Canada, having qualified for the World Cup every year apart from the inaugural edition, will be part of Group B along with hosts Australia, Nigeria and the Republic of Ireland, who have qualified for the tournament for the very first time. Canada’s Julia Grosso, the midfielder who plays for Juventus in the Serie A Femminile, is an exciting young player among the best-emerging midfielder in the world right now. The below visualisation shows where the 22-year-old midfielder ranks for some of the key metrics when compared with other left-sided central midfielders in the league.

Julia Grosso’s radar looks like that of an all-round midfielder’s radar. She brings a bit of versatility to her game, meaning she can play as a defensive midfielder or one of the two in a 4-2-3-1 in a more attacking role. She has played most of her minutes as the latter one of those two. In 2021, she signed for Juventus and has been one of their best performers since then.

Looking at the visual above, Grosso brings a lot of quality with her offensive game. Only Arianna Caruso had more assists for Juventus than Grosso in the recently concluded season. Grosso, for her role on the pitch, is often found making those late runs to the box and hence ranks a high 73rd percentile for touches in the opposition penalty area. On the ball, Grosso often plays quite an important role in progressing the ball towards the opposition’s goal. She hence ranks above average for Progressive passes per 90. For someone of her height, she is strong aerially. There are weaknesses to her game though that include her positioning defensively and her ability to 1v1 duels.

Grosso was part of the Serie A team of the season and won the Serie A midfielder of the 22/23 season. Having been part of the international setup on and off since 2017, Grosso will be one of the players to watch out for in Group B and will have a huge role to play in this Canadian side if they are to progress to the later stages of the tournament.