Kiwi Players Elsewhere

Thomas Raimbault (Carolina Core FC | USA)

34 replies · 6,494 views
over 4 years ago
wilbaker
coochiee
MetalLegNZ
Who is he?

Moved from Vancouver Academy to Nix Academy (Weenix) last year I believe, playing in Handy Prem. Ex Wake Forest Uni in the States.

https://www.whitecapsfc.com/news/academy-forward-thomas-raimbault-called-new-zealand-u-20-national-team
 Believe he was in our reserves since '17 but moved to Whitecaps in 2020 and came back?

Bit earlier I believe, think he was in Vancouver before the U20 World Cup so at least April 2019. I’d always assumed he was Canadian and qualified through parents or similar given Vancouver academy isn’t the most obvious place to go. Either way hopefully it’s a first team gig, as Ligue 2 is a very decent league to be in. It’s good to see guys going direct to overseas contracts as there’s only a dozen places at the Phoenix first team so they’re hot property. I didn’t watch the reserves religiously, but he’s a winger who looked reasonably solid for a player who’s team were often second best, if not standing out compared to Ben Old.
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over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago · History
Soccerway has him born in Canada.
https://us.soccerway.com/players/thomas-raimbault/534301/

Whilst this article says his family moved from NZ to Vancouver.
https://www.whitecapsfc.com/players/thomas-raimbault/

Importantly with that surname Raimbault, he perhaps has a Euro/French passport, making signing for Caen a bit easier??

Good luck to him. A young 20-21 yr old Tuiloma struggled to get much game time for Strasbourg in National 1 (French 3rd tier).

Whatever happens this A League season with the Nix, hopefully once the NZ National League is finished some of Weenix kids can somehow train regularly with the 1st team squad. Two full seasons of that not happening, wouldn't be good for the club.
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over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago · History
coochiee
Soccerway has him born in Canada.
https://us.soccerway.com/players/thomas-raimbault/534301/

Whilst this article says his family moved from NZ to Vancouver.
https://www.whitecapsfc.com/players/thomas-raimbault/

Importantly with that surname Raimbault, he perhaps has a Euro/French passport, making signing for Caen a bit easier??

Good luck to him. A young 20-21 yr old Tuiloma struggled to get much game time for Strasbourg in National 1 (French 3rd tier).

Whatever happens this A League season with the Nix, hopefully once the NZ National League is finished some of Weenix kids can somehow train regularly with the 1st team squad. Two full seasons of that not happening, wouldn't be good for the club.

Yeah he’s a Kiwi with a French father, hence the name. Went to Canada in 2017 after a season of Central League with Wellington United - 16 games, 3 goals. Definitely one of the better Weenix players as of 2020/21.

Only signed for the reserve team as of now, but still an awesome move!

Here's an article about his trial back in July - played for the reserves in a game vs. US Avranches: https://actu.fr/normandie/caen_14118/sm-caen-yad-lochereau-et-thomas-raimbault-a-l-essai-avec-l-equipe-reserve_43603378.html
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over 4 years ago
Exciting to see another Kiwi make the move to Europe. 

Now if only we could get a bunch of them together for some sort of International matches...

Waiting patiently over here NZF 👀
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over 4 years ago
mrsmiis
coochiee
Soccerway has him born in Canada.
https://us.soccerway.com/players/thomas-raimbault/534301/

Whilst this article says his family moved from NZ to Vancouver.
https://www.whitecapsfc.com/players/thomas-raimbault/

Importantly with that surname Raimbault, he perhaps has a Euro/French passport, making signing for Caen a bit easier??

Good luck to him. A young 20-21 yr old Tuiloma struggled to get much game time for Strasbourg in National 1 (French 3rd tier).

Whatever happens this A League season with the Nix, hopefully once the NZ National League is finished some of Weenix kids can somehow train regularly with the 1st team squad. Two full seasons of that not happening, wouldn't be good for the club.
 
Yeah he’s a Kiwi with a French passport, hence the name. Went to Canada a while back but played Central League with Miramar and Wellington United. 

Only signed for the reserve team as of now, but still an awesome move!

doubt he played CL for Mar (too young)?
very talented player

Founder

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over 4 years ago
Feverish
mrsmiis
coochiee
Soccerway has him born in Canada.
https://us.soccerway.com/players/thomas-raimbault/534301/

Whilst this article says his family moved from NZ to Vancouver.
https://www.whitecapsfc.com/players/thomas-raimbault/

Importantly with that surname Raimbault, he perhaps has a Euro/French passport, making signing for Caen a bit easier??

