On a rainy Thursday night in late March, the atrium of Brampton City Hall was abuzz.
Holding soccer balls and sporting their red-and-white jerseys, excited children cheered and clapped as Atiba Hutchinson, Doneil Henry, Cyle Larin, Liam Millar, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Jonathan Osorio, Tajon Buchanan, Junior Hoilett and Paul Stalteri arrived for the evening’s festivities.
It was a raucous welcome for Canada’s former and current male soccer players. Their families were also in the crowd, beaming with pride.
The March 26 event was a homecoming for the players. It was on the school grounds and soccer fields of Brampton that they dreamed as young boys of one day representing Canada on the sport’s global stage.
As Canada gets set to open up its World Cup campaign on home soil this afternoon, no other city has nearly as much representation in the national team as Brampton. So much so that, according to local officials, Brampton has been recognized as the “soccer city” of the country.
“I remember when I first joined the team, and the guys asked me where I was from, and I said, Brampton. And the first thing they said to me was, ‘Oh, not another one,’” recounted Millar, who played his first match with the national team in 2018.
“And so, you know, there were so many guys from this team who’ve been at Brampton. That’s a real identity of our team. I think it really brings in the family culture of our team, where we’re from, because we’re such a family-orientated city.”
There are at least 10 active players on the men’s national soccer team who trace their beginnings to the green turfs of Brampton. Six of them—Buchanan, Millar, Larin, Osorio, Promise David and Jayden Nelson—will wear the red and white on the World Cup pitch.
Asked about how a city of nearly 800,000 people just northwest of Toronto can account for nearly a quarter of Canada’s World Cup roster, Millar shared that growing up, “there was always a soccer ball.”
“We just had that soccer first mentality when I was here. So, I think that really made me and probably a couple other guys just really lock in and play soccer more than playing other sports, and I felt like that was a big difference,” he said.
“That’s my biggest memory from when I was here, and I think that’s the biggest difference.”
The 26-year-old midfielder currently plays professional soccer for Hull City in the English Football League Championship, which is one level below the Premier League.
Millar, who was born in Toronto, started playing soccer at the age of four for the Brampton Youth SC, where most of his fellow teammates got their start.
“Whether you’re playing at your local park or you’re playing at your school, it seems like everybody was always wanting to play soccer when I was a kid, where I feel like in some parts of Canada, that just wasn’t the case,” said Millar, who spent some of his time playing on the soccer pitch at Creditview Sandalwood Park.
“It didn’t matter what you looked like. Everyone was always involved playing soccer. Everyone was always doing everything.”
Millar, who lived about two minutes away from downtown Brampton before moving to England for an opportunity with the Fulham Academy, said he will always be proud to tell others where he’s from.
“I’m very open and honest that I’m from Brampton,” he said. “So, I’m very open and honest. All the guys are, too.”
‘Big dreams can start’ in Brampton: former captain
For former men’s soccer captain Hutchison, who is now retired after playing for two decades, Brampton was where he fell in love with the game.
“Growing up here, I never imagined that one day I would have the chance to play in a World Cup, and that Canada would one day host the World Cup. And now, not only are we hosting it, we have a national team that truly believes we can go far,” the six-time Canada’s men’s player of the year remarked at the March 26 event, garnering him cheers from the crowd.
“It shows every young player in this city that big dreams can start right here on the same fields and parks we all grew up on.”
Hutchison was one of the players Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty looked up to as he started playing soccer.
He hopes to inspire other Brampton kids to pursue their dreams, just as Hutchison did for him.
In Marshall-Rutty’s view, players like Hutchison and Stalteri helped build the foundation in Brampton. Those two are part of why Brampton continues to produce soccer players for Team Canada, Marshall-Rutty said.
“It’s not just Brampton. It’s Canada as a whole, you know. You see so many talented players coming through, and I think we’re finally showing the world that we’re pretty good at soccer as well,” the 21-year-old said.
“It’s just our turn now to kind of, you know, carry it on. So, yeah, it’s going good.”
Marshall-Rutty played his first match for the national team in a friendly in January. He currently plays as defender for the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer.
He credited his coach and several Brampton soccer clubs for helping him get his start in the sport. Marshall-Rutty played other sports before deciding to stick with soccer.
“I think that the level when I was a kid and the way they pushed me kind of set me up for kind of where I am today. So, yeah, I’m so, so grateful for what Brampton as a whole gave me,” he said.
Marshall-Rutty is glad to see that the city continues to invest in soccer facilities and keep growing the sport, which, he said, could lead to the discovery of more potential players.
“There’s definitely talented kids in the city, so just kind of giving them the opportunity, whether that’s building more fields, making better facilities,” he said. “I think we’re going in the right direction. I think just giving more kids opportunities from wherever they are in Brampton, I think, is going to be key for our country.”
Brampton boasts 133 outdoor soccer fields, three year-round indoor turf fields, and four seasonal indoor turf fields.
Marshall-Rutty and Millar hopes the events planned by the city during the World Cup will encourage children in Brampton to keep playing soccer.
“I always try to look back at moments in my life where I made a big difference, where I met people, and I feel like this could be a moment for some of the young kids when they meet us, and maybe one day some of these kids will play with us. So, it’s been great to see them, and it definitely makes me think about my own journey,” Millar said.
The Canadian men, who lost all group stage matches in 2022, will kick off their campaign in Toronto at 3 p.m. against Bosnia and Herzegovina. They will then face Qatar and Switzerland in Vancouver.
“We’re ready, focused, and calm,” Marshall-Rutty said back in March. “We’re going to show the world what we can do.”
Millar added, “We’re ready to take on anyone who comes at us.”
