At 21, Canadian soccer phenom Olivia Smith has represented her country, launched her professional career and set a world record with a nearly $2-million Cdn transfer fee. Smith spoke to CBC’s Briar Stewart about her journey from Whitby, Ont., to the Arsenal Women Football Club.

Ontario

Olivia Smith, a 21-year-old soccer player from Whitby, Ontario, made a notable debut for Arsenal Football Club by scoring her first goal. Smith recently transferred from Liverpool to Arsenal for a record-setting fee of over £1 million, the highest for a women's football transfer at the time. 

Smith began playing soccer as a toddler and became the youngest athlete to play for Canada's national women's team at age 15. She has played professionally in Portugal and Liverpool before joining Arsenal. Smith aims to represent Canada at upcoming World Cup and Olympic events and hopes to inspire young girls, emphasizing that age should not be a barrier to achievement. She also commented on the growing support and investment in women's football, noting the increasing attendance at matches and the narrowing gap with the men's game.

Canadian soccer phenom makes a splash with Arsenal debut

It was a perfect way for Canada's Olivia Smith to make her debut on the pitch, scoring her first goal for London's Arsenal Football Club. The 21-year-old from Whitby, Ontario set a world record in July. When she transferred from Liverpool to Arsenal, the club paid a more than £1 million transfer fee. That's about 1.8 million Canadian. At the time, it set a record for the women's game, and Smith's meteoric rise has placed her in the spotlight. We sat down with her at the club's training facility shortly before her first game. Tell me what it means for you to have just turned 21, and making your debut with Arsenal. Yeah, it's unreal. I mean, seeing all the achievements that Arsenal have been able to achieve within the past couple of years is amazing. It just shows the direction that women's football is going, and I think they're really at the top end of that, really driving that. So I think it's cool to be a part of that, especially at such a young age. Obviously, your transfer and the reported value of your transfer has got a lot of attention, international attention. I'm sure it's perhaps created some pressure too. Do you feel that? Honestly, I'm not really too focused on that bit. I think I'm just focused on the present, learning and growing from my teammates and the people around me. What about the attention? You know, it can be overwhelming sometimes, if I'm being honest. Like I think as an athlete, the main thing you want to do is focus on your craft. Smith has been doing that for nearly all of her life. She started in the sport when she was just a toddler. I do want to talk to you kind of about your journey up to here, but out of the way first, is it football or soccer? Depends on where I am, but it is football. Did a lot of sports. You tried a lot of different sports. So what was it about this game that really made you stick to it? I think my dad was a big, big piece in that. He introduced me to football when I was three. So as soon as I could walk, really, he had a ball at my feet already. I was always just trying to get on the ball, go and score goals. I mean, at one point, I'd just take it off my own teammates and just go score goals at the age of five. Her childhood was defined by soccer. David Beckham's skills book was part of her bedtime routine. I would have dreams of me playing on the biggest stage doing those things. And like another big part was Bend It Like Beckham, which was a movie that we watched as well. Great movie. I grew up loving those kinds of things. But soccer wasn't her only sport. Her parents registered her for taekwondo because they thought it would help with self-defense. I was bullied a little bit when I was younger. I remember I came home with a black eye and my mom immediately went to the school, which they didn't do much about. So we kind of just took matters into our own hands and they put me in taekwondo and I actually fell in love with it. And as a football player, I think taekwondo was like a massive part in my strength ability. Like I think the way that I strike the ball says a lot about the techniques and stuff that I learned within taekwondo. At age 15, Smith became the youngest athlete ever to play for Canada's national women's team, playing alongside Christine Sinclair, who she looked up to when she was a little girl. Smith went pro in 2023, playing in Portugal before moving on to Liverpool last year. Her move to Arsenal and the price tag still feels a little unreal, including for her family and her dad, who made it out for her debut match. On Saturday, she was named the player of the game. Smith has her mind set on playing for Canada at the World Cup in 2027 and the Olympics in 2028. Being a Canadian and so young, with things that I have achieved so far, I really want to be a role model for young girls in Canada. I think the first thing is that age doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter. And you can do whatever you can. The sky's the limit. And she says that's her attitude when it comes to the women's game. While her transfer made headlines as it went over the one million pound mark, when it comes to the men's game, the record is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Obviously, if you look on the men's side, what the men are going for and what we were going for maybe a couple of years ago, there's just so much of a gap. And I think we're not that close to it now, but I mean, I think we'll get there within the next couple of years with the way that the trajectory is going for women's football. I mean, we're getting 60,000 fans in the Emirates for a women's match, and not a lot of teams can say that either. So I think that's massive for us in terms of bringing the game up for the women's game.

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