Abraham Francois

Abraham François

Personal information
Date of birth	(1977-06-07) June 7, 1977
Place of birth	Montreal, Canada
Height
Position(s)	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1998	Huntsville Fire (indoor)	25	(4)
2000	Montreal Impact	23	(1)
2001	Sol de América
2001	Tien Giang F.C.
2002	Ottawa Wizards	12	(0)
2003–2005	Montreal Impact	17	(2)
2005	Toronto Lynx	18	(1)
2006–2008	Laval Dynamites	11	(0)
2007–2008	Detroit Ignition (indoor)	2
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Abraham François (born June 7, 1977) is a Canadian soccer player who played domestically with Canadian clubs and also played overseas, including indoor soccer.

Career

François began his professional career with his native hometown club, Montreal Impact of the USL A-League in 2001. After his stint with the Impact he found brief employment overseas with Club Sol de América in the Liga Paraguaya, after which he went to Asia to sign with Tien Giang FCin the V-League. In 2002 he returned home to sign with league giants the Ottawa Wizards of the Canadian Professional Soccer League.

During his tenure with Ottawa he had a tremendous season recording a 17-game undefeated streak, which marked a milestone in CPSL history by becoming the second club to achieve a treble the first being the Toronto Olympians. The Wizards clinched the Eastern Conference and finished first in the overall standings. They repeated their success in the Open Canada Cup tournament by defending their title once more in a 1-0 victory over Toronto Croatia. In the post season he appeared in all the playoff matches and reached the finals where the club faced the North York Astros, the Wizards ended up winning the playoff title in a 2-0 victory.

François returned Montreal in 2003 helping the Impact finish second in the league behind the Milwaukee Wave United with a 16–6–6 record. In the playoffs the Impact fell to the Rochester Raging Rhinos in the first round of the playoffs by an aggregate score of 2–1. He managed to win a piece of silverware with the club the Voyageurs Cup. In 2004 he tore his ligament in his right knee in a preseason match against McGill University forcing him to miss the entire season. The team finished 17–6–5 record for 56 points in 28 games, and the team started with a record 12-game undefeated streak, which led to a USL A-League Championship against the Seattle Sounders in a 2–0 victory claiming their first Championship since 1994.

In 2005 he returned to the Impact, but was deemed surplus to Nick De Santis resulting him to get traded on May 19, 2005 with team mate Sita-Taty Matondo to arch-rivals the Toronto Lynx in exchange for Ali Gerba. He made his debut with the club on May 28, 2005 against the Puerto Rico Islanders in a 4-4 draw. With the Lynx the team finished with a league worst 3 wins, 17 losses, and 8 ties and was the worst performance in league history and finished 12th place in the league. In 2006, François signed with the Laval Dynamites of the Canadian Soccer League, helping the franchise finish third in the National Division thus qualifying for the postseason; where the club faced Toronto Croatia, but lost to a score of 1-0.

On October 26, 2007 he signed for the Detroit Ignition of the MISL. François term with Detroit came with some success finishing first in the regular season and reaching the semi-finals in the playoffs.

International career

François played futsal by the QCSL World Cup 2010.

Honors

Ottawa Wizards

• Rogers Cup (1): 2002
• Open Canada Cup (1): 2002
• Canadian Professional Soccer League Eastern Conference Champions (1): 2002

Montreal Impact

• Voyageurs Cup (2): 2003, 2004

External links

• Detroit Ignition profile
• 2009 LSEQ Season

• Lynx Acquire Two From Impact
• IGNITION INKS TWO NEW PLAYERS FOR UPCOMING SEASON
• QCSL World Cup Players