MONTREAL — As the sun begins to set, hundreds of children in navy blue kits scurry from a parking lot into two indoor turf pitches, tripping over each other to meet their heroes.
The colours are those of their local club, CS Saint-Laurent, where Canada men’s national team star Moise Bombito started out.
Four years ago, Bombito was playing semi-professional soccer in Montreal and did not see a way forward to the professional ranks in the city so left for the United States. Now 24, the centre-back is first choice for Nice, having moved from MLS to Ligue 1 in the summer.
Montreal is Bombito’s home.
It is where Canada’s men’s national team have spent a training camp before a friendly against Panama on October 15 and was their first time returning to the country since their run to the quarter-finals of the Copa America. Small groups of players, including Bombito, made trips to local soccer associations to train with youth players.
Stephen Eustaquio, who nutmegged Kevin De Bruyne in the World Cup, was also in attendance. Yet the lines to see Canada’s midfield general were not as crushing as those for Bombito. Hundreds of children had to be held back from him by security. Those children are not unlike him.
“I played on fields number 10 and 12,” Bombito tells reporters. While overhead, children hang over a railing to shout his name repeatedly.
There were a few national team players from Montreal when Bombito was growing up, but none enjoyed popularity like this.
“We never had someone to look up to and say, ‘I want to be like this guy’,” Bombito says.
Bombito moved from MLS to Nice in France’s top tier this summer (MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)
That is why the national team setting up shop in Montreal for a week is not just a token visit. It’s a recognition of how much the landscape has changed.
For a generation, Brampton, Ontario was considered the unofficial home of Canadian men’s soccer. Of the 26 players originally named in Canada’s 2022 World Cup squad, eight called the suburban city just outside of Toronto their hometown: Atiba Hutchinson, Tajon Buchanan, Cyle Larin, Liam Millar, Jonathan Osorio, Ike Ugbo, Doneil Henry and Junior Hoilett.
But times have changed. Many of Brampton’s longstanding players have since retired or have been phased out of the national team.
The spine of Canada’s team is now from Montreal and the surrounding areas. Goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, 30, was a standout at the Copa America. Mathieu Choiniere, 25, has emerged as a rock in the midfield while Ismael Kone, 22, has all the qualities to become one of Canada’s greatest midfielders and Nathan Saliba, 20, is one of MLS’s best young players.
Then there is Bombito. He first stood watching a training session before being dragged onto the pitch by children to provide pointers.
Nearby, longtime CS Saint-Laurent coach and board member Rob Rossi looks on in amazement. This, he insists, is just the beginning.
“It’s an untapped mine,” Rossi told The Athletic of players in the Montreal area. “There’s been talent building in this market that hasn’t been discovered.”
Just days after playing against Paris Saint-Germain in a 1-1 draw, Bombito has to be escorted out of the indoor soccer facility by security. “It’s good for Canadian soccer to see that soccer isn’t just found in English Canada,” Bombito says.
Moise Bombito, back row fifth from left, Santiago Lopez, sixth from left, Stephen Eustaquio, fourth from right with children from CS Saint-Laurent (Club de Soccer de Saint-Laurent)
So why is this happening?
We can start with the area itself. Walking the streets of Montreal, the biggest city in the province of Quebec, it is clear how different it is to Toronto and Vancouver. The traditional European influence can be felt in Montreal’s architecture and cuisine in a way that does not exist in most other major Canadian metropolises.
“The culture in Quebec is such that we like to develop creative players, we like players to express themselves, but I think we’re also strong at putting this creativity under a structure,” Valerio Gazzola, Quebec Soccer’s director of development, says.
“The multiculturalism of Montreal provides a breeding ground for the possibility of what we can develop out of that community,” Canada coach Jesse Marsch told reporters over Zoom when the camp was announced.
Technical skills are prioritized and multiple Montreal-based coaches spoke to The Athletic about “streetball”, a term they use to describe how Montreal-based players learn the game.
“We like to play more of a Spanish version of the game, where we keep possession. We want to develop creative players in the final third. A lot of teams in Quebec want players to express themselves,” Nasson Theosmy, sporting director at Club de Soccer St-Hubert, said.
CS St-Hubert was one of the nine organizations the men’s team visited. It developed Choiniere and Jonathan Sirois, 23, a regular call-up as Canada’s third-choice goalkeeper.
This is not to suggest creative players are not being developed across Canada but in Montreal, creativity on the ball is encouraged.
“When you watch soccer in different parts of this country, you’ll see different styles. Here, you’re seeing more of a technical approach to the game,” Rossi says.
It is no surprise a more technical approach that favours creativity is the way the modern game is trending.
Kone is leading the charge. His blend of power and smoothness on the ball in a No 8 role has seen him vault from semi-professional soccer in Montreal through MLS and the English Championship (the second tier) with Watford to one of France’s leading teams, Marseille, in less than four years. While an ankle injury kept him out of Canada’s October camp, Kone remains a star and his creativity and fearlessness embody the rise of Montreal-born national team players.
Kone and Bombito’s rise is even more remarkable when you consider opportunities for Montreal players to graduate out of local soccer associations are few and far between.
Kone, centre, moved to Marseille from Watford this summer (ABDESSLAM MIRDASS/AFP via Getty Images)
There is the academy of CF Montreal and the MLS club has never been shy about relying on young players for first-team minutes before selling them on. But there is no Quebec-based Canadian Premier League (CPL) team. The CPL mandates heavy under-21 minutes, which provides a platform for young, local players. That is an advantage players in five other provinces enjoy.
Instead, players like Kone and Bombito have been fuelled by the lack of opportunities. And that’s a hardened mentality Marsch desires. There is a feeling of players constantly needing to prove themselves because they know they will not have the scouts around the area that will flock to Toronto.
“There’s no path that’s really established,” Rossi says. “So it takes hustle.”
To harness that hustle, minor soccer associations throughout Quebec have invested more in coaching development. More and more guest speakers from Europe are asked to educate coaches on best practices.
The influence of volunteers has been both a blessing and a curse in Canadian soccer associations. As the sport remained in its infancy in Canada, volunteers kept programs alive, but without professionals with experience and education, players could miss out on the instruction players around the world receive.
But this latest generation has benefitted as Montreal-area clubs have increased efforts to raise money through sponsors. That, in turn, has kept people like Theosmy working full time for 16 years and he has helped produce players like Sirois.
“We now have technical directors working full-time for (minor soccer associations). That’s something we didn’t use to have,” Theosmy said. “It started with kids born in and around 2000. And those are the ages of kids who are now playing for the national team.”
The emergence of national team players from Montreal might just be the start of a larger shift.
“The fact there’s investment in coaching and sacrifices are made for the player, that’s why we’re seeing more French Canadians in the picture,” Crepeau, who was born just outside of Montreal, said. “Hopefully in the future, there will be more players from Edmonton, from Halifax and such.”
Continually high on Marsch’s checklist ahead of the 2026 World Cup is broadening his player pool. As he continues to increase the national team’s reach, he’ll find there is more to Canadian male player development than just Brampton.
Hordes of children leaving Saint-Laurent giddy with excitement at seeing what their future could look like is a start.
“It used to be Toronto,” Bombito says of the unofficial centre of the national team. “But now there’s more players coming from Montreal, it gives kids something to dream about.”
(Top photo: Club de soccer de Saint-Laurent)
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Publish date : 2024-10-10 23:04:00
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