Olivier Lacoste-Lebuis

Olivier Lacoste-Lebuis (born September 28, 1990) is a Canadian soccer defender, who currently plays for RC Strasbourg.

Career

Lacoste-Lebuis was born in Mount Royal, Quebec.^[4] and Les Griffons.^[5] Before his first went to France in 2002 to play in the Danone Cup international soccer tournament as an 11-year-old, he didn't know he would eventually return to train at the academy of a professional French team.^[6]

But the seeds for that destiny were first sown at that tournament more than five years ago, when Lacoste-Lebuis captained the Canadian team to a top-12 finish out of 24 countries.

"That experience sparked something in me," Lacoste-Lebuis, 17, said in a telephone interview from Strasbourg, where he trains under the watch of first-division club Racing Team.^[7] "That really made me want to reach another level of soccer.".^[8] He was than named as Canadian U-17 Player of the Year 2007.^[9]

Lacoste-Lebuis has reached that level and then some. Lacoste-Lebuis shot his way up the Canadian soccer ranks before signing a two-year contract with Strasbourg in 2006.^[10] He played his one and only profi game for RC Strasbourg on 29 September 2008 against Clermont Foot in Ligue 2, he played ninety minutes.^[11] In January 2009, he joined the Maryland Terrapins of the NCAA.^[12]

Attributes

He is a fast player with good anticipation, powerful fighting capacity and great solo runs.^[13]

International career

Lacoste-Lebuis represented Canada at the 2007 CONCACAF Under-17 Qualification Tournament in Kingston, Jamaica, Canada finished fourth in Group B. He was member for Canada at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada.^[14]

He was the youngest member of the Canadian team that competed at the U-20 World Cup last summer, and in December he was named Canada's U-17 men's player of the year, two clear indications he represents one of the country's brightest hopes in the sport.^[15]

n 2004, he became the youngest player to be selected for a spot at the Canadian Soccer Association's National Training Centre, and he made his national team debut with the U-15 side a year later.

In 2006, he captained the U-17 Canadian team and was named the top player at the Ballymena Tournament in Ireland, which led him to Strasbourg.

Though it would be imagined Lacoste-Lebuis had an advantage going to a French milieu, he quickly found out that was not the case.

"In terms of the language, they speak French, but it's not at all the same French," he said with a laugh, though his accent has lost some of its Québécois flavour.

But the biggest difference, of course, was going to a world where soccer is king.

"You really see the difference when it comes to technique and tactics," he said. "The guys here have played every day since they were five years old. So just practising with them makes you improve in a hurry."

Unfortunately for him, his improvement did not allow him to take the field for Canada last summer at the U-20 World Cup, as he never made it off the bench, but the experience was still extremely valuable, right from Canada's first game against Chile.

"I watched the level of play of that Chilean team," he said, "and I saw what it took."

He also knows what it will take to make it as a European professional, and he said he's willing to put in the work to get there, no matter how long it takes.

"In a sense, I've never been so close to that dream, but on the other hand, it's a tough world and I'm in no rush to get there," he said. "But as long as I'm playing soccer I'm happy, no matter where it is."

Personal life

The Montreal-native speaks French and English.^[16]

Honours

• 2007: Canadian U-17 Player of the Year^[17]
• 2008: Gala de la Mi-Temps: Joueur senior excellence^[18]

References

External links

• Canada Soccer Profile
• Olivier Lacoste-Lebuis at thefinalball.com
  
• Federal Soccer Profile
• Footmercato Profile