Armel Dagrou Jr. (born 16 March 1992) is a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. Born in Canada, he represented the Burundi national team.

Early life

Dagrou was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, to a Burundian mother and an Ivorian father. He lived in France, Belgium, and the Ivory Coast before settling in Gatineau when he was 16 years old. He helped the Quebec team win gold at the

2009 Canada Games The 2009 Canada Summer Games were held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island from August 15 to 29. Medal standings The following is the medal table for the 2009 Canada Summer Games. Events *Athletics *Baseball *Basketball *Canoe/Kayak * Cycle ...

. In 2010, he joined the

Montreal Impact Academy Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

. In 2011, he was part of the Quebec U23 team that played a friendly against French club FC Metz U19.

University career

Dagrou initially attended the

University of Montreal A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, playing for the Carabins. In 2013, he switched to the

Université du Québec à Montréal The (UQAM; ), is a French language, French-language public university, public research university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the system. UQAM was founded on April 9, 1969, by the government o ...

. In 2014, he was named a CIS first-team all-star as well as RSEQ MVP.

Club career

In 2012, Dagrou played for FC Brossard in the

Première ligue de soccer du Québec A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the film ...

. In 2013, he joined new PLSQ side

CS Mont-Royal Outremont Club Soccer Mont-Royal Outremont is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in the Montreal boroughs of Mount Royal and Outremont. Since 2013, the club has competed in Ligue1 Québec. Their women's team has competed in the women's divi ...

. He won two PLSQ titles with Mont-Royal in 2013 and 2015. In 2015, Mont-Royal participated in the

Inter-Provincial Cup The Inter-Provincial Cup is a limited-overs cricket tournament in Ireland between the four leading cricketing provinces of Ireland. The tournament was held for the first time in 2013 across venues in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of ...

against

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1ON) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association. League1 Ontario consists of three tiers – League1 Premier ...

champions

Oakville Blue Devils FC Blue Devils Football Club (formerly known as Oakville Blue Devils FC) was a semi-professional soccer club based in Oakville, Ontario in League1 Ontario's men's and League1 Ontario (women), women's divisions. In October 2024, they merged under ...

, with Dagrou scoring in the first leg. In 2015, he went on trial with Swedish club

IFK Luleå IFK Luleå is a Swedish professional football club formed in 1900, located in Luleå. The club merged with Luleå FF and played under the name Luleå FF/IFK from 1986 to 1989. History IFK Luleå was originally founded in the year 1900, but wen ...

. In 2016, he moved to

AS Blainville Association de Soccer de Blainville, commonly referred to as A.S. Blainville, is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in the Montreal suburb of Blainville, Quebec, that plays in Ligue1 Québec. They are the only club to have participate ...

. In 2021, he played with Boucherville in the amateur

Ligue de soccer élite du Québec The Ligue de soccer élite du Québec () was the top amateur league in Quebec, operating at a level below the semi-professional Première ligue de soccer du Québec. It operates a number of youth and gender specific divisions and is operated by the ...

, winning the men's AAA title and was the league's top scorer.

International career

In 2014, he was invited to take part in the

2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches determined the participating teams for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. A total of 16 teams competed in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Prior to November 2014, it was expected that Morocco woul ...

with the Burundi national team, after he sent highlight videos to the national team coach. He made his debut on 1 June 2014, against

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

in a 1–0 defeat.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dagrou, Armel 1992 births Living people Canadian people of Burundian descent Canadian people of Ivorian descent Burundian men's footballers 21st-century Burundian sportsmen Men's association football forwards Burundi men's international footballers Ligue1 Québec players Soccer players from Montreal Université de Montréal alumni Université du Québec à Montréal alumni AS Brossard players A.S. Blainville players CS Mont-Royal Outremont players