Olympic gold to Qatar 2022? Canada is in danger of becoming a football nation

In keeping with the times, Bill Manning did his own research.

Toronto FC’s president was inspired in his online trawling not by pandemic conspiracies but Canada’s sporting past.

Manning’s stunning and successful pