Dylan João Raymond Collard Jr. (born 16 April 2000) is a professional

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 plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Portuguese Liga 3 club Lusitânia. Born in Australia, he plays for the Mauritius national team. Collard played youth football with Quakers Hill Tigers in Australia before moving to Portugal to join Benfica's academy. After playing for various youth teams in Portugal, Collard made his senior debut for

Lusitano The Lusitano, also known as the Pure Blood Lusitano or PSL (''Puro Sangue Lusitano''), is a Portuguese horse breed. Horses were known to be present on the Iberian Peninsula as far back as 20,000 BC, and by 800 BC the region was renowned for ...

in the Campeonato de Portugal in 2019. After a short time at Polish

II Liga II liga (Druga liga, ), currently named Betclic II liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is a Polish football league that sits at the third tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season, ''II Liga'' referre ...

side Stal Rzeszów, Collard returned to Portugal to sign for Marítimo, where he played for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

and made his Liga Portugal debut in 2023. Collard made his debut for the Mauritian national team in 2022.

Early life

Collard was born in the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

suburb of Randwick, New South Wales, and moved to Parklea at a young age. He began playing football at age four, and his first football club was Quakers Hill Tigers. After attracting interest from scouts from Portuguese side Benfica while on a family trip to Portugal, Collard subsequently joined the club's academy, where he remained for several seasons.

Club career

In June 2019, Collard signed for Campeonato de Portugal side

, his first senior deal. Collard was a frequent starter in his time at the club. Collard joined Polish

side Stal Rzeszów in February 2020. He made only one competitive appearance for the club. In October 2020, Collard returned to Portugal to sign with Marítimo. Collard signed for Lusitânia for the 2024–25 season and played a pivotal role in winning the Liga 3 Championship and getting promoted to

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

International career

In March 2022, Collard was called up to the Mauritius national team, eligible through his Mauritian father. Collard made his international debut for Mauritius on 24 March 2022, playing as a forward in a 1–0 loss to

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, the 34th edition of the international men's fo ...

. He scored his first international goal in the second leg, three days later, which finished 3–3. Collard played in all three matches in the

2025 COSAFA Cup The 2025 COSAFA Cup, officially known as the 2025 Hollywoodbets COSAFA Cup (for sponsorship purposes), was the 24th edition of the COSAFA Cup, the annual international football championship organised by COSAFA for the senior men's national team ...

against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. He earned the Man of the Match Award against

Career statistics

International

:''Mauritius score listed first, score column indicates score after each Collard goal''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collard, Dylan 2000 births Living people People from the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) Australian people of Mauritian descent Mauritian men's footballers Australian men's soccer players Soccer players from Sydney Men's association football defenders Men's association football central defenders Mauritius men's international footballers Primeira Liga players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players II liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Liga 3 (Portugal) players Stal Rzeszów (football) players Lusitano FCV players C.S. Marítimo players Lusitânia F.C. players Mauritian expatriate men's footballers Australian expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Mauritian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Australian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Mauritian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Poland 21st-century Australian sportsmen