Geoffrey Cantin-Arku (born October 9, 1998) is a Canadian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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for the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: ''Les Alouettes de Montréal'') are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has disbanded twice and been re-established thrice. The Alouettes compe ...

of the

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(CFL). He played

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and Memphis.

Early life

Cantin-Arku was born in Lévis, Quebec. He grew up first playing hockey but later switched to football. After high school, he played three years of

CEGEP A CEGEP ( or ; , ; also written CÉGEP and cegep) is a publicly funded college providing general, professional, academic or a mix of programs; they are exclusive to the province of Quebec's education system. A loanword from French, it ori ...

football at

Cégep Garneau The Cégep Garneau is a cegep, public French-language College education in Quebec, college in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. History The college traces its origins to the merger of several institutions which became public ones in 1967, when the Q ...

in Quebec. Cantin-Arku recorded 55.5 tackles, one sack and two interceptions his final season at Cégep Garneau. He was rated the no. 3 Canadian prospect in the class of 2019 by

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. He was also rated the no. 30 outside linebacker by Rivals.com, no. 42 outside linebacker by 247Sports.com, and no. 63 outside linebacker by ESPN.

College career

Cantin-Arku first played

from 2019 to 2021. He played in nine games his freshman year in 2019, mostly on special teams, and made one tackle. He appeared in all 11 games in 2020, starting 10, totaling 63 tackles, a team-leading 4.0 sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. Cantin-Arku played in 10 games during the 2021 season before entering the

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in week 11. He accumulated 43 tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble that season. Cantin-Arku transferred to play at Memphis from 2022 to 2023. He appeared in all 13 games, starting 11, in 2022, recording 76 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and two pass breakups. He started all 13 games in 2023, totaling 79 tackles, one sack, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one interception, two pass breakups, and one blocked field goal that he also returned for a touchdown. Cantin-Arku earned honorable mention All-

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honors that season.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2024 NFL draft The 2024 NFL draft was the 89th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft was held at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza in Detroit on April 25–27, 2024. The draft had an attendanc ...

, Cantin-Arku was invited to rookie minicamp with the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

on a tryout basis. He was selected by the

of the

(CFL) in the first round, with the ninth overall pick, of the

2024 CFL draft The 2024 CFL national draft was a selection of national players by Canadian Football League teams that took place on April 30, 2024 at 8:00 pm ET. 74 players were chosen from among eligible players from Canadian Universities across the c ...

. He officially signed with the Alouettes on May 13, 2024. Cantin-Arku was named the 3DownNation breakout player of the week for week 4 of the 2024 CFL season after recording four tackles on defense, two sacks, and one pass knockdown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantin-Arku, Geoffrey Living people 1998 births Montreal Alouettes players Syracuse Orange football players Memphis Tigers football players American football linebackers Canadian football linebackers Players of American football from Quebec Players of Canadian football from Quebec Sportspeople from Lévis, Quebec