30 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | FROM THE NEST Entering her second year at Lehigh, Esther Brossard ’28 has already played for two different Canadian national teams—soccer and futsal, an indoor variation of soccer—all while maintaining a 3.95 GPA. The Montreal native earned a call-up to the Canada Soccer 2025 CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Qualifier team in February as a training player and led the 2025 Canadian CONCACAF Women’s Futsal team to a championship as the tournament’s top scorer and Best Player Award winner. Her efforts helped earn Canada a berth in the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup in the Philippines at the end of this year. Major: Mechanical engineering and minor in economics What’s your dream job? A job related to the sports industry. Is futsal basically indoor soccer? Yes, exactly. It is the same game, but on a smaller field, and it’s played five versus five. Some different rules apply: It’s a 40-minute game and players change on the fly. It’s a technical, fast pace and offensive sport, with frequent momentum shifts, multiple counterattacks and constant action. How and when did you get started with futsal? Up north, soccer players play outside during summer and fall, but most of them play futsal during the winter. After developing my skills in high school, I became, at 15 years old, the youngest player to compete in the Quebec Premier Futsal League. I played for three years before coming to Lehigh. How did it feel to be the top scorer and winner of the best player trophy in the CONCACAF W Futsal Championship? I came confident. Although I was the youngest player on the team, I knew the coaches trusted my abilities and believed in me. I just took it one game at a time. We faced big challenges—playing against the USA, then against Mexico in the semifinal—I performed very well, and made a difference in the important moments. I am very proud to win those two awards, and share them with all my teammates. It’s a collective win. And this was the inaugural tournament? It was the first-ever Women’s FUTSAL CONCACAF tournament. CONCACAF stands for the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football. There were nine teams, and the top team qualified for the World Cup. We are the first-ever champions, which makes it even more special. What do you like better, soccer or futsal? I refuse to choose. In soccer, being a striker, I love to make runs and receive passes on a larger field, which allows me to use my intelligence of play to score. In futsal, I love the speed of the game, the quick transition to offense, the excitement and unpredictability until the end. —Stephen Gross STUDENT-ATHLETE PROFILE Striking Success Esther Brossard ’28, a second-year forward on the women’s soccer team, is headed to the FIFA Futsal World Cup after leading Canada to a CONCACAF championship.
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