Can Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau be a key solution for Atlético Ottawa’s attack after a bright debut?
It was a dream CPL debut for Atlético Ottawa’s Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau, who came off the bench to score a 90+6th-minute winner in his team’s 3-2 win vs. Pacific FC last Sunday.
Not only did Fleuriau Chateau help seal a big home comeback win for his side, but he also kept his side in third place in the CPL table, too, after Ottawa were provisionally passed by Vancouver FC earlier in the weekend.
Now, they sit one point ahead of Vancouver and nine points behind second-place Cavalry, putting them in a pretty good position in the table at the halfway point of their campaign.
NICOLAS CHATEAU AT THE DEATH. ON HIS DEBUT. 🤯
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 26, 2026
The 24-year-old wins it for Atlético Ottawa ✅
🔴 Watch #CPLSoccer on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/zJUkmTcGev
For an Ottawa side that has had a less-than-ideal start to their season, it’s a reminder that while they’re not in the sort of excellent form that they were in last season, things aren’t looking too bad for the defending North Star Cup champions.
After the departure of key players such as Sam Salter, David Rodríguez and Nathan Ingham (with Noah Abatneh looking set to join them), as well as manager Diego Mejía, Ottawa are hoping that a midseason acquisition like Fleuriau Chateau can be the catalyst for the start of a new era under new manager Gustavo Leal.
Because of that, pressure is on the 24-year-old Ottawa native to build on this strong start and to finish the campaign strongly, as Ottawa could certainly use him in their attack.
A HOMETOWN DEBUT FOR THE AGES. 🇨🇦⚡️
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) July 26, 2026
Late-game heroics on debut from Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau! A 96th-minute game-winner to complete the comeback at TD Place earns him today's @GatoradeCanada Performance of the Match! 🔋#CPLSoccer pic.twitter.com/lJXn2zKoAl
They’ve been solid offensively, to be fair - they sit third in the league in goals for with 22, but a big reason for that has been the play of Ballou Tabla, who has a league-leading seven goals and has added two assists.
Otherwise, Emiliano Garcia, who has four goals and one assist, is the only player to score more than one goal this season, as Ottawa’s scoring has been very top-heavy.
That’s not a bad thing, per se - last year, when Ottawa scored a league-record 54 regular-season goals, they were powered by the play of Salter, who scored a league-record 20 goals.
At the same time, while Salter carried a big chunk of that goal-scoring load, Ottawa were also helped by contributions from Rodríguez, who had 11 goals, Tabla, who also had 11 goals, Kévin Santos, who had four goals, and Gabriel Antinoro, who had four goals. And, on top of that, Manny Aparicio, who scored just one goal, also had seven assists, while Juan Castro also chipped in with four assists, which helped massively.
All of that to say, Ottawa’s offensive success last season came from a team effort as much as the efforts of Salter, which is why it’s been such a surprise to see Tabla carry such a large part of the offensive load this season, even despite the departures this team has had around him, as the likes of Antinoro, Aparicio and Castro all still remain on the team.
In the end, though, the reality is that a lot of the new Ottawa replacements haven’t been as prolific as those they’ve replaced, other than García. Santiago López had no goals and just one assist during his high-profile loan from Pumas UNAM, Erling Myklebust has also failed to score this season, Kamron Habibullah has just one goal and one assist, and Jonatán Villal has one goal and no assists.
That’s where Ottawa will be hoping Fleuriau Chateau can slot in smoothly, and why not? While he doesn’t have a whole lot of professional experience, two of his past stints indicate he could be leaned upon to score goals in the right situation. 
Firstly, there’s his experience in the NCAA with the St. John’s Red Storm, where he scored 14 goals in 17 games in the 2023 season, which helped him get drafted by MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps the next year. Anytime a forward finishes a season at any level with that sort of goalscoring form, you can’t help but take note of that.
Then, in 2024, he scored 10 goals in 24 MLS Next Pro games (while also chipping in with five assists), which is quite impressive given that it was his first taste of professional football. He wasn’t able to parlay that into a full-time MLS role, as he was trying to break into a Whitecaps team that was starting to ascend into an elite side, but those numbers still gave a glimpse of his potential.
Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau breaks the #VWFC single-season scoring record with 9️⃣ goals!!#WFC2 | #VANvTAC pic.twitter.com/wfMmTOWMIn
— Whitecaps FC 2 (@wfc2) September 22, 2024
Therefore, while his two stops since the Whitecaps have been pretty underwhelming, as he had seven goals in 25 appearances across all competitions on loan for Finnish side Vaasan Palloseura in 2025 before failing to score in three appearances for Irish side Galway United this year, perhaps he can rediscover the form he had with the Whitecaps second team and in college with this Ottawa side.
Welcome Home, Nicolas! 🔴⚪️
— Atlético Ottawa (@atletiOttawa) July 24, 2026
Atlético Ottawa are proud to announce the addition of Ottawa striker Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau who will join the club through 2027, with an option for 2028. ✍️#AtléticoOttawa #EarnYourStripes pic.twitter.com/egBVMxw3B1
Certainly, Ottawa will be hoping that is the case, as that could help push their attack to another level. For example, it’s worth noting that while Ottawa’s actually done a decent job of generating goals, they’re sixth in the CPL in Expected Goals for with 16.96, meaning they’ve overperformed their xG by over five goals.
That means that they could soon come down to earth offensively if they don’t find a way to generate more chances going forward, something they’ll look to rectify.
Of course, given that he’s a striker, Fleuriau Chateau won’t help them do that, but what he can do is free up Tabla to be used in more of a creative role - Tabla did have four assists in 2025 and 2024 and 2022, showing that he can be asked to help a bit more there.
Otherwise, you have to imagine that pushing Antinoro and Aparicio to be much more involved offensively, as they were in 2025, will be another priority, especially when considering that they’ll have another target up front to aim for in Fleuriau Chateau. Along with improved production from the likes of Habibullah, Ottawa will feel they have the creative players to supply Fleuriau Chateau with the chances he’ll feel he needs to find goals.
Plus, it helps that he brings a bit of a different profile to this attack, as he’s a speedier striker who likes to stretch defensive backlines, which should mesh well with a team where a lot of the players like to receive the ball to their feet. Part of the reason for Salter’s success last year was the movement he had off the ball, as he often made dangerous runs in behind defenders, which opened up space for the likes of Rodríguez and Tabla between the lines.
Fleuriau Chateau is not the biggest striker, so he won’t be asked to get on the end of crosses and bully defenders, but that’s okay, as this Ottawa team isn’t set up to do that - and Leal doesn’t want to move away from the free-flowing offensive style of play that made them successful under Mejía.
Therefore, it shows that things are certainly set up for Fleuriau Chateau to fit in quite nicely going forward - and his debut offers a small glimpse of what that can look like.
