announcement, Arsenal Football Club have confirmed the signing of Cloe Lacasse on a permanent deal. The Canadian forward joins the club after an impressive four-year stint with Benfica in Portugal, where she made her mark as a prolific goal scorer. Lacasse’s arrival is expected to strengthen Arsenal’s attacking prowess and elevate their chances of competing for top honours in the upcoming season.

It may have taken them 5 months longer than intended, but Arsenal have finally got their player, and Jonas finally gets the extra striker he had been craving since the previous summer.

“I’m super excited and enthusiastic to get started here at Arsenal. I feel ready mentally and physically to contribute and win titles. This club has everything it takes to compete for the highest honors. I want to go to the next level and score goals here for Arsenal.”

– Cloe Lacasse

Lacasse is now the second Canadian in the Arsenal ranks, following Sabrina D’Angelo’s arrival in the winter. Cloé has been working towards this move since the age of 5 when she first learned to kick a football. From those early years, she rose through the Canadian scholarship system, winning team and individual awards for her goalscoring prowess, and travelled to ÍBV where she played in the Icelandic league, before eventually arriving at Benfica. There, she won the Supertaça de Portugal Feminina (Portuguese Community Shield), the Taça da Liga Feminina (Portuguese League Cup) and the Campeonato Nacional Feminino (Portuguese WSL) Lacasse was a shining light for her side, as she was their club’s top goal scorer in every season she played at the club (4 times), whilst also picking up the League’s Golden Boot in 2019-20 and won Player of the Year in 2022-23.

 

After flexing her talents at home, it was time to take on the rest of Europe, as Lacasse led Benfica’s charge on the UWCL. She made history when she became the first-ever player to score for a Portuguese side in the UWCL group stage when she bundled home the opener in a 2-1 win over BK Häcken FF.

 

 

This season, Lacasse has stepped up again, with an impressive 4 goals in a group containing Barcelona and Bayern. In every game Benfica scored, Lacasse was amongst the goal scorers, including in one of the games of the tournament. Lacasse scored and assisted to give Benfica a shock 2-0 lead over Bayern Munich, only to succumb to a 98thminute 3-2 winner from Georgia Stanway (Benfica also missed a late penalty at 2-2). Having also scored home and away against Rosengard and against eventual finalists Barcelona, it was little wonder that other clubs were starting to cast their eye over her, Arsenal being one of them. And now, at last, they have their player.

 

Goals and success have followed Lacasse wherever she has played (she was the second-highest-ever scorer during her time at Iowa Hawkeyes), and Arsenal will hope the same holds true next season. She is quick, and right-footed, but operates as an inverted left winger. She loves to drive at defenders from the wing or use her clever movement to dart between the space between defenders. Her delivery from the wings is excellent, but so too is her calmness in a 1v1 situation. Arsenal has struggled to sign an effective winger since Jonas’ arrival, with Parris and Hurtig not coming close to meeting the standard required. She is a left winger, an alternative to Foord or McCabe, and a strong one too. As an added bonus, if required, she can be used centrally as well. Jonas has experimented in the past with using Foord as an alternate striker with little success. With versatility a key part of his team’s thinking, as they look to negotiate their way out of an injury crisis and on to further success next season, an attacker that can be comfortable anywhere across the frontline will be a potent weapon.

“I’m really pleased that we have signed Cloe to strengthen our forward line here at Arsenal. Cloe is a proven goalscorer and has shown her quality over a number of seasons in two European leagues as well as the Champions League. She will add a different dimension to our attacking game, and I’m looking forward to working with her.”

– Jonas Eidevall

 

Beyond football, despite being Canadian, Cloé is also an Icelandic citizen, having been granted citizenship in 2019 during her time at ÍBV. She had once harboured ambitions of playing for the Icelandic national team, after being recommended to play for them by the Icelandic national coach, Jón Þór Hauksson. Sadly though, her request was rejected by FIFA, and she would then go on to instead represent Canada in 2021. She also represented her country of birth in taekwondo during her youth, where she rose to be a black belt, before opting to stick with football. From the Northern Lights to North London, it has been an interesting journey for Cloé Lacasse to get here. Arsenal may have missed out on her the first time around, but this time, just like Cloé in front of goal, they’ve hit their target. Now it’s time to see if the wait was worth it, and for Cloé Lacasse to take yet another league by storm.

The completion of the deal is pending the finalization of regulatory processes. Arsenal fans eagerly anticipate seeing Lacasse grace the pitch in the iconic red and white jersey, bringing her goalscoring prowess to further enhance the team’s prospects for success. With her arrival, Arsenal aims to fortify its position as one of the leading forces in women’s football and compete at the highest level domestically and internationally.

Written by Adam Salter and Unnati Naidu

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Adam Salter
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Unnati Naidu
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