Good luck to him. A young 20-21 yr old Tuiloma struggled to get much game time for Strasbourg in National 1 (French 3rd tier).

Whatever happens this A League season with the Nix, hopefully once the NZ National League is finished some of Weenix kids can somehow train regularly with the 1st team squad. Two full seasons of that not happening, wouldn't be good for the club.
 
Yeah he’s a Kiwi with a French passport, hence the name. Went to Canada a while back but played Central League with Miramar and Wellington United. 

Only signed for the reserve team as of now, but still an awesome move!

doubt he played CL for Mar (too young)?
very talented player

yep you're right, beat my edit lol
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over 4 years ago
Made his debut off the bench last week in a 1-0 victory over AS Vitré.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/sm-caen-b_as-vitre/index/spielbericht/3617895

Good on the lad. Anyone in the know have a take on where his international future lies

Born in France, but pretty unlikely to ever be in the reckoning for them. Does he have links to Canada also? Basing this purely on his time in the Whitecaps setup.


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over 4 years ago
YoungHeart
Made his debut off the bench last week in a 1-0 victory over AS Vitré.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/sm-caen-b_as-vitre/index/spielbericht/3617895

Good on the lad. Anyone in the know have a take on where his international future lies

Born in France, but pretty unlikely to ever be in the reckoning for them. Does he have links to Canada also? Basing this purely on his time in the Whitecaps setup.



This was a game for the Reserve team (Caen II) who he signed for, in 4th tier of French football (National 2). 4th tier seems to consist of 4 regional leagues of about 16 teams each, for some reference.

Tuiloma had a spell in the French 3rd tier, at about the same age (20).

I note Soccerway has Raimbault listed under a Canadian flag, but as mentioned further up this thread he has lived both there, and more recently NZ (Nix Reserves).

https://us.soccerway.com/matches/2021/10/23/france/cfa/sm-caen-ii/as-vitre/3566871/
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over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago · History
YoungHeart
Made his debut off the bench last week in a 1-0 victory over AS Vitré.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/sm-caen-b_as-vitre/index/spielbericht/3617895

Good on the lad. Anyone in the know have a take on where his international future lies

Born in France, but pretty unlikely to ever be in the reckoning for them. Does he have links to Canada also? Basing this purely on his time in the Whitecaps setup.



Pretty sure he has zero links to Canada but he moved with his parents a while back
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over 4 years ago
mrsmiis
YoungHeart
Made his debut off the bench last week in a 1-0 victory over AS Vitré.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/sm-caen-b_as-vitre/index/spielbericht/3617895

Good on the lad. Anyone in the know have a take on where his international future lies

Born in France, but pretty unlikely to ever be in the reckoning for them. Does he have links to Canada also? Basing this purely on his time in the Whitecaps setup.



Pretty sure he has zero links to Canada but he moved with his parents a while back

That's good, less countries to be able to compete with! 

Also, no disrespect whatsoever - you know shoot for the stars and all that, but he'd  have to do something pretty out of this world in order to get into any French setup. Let's just wait and see how he goes for Caen. Plenty of years ahead of him to be able to forge a good career.
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over 4 years ago
Unused sub for Caen II in a 1-0 win over Versailles

French 4th tier
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over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago · History
https://parking-fury.com/
I’d always assumed he was Canadian and qualified through parents or similar given Vancouver academy isn’t the most obvious place to go 

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over 4 years ago
Subbed on at 85 mins, in a 0-0 draw with Saint-Malo (14th)

Caen II, 7th in their 4th tier Group.
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about 4 years ago · edited about 4 years ago · History
Still only age 20, so hopefully not giving up on his pro football dreams yet by now going down the US College route.

Didn't Ryan Nelsen amongst other Kiwis go to UCLA?
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about 4 years ago
Stanford and somewhere else, not UCLA
coochiee
Still only age 20, so hopefully not giving up on his pro football dreams yet by now going down the US College route.

Didn't Ryan Nelsen amongst other Kiwis go to UCLA?
 
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about 4 years ago
What’s the story these days with those who have been pro then going to college?

Founder

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about 4 years ago · edited about 4 years ago · History
Ronan Wynne was another who had a dabble in Denmark, now back with a Colorado College??

Read on another post that 24 yr Hunter Ashworth (ex NZ U20s), who had a couple of seasons in the USL has basically retired, and pursuing some type of career stateside. Tenuous NZ links anyway I think, being US born.

But I guess the uncertain ruthless slog of a pro football career ain't for everyone. For some it just won't be fun enough, or worth all the sacrifices. Even Ryan Nelsen candidly admitted he had doubts he was good enough to go pro, and was very close to going down the corporate route post College, before signing with DC United.

And for sure seems post football, USA is a land of opportunity for many Kiwis. Tim Brown, Nelsen, Elliott, Duncan Oughton, Lochhead, Gleeson, Cameron Knowles, Gavin Wilkinson, Colvey - spring to mind. Jeremy Christie over there??

I'm sure there's a few more and indicates likely why a few years in the somewhat off radar USL and gaining that Green Card is a valued commodity. Or yeah the US College route, as a football backup.
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about 4 years ago
Feverish
What’s the story these days with those who have been pro then going to college?

Perhaps realizing early on that a half decent education isn't too bad to fall back on should the pro footballer dream not pan out. 
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about 4 years ago
YoungHeart
Feverish
What’s the story these days with those who have been pro then going to college?

Perhaps realizing early on that a half decent education isn't too bad to fall back on should the pro footballer dream not pan out. 

oh I wasn't saying it in a judgy way - just thought US College system wouldn't allow it (or used to not)?

Founder

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about 4 years ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
Feverish
YoungHeart
Feverish
What’s the story these days with those who have been pro then going to college?

Perhaps realizing early on that a half decent education isn't too bad to fall back on should the pro footballer dream not pan out. 

oh I wasn't saying it in a judgy way - just thought US College system wouldn't allow it (or used to not)?

Perhaps French 4th tier (Raimbault) or Danish 3rd tier (Ronan Wynne) are low enough they don't breach whatever rules apply with the US College system - ie still considered amateur.
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about 4 years ago
Feverish
YoungHeart
Feverish
What’s the story these days with those who have been pro then going to college?

Perhaps realizing early on that a half decent education isn't too bad to fall back on should the pro footballer dream not pan out. 

oh I wasn't saying it in a judgy way - just thought US College system wouldn't allow it (or used to not)?

I didn't mean to come across that way 😅 I did think the same however. Thought that if he'd signed a pro deal in France that that would scupper any chance to go back and play football in the US College system. Either that or there is some other criteria that I am otherwise unaware of that he meets to be able to make the jump back across the Atlantic.

All said and done, I hope he goes well.
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about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
I guess we'll put this in his original thread. It's been so long since we've had any news on him that the weeds had grown over this one. 😅

I'll move the other one to Spam.

Anyway.

First pro deal for Thomas Raimbault after finishing college over in the states. He joins Carolina Core FC in the MLS Next Pro for 2026.



A little bit older for MLS Next Pro being born in 2001, but Carolina do operate independently of any other MLS club, so I'd imagine their average squad age is a little bit older than MLS aligned clubs.
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about 1 month ago
Some strong parallels with Ronan Wynne. Both some time at Weenix, then both when young had a crack at lower level Europe, then into US colleges, then into MLS Next Pro a bit older than most
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about 1 month ago
YoungHeartHM
I guess we'll put this in his original thread. It's been so long since we've had any news on him that the weeds had grown over this one. 😅

I'll move the other one to Spam.

Anyway.

First pro deal for Thomas Raimbault after finishing college over in the states. He joins Carolina Core FC in the MLS Next Pro for 2026.



A little bit older for MLS Next Pro being born in 2001, but Carolina do operate independently of any other MLS club, so I'd imagine their average squad age is a little bit older than MLS aligned clubs.

How long have you been a mod YoungHeart? Congratulations!
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about 1 month ago
HattyCW
YoungHeartHM
I guess we'll put this in his original thread. It's been so long since we've had any news on him that the weeds had grown over this one. 😅

I'll move the other one to Spam.

Anyway.

First pro deal for Thomas Raimbault after finishing college over in the states. He joins Carolina Core FC in the MLS Next Pro for 2026.



A little bit older for MLS Next Pro being born in 2001, but Carolina do operate independently of any other MLS club, so I'd imagine their average squad age is a little bit older than MLS aligned clubs.

How long have you been a mod YoungHeart? Congratulations!

Thank you. 
Was asked a little while back to help out around the place, keep out the riff-raff and whatnot. 

As you were (and back on topic please 😇)
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