Paulo Scanlan (also known as Paul Scanlan; born 9 August 1996) is a Samoan 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 ...

and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who has played for the

Samoa national football team The Samoa national football team () represents Samoa in men's international football and is controlled by the Football Federation Samoa, the governing body for football in Samoa. Samoa's home ground is Toleafoa J. S. Blatter Soccer Stadium in ...

and

Samoa national rugby sevens team The Samoa national rugby sevens team, referred to as Samoa Sevens or Manu Samoa 7s, competes in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. Representing the polynesian country of Samoa, with a population of about 202,000, the team competes against som ...

Football career

Scanlan played football as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Vaipuna in the

Samoa National League Samoa National League is an association football league in Samoa and the top division of the Football Federation Samoa. The 3,500 capacity National Soccer Stadium (Samoa), Toleafoa JS Blatter Soccer Stadium is the sole venue of the national league. ...

. He made his debut for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

at the

2016 OFC Nations Cup The 2016 OFC Nations Cup was the tenth edition of the OFC Nations Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Oceania organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The tournament was played between 28 May and 11 Jun ...

on May 29, 2016 in their 4–0 loss against

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

. In 2019 he played for

Vailima Kiwi FC Kiwi FC is a Samoan football club based in Apia. It currently plays in the Samoa National League. The team has won the most titles of any Samoan football team (9 in total) - 7 leagues and 2 cups. Honours *Samoa National League: 7 **1984, 1985, 19 ...

in the

2019 OFC Champions League The 2019 OFC Champions League was the 18th edition of the Oceanian Club Championship, Oceania's premier club football tournament organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and the 13th season under the current OFC Champions League name ...

. In December 2019 he announced he was leaving football to pursue a career in rugby.

Rugby sevens career

In April 2019 he was selected for the

to play in the Hong Kong sevens. He subsequently played in Dubai. In June 2021 he was selected for the

2020 Men's Rugby Sevens Final Olympic Qualification Tournament The final qualification repechage tournament for men's rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 18–20 June 2021 at Stade Louis II in Monaco. The tournament was originally scheduled for a year earlier, but was postponed until 2021 due ...

. In December 2021 he was part of the team for the World Sevens Series. In July 2022 he was named to the team to represent Samoa at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England betw ...

. He later competed at the

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) was the former quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it consisted of men's and women's tournaments, and was the highest level of competition in the sport ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. Scanlan competed for

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

References

External links

* 1996 births Living people Samoan men's footballers 21st-century Samoan sportsmen Samoa men's international footballers Samoa men's youth international footballers Samoa international rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games competitors for Samoa Rugby sevens players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Vailima Kiwi FC players 2016 OFC Nations Cup players Men's association football midfielders Olympic rugby sevens players for Samoa Rugby sevens players at the 2024 Summer Olympics {{Samoa-rugbyunion-bio-stub