The youngest player in a Northern Super League match and a goalscoring Olympic hopeful: Meet Canada’s U17 squad

Canada’s senior team won Olympic gold just five years ago and they’re hoping to keep that momentum going through their youth pipelines. The country’s best result in the U17 Women’s World Cup was a fourth-place finish in 2018, and this year they are hungry for more. Here’s who will be representing this storied footballing nation at the U17 level this year.

Lacey Kindel

Lacey Kindel just turned 17 years old and she is already breaking records. The teenager became the youngest women’s soccer player in Michigan State University at just 16 years old earlier this year and has already scored her first collegiate goal. Before that, in April, the midfielder became the youngest player to ever appear in a Northern Super League match as she made her professional debut with Vancouver Rise FC. 

It’s no surprise to hear, then, that football is in her blood. Both of Kindel’s parents played football professionally. Her father made four appearances for the Canada senior men’s team in the late 1990s and her mother played for the Canada senior women’s team during the same time period. Her mother even spent time with the Vancouver Whitecaps, the precursor to the same Vancouver Rise FC where Kindel made her professional debut.

Kindel is not just playing at the highest levels, she’s excelling. Her college coach has praised her for her work rate and her footballing IQ, despite her young age. This will not be Kindel’s first stint at the U17 World Cup, she appeared in all four of Canada’s games at last year’s U17 Women’s World Cup, notching a goal and two assists in the process. She will undoubtedly be a key part of Canada’s U17 World Cup campaign this year.

Brooklyn Boldt

Like Kindel, 17-year-old Brooklyn Boldt will be heading to play college soccer in the United States soon. Still, football remains her focus, as she dreams of becoming a professional football player and playing in the Olympics. The forward’s dreams could come true as soon as 2028 if her country does well in the upcoming 2026 CONCACAF W Championship.

Boldt got called up at the U17 level for the first time in February of this year and scored twice against Finland in her very first appearances with her country at this level. Later, in CONCACAF Women’s U17 Championship Qualifiers a month later, she found the back of the net two times once again. Although this will be her first U17 World Cup, she has shown her ability to score with this team and help them out in any way that she can. 

Outside of her growing international football experience, Boldt plays for the Vancouver Rise Academy. She holds the record for the most goals scored in a single season in the British Columbia Premier League, scoring 14 goals in 13 games. Boldt has talked about how she loves to score as many goals as she can in every game, if she can continue to do so in this tournament, Canada has a good chance of surpassing its previous-best fourth-place finish.