Viviane Asseyi

Viviane Marie-Louise Blanche Asseyi (born 20 November 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Super League club West Ham United and the France national team.

Club career
Asseyi began her career with amateur club US Quevilly at age 6. Due to Quevilly not having a women's section, at age 16 she played on a mixed team composed mostly of male players. She later joined the women's section of football club FC Rouen, where the youngster scored 23 goals in 28 total appearances. She joined Montpellier midway through the 2009–10 season in January 2010 and played there until moving to Olympique de Marseille ahead of the 2016–17 season.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she transferred to Bayern Munich in Germany. Upon her arrival at the club, she was welcomed by fellow French citizen Benjamin Pavard, who played for the men's side. She had been in conversations with Bayern about a transfer for a year prior to the move.

In her Bundesliga debut on the first matchday against SC Sand, Asseyi scored, giving Bayern Munich the lead just two minutes in. In November she injured her ankle during a national team training course and had surgery a few days later. At the beginning of March 2021, she returned to the pitch, immediately scored another goal in Freiburg and won the Bundesliga championship with Bayern Munich at the end of the season. A year later, one of her goals - scored with a bicycle kick against 1. FC Köln - was voted goal of the month for March 2022 by the spectators of the Sportschau by a large margin.

On 2 August 2022, Asseyi joined Super League club West Ham United. In the 2023–24 home game against Manchester United, she scored the equalizer making it 1-1 in the 85th minute.

Youth
Viviane Asseyi played a total of 32 games for the French youth selection teams in the U-16, U-17, and U-19 age groups. In the second qualifying round for the 2012 U-19 European Championship, she scored the goal of the day against the Netherlands.

Senior
In June 2013, the coach of the senior national team, Bruno Bini, invited her for the first time to a course in preparation for the European Championship and then subsequently called Asseyi into the squad in place of Laëtitia Tonazzi who was retiring. On June 29, 2013, she made her debut for France at age 19 in a friendly against Norway. Bini's successor Philippe Bergeroo occasionally and mainly used her as a substitute. The new national coach Corinne Diacre even put Asseyi in the starting line-up in autumn 2017, with the striker scoring her first goal. Viviane Asseyi was also named in France's 23-player squad for the 2019 World Cup on home soil.

She was nominated for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, played in two of her team's five games. Her team was eliminated in the quarter-finals after penalties against Australia.

Personal life
Asseyi was born in France, and is of Gabonese descent.

International

 * Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Asseyi goal.

Honours
Bayern Munich
 * Bundesliga: 2020–21

Montpellier
 * Coupe de France: Finalist 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015

Individual
 * Goal of the Month (Germany): March 2022


 * West Ham United Goal of the Season: 2023–24