By Canadian Press

After Copa success, Marsch hopes Canadian men’s team can recruit more dual nationals

Jul 16, 2024 | 2:30 PM

MONTREAL — Canada coach Jesse Marsch hopes his team’s success at Copa America will have dual nationals thinking twice about playing for a different country.

Hired in May as John Herdman’s successor, Marsch helped Canada to a sensational run at the Copa — his first tournament as manager.

Canada defeated Venezuela on penalty kicks in the quarterfinal before falling 2-0 to eventual champions Argentina and Lionel Messi in the semis. The Canadians then gave heavily favoured Uruguay a run for their money in the consolation final, but lost 4-3 on penalties after giving up an injury-time equalizer to Luis Suarez.

“Maybe some players were thinking that the opportunity to go to a different nation might be better because they might be able to compete more at the international level,” Marsch said Tuesday at Centre Nutrilait, CF Montreal’s training facility. “I think that now that we’ve shown that we can compete, the recruitment process I think will hopefully be a little bit easier and cleaner.

“(We can) say: ‘Come to Canada and we can really make some big waves in the World Cup in 2026.’”

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Canada gains automatic entry to the next World Cup as a co-host with the United States and Mexico. Marsch said he’s identified “up to 10” dual nationals to evaluate as he looks to build the strongest roster possible for 2026.

The 50-year-old American didn’t divulge any names, but that list likely includes striker Daniel Jebbison of Premier League side AFC Bournemouth, winger Luca Koleosho of England’s Burnley and fullback Mohamed Farsi of Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer, among others.

There’s also the case of Vancouver Whitecaps captain Ryan Gauld. The 28-year-old is a Scottish footballer but has not been cap-tied by the national team. He could apply for Canadian citizenship by 2025 and eventually get a call-up to Canada’s team.

Canada hasn’t always had success with dual nationals. Calgary-born Owen Hargreaves, a Champions League winner with European giants Bayern Munich and Manchester United, famously chose to play for England in the early 2000s after a snub from Canada’s under-17 team.

Toronto-born Jonathan de Guzman, the younger brother of former Canadian captain Julian de Guzman, played for the Netherlands after gaining citizenship there during his career. And Calgary-born defender Fikayo Tomori, currently with Italian side AC Milan, chose to play for England.

Helped also by getting to the 2022 World Cup, Canada has done a better job attracting dual nationals in recent years. The side Marsch is managing is full of them, including marquee Canadians Alphonso Davies (Liberia), Jonathan David (United States) and Stephen Eustaquio (Portugal).

Luc de Fourgerolles, an 18-year-old born in England to a father from Montreal, won his first Canadian cap against Uruguay.

Marsch said he’ll call on Canada Soccer general secretary and chief executive officer Kevin Blue and Canada’s top players to help recruit even more.

“Kevin Blue is here today and he is an incredible recruiter, as I learned in how he got me here,” Marsch said. “We’re going to be calling on him and his experiences, I’m going to be doing some travelling and communicating, we’re asking some of our leaders in the team to also be part of the recruitment process.

“We’re identifying and then having the types of conversations to find the right kinds of players, dual nationals, to fit into what we’re doing moving forward.”

Despite seeking to add players, Marsch said he put up a sign of “26 for 26” — or 26 players for the 2026 World Cup — at the start of Copa to drive home that each player on his roster had a chance of being back.

“Every player in that room at that time was in pole position,” he said. “Their job is to develop and to push themselves and to adapt, and to understand what my standards are for the team moving forward, and their job was to make sure that they didn’t let their position slip.

“A lot of the players in the time we had together developed and adapted incredibly well.”

Marsch is also focused on discovering more players at home after witnessing little-known 24-year-old Moïse Bombito hold his own at centre back against some of the world’s best.

He said his “day job” is to help make the national team better, but “my passion project is to develop the sport in this country and create better infrastructure at youth levels, so that we’re developing players faster and better.”

“It is unacceptable that a player like Moïse Bombito is not discovered until he’s 23 years old,” he said. “I’ve coached some of the best centre backs in the world. And this is what I told him — I’ve coached (Dayot) Upamecano, (Ibrahima) Konate, (Josko) Gvardiol, and his talent level is in that category.

“We have to find a way as a Canadian soccer community, how to create better infrastructure … we’ve got to be able to tilt the bar from players being identified and developed at 22, 23, 24 years old and be able to do it more at 16, 17, 18, 19 years old.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2024.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press