Bim Pepple ready to fulfill dream in Canadian national team debut with World Cup spot to play for

It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon, Bim Pepple remembers, the day before Canada Soccer announced its men’s roster for this month’s international window.

The 23-year-old forward had heard rumours that he might be included for the first time, but his phone hadn’t rung. A little deflated, he settled down for a nap. Plymouth Argyle, his English League One side, would soon have a game to play against Huddersfield. He could use the rest.

He woke up to a WhatsApp message from an unfamiliar number that started with +39, Italy’s country code.

“This is Jesse Marsch,” it began.

Canada’s head coach, texting from his home outside Pisa, was offering an invitation to camp.

“I thought it was a prank,” a beaming Pepple said Thursday at the team’s Toronto hotel.

He played Huddersfield — scoring the 15th goal of his breakout season — before heading to Heathrow for his flight to Pearson. He thought he’d next play Bradford City. Instead, he will don the Canadian jersey for Saturday’s friendly against Iceland at BMO Field.

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Pepple, who was born in the U.K. but moved to Calgary with his family when he was five years old, had harboured mostly private ambitions of playing for the national team.

“I always had it in the back of my mind,” he said. “Some people would say I was delusional, but I always willed it.”

His professional career began with great teenage promise with Calvary in the Canadian Premier League. At 19, his move to England with Luton Town proved less auspicious.

He endured a series of fruitless loans to Grimsby, Bromley, and Inverness, scoring only once in two seasons. He struggled to adapt to the physical play, looking to referees after he’d been felled and fouled,