Player Profile

Name: Ashley Lawrence

National Team: Canada

Place of Birth: Toronto, Canada

Position: Defender

DOB: 11 June, 1995 (age 28)

Height: 1.68m (5 ft 6 in)

Before Chelsea

Lawrence signed a three-year deal with Chelsea until the summer of 2026, bringing a wealth of experience at domestic and international level. She links up with compatriots Jessie Fleming and Kadeisha Buchanan, who together secured gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

During her youth career, she trained as a midfielder and played collegiately for West Virginia University. After turning professional in 2017, she joined PSG, where she went on to play over 180 matches for the club, winning one league title and two French Cups during that time.

The 28-year-old brings experience of the European stage and was part of the PSG team which finished runners-up to Lyon during the 2016/17 UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign. She was also nominated for the 2021 Ballon d’Or, finishing eighth in the final results.

First impressions

Blues fans got their first glimpse of Lawrence during our pre-season victory over Roma at Kingsmeadow earlier this month. Goals from Guro Reiten, Lauren James and Aggie Beever-Jones helped us to a 3-2 victory against the Italian champions.

The Canadian international made the trip to Portugal with the squad for our pre-season training camp, during which she sat down to reflect on her early weeks as a Chelsea player and what motivated her to become a Blue.

‘The opportunity of Chelsea came along,’ Lawrence explained. ‘A top club in Europe who are leading the way in so many ways, not only in the UK but worldwide. Chelsea are a very ambitious club and something I wanted to be a part of. When I had the opportunity, I didn’t want to let it go by.’

International career

On the international stage, Lawrence has surpassed a century of caps for her country and featured at three World Cups - in 2016, 2020 and 2023. In 2019, Lawrence was named Canada Soccer’s Female Player of the Year and enjoyed medal success at both the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games.

She helped Canada secure bronze at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she started five of their six matches and earned an assist for the opening goal in the medal match against hosts Brazil.

At Tokyo 2020, Lawrence was a key contributor to their gold medal-winning campaign. She began all six of Canada’s matches, notching an assist against Great Britain in the preliminary round and scoring in the quarter-final penalty shootout victory over Brazil.

Click here to secure your seats for the Blues opening WSL fixture against Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge on Sunday 1 October, with kick-off at 5.30pm (UK time).