Brampton Soccer at the World Cup

With the release of Canada’s squad for the 2022 Qatar World Cup we can finally have the conversation about “Brampton Soccer at the World Cup”. Other than BramptonSoccer.com most publications and media outlets have largely ignored the fact that Brampton’s soccer culture has contributed greatly to Canada’s recent successes on the global stage and ostensibly pushed the national program over the line to Qatar. (Think of Osorio’s equalizer against Mexico at the Azteca.)

Thankfully the rest of Canada has started to notice and discuss Brampton soccer at the World Cup. The Toronto Star recently published an article titled “Brampton versus the world: How the sprawling city produced the core of Canada’s World Cup team” and while it’s missing a lot of information about our rich and vibrant soccer community contained within the flower city’s limits, it is at the very least, some well deserved recognition for the ‘suburb’ that’s often discounted and disregarded.

“When the seismic moment of qualification came on a frigid Sunday afternoon in March, it was Buchanan, Larin and Hoilett who scored the goals that defeated Jamaica and punched Canada’s ticket. Getting it done Brampton-style.”

Joe Callaghan – Special to the Toronto Star

Callaghan isn’t wrong.

Why Brampton? What’s so special about Brampton soccer?

“Well, immigration for a start. This minority-majority melting pot of 650,000 people is a new home to plenty who have come to Canada from soccer-crazed homelands.”

Joe Callaghan – Special to the Toronto Star

Anyone that’s played soccer in Brampton, as either a youth soccer participant, adult athlete still striving for the ‘next level’ or casual fanatic whose ideal social situation is to run around on a Sunday with people they’ve grown to care about through the shared cause of winning ‘meaningless**’ games will understand that the diaspora’s that comprise Brampton as a community are what provides the richest and most vibrant soccer culture in perhaps the entire country and that counts for something.

**Anyone that’s played at any level understands that there is no such thing as a ‘meaningless’ soccer game – every game, every minute of the full 90 is meaningful in one way or another and those that don’t play, to their misfortune, will never get to share in that.

“The immigrant determination to rise and to prove oneself has been a hallmark of Herdman’s new Canada, backboned by first-, second- and next-generation Canadians. They speak of creating new histories and defying old ways. It seems only fitting, then, that it should be a place like Brampton that accounts for such a startling majority of the squad.”

Joe Callaghan – Special to the Toronto Star

In sum Brampton soccer at the World Cup is something that each and everyone one of us that has ever set foot on a Brampton pitch, whether to play for Brampton Adult Soccer, Brams United, Brampton Hitmen, Brampton Portuguese, Brampton East, OKD, etc. should be immensely proud of. We’re not out there winning games for Canada, but our collective determination to be part of our community’s vibrant soccer culture is what has allowed it to grow and flourish. Keep it up Brampton soccer, keep it up.

We highly recommend reading the Toronto Star article and while you’re at it, order yourself a little something-something from Tonino’s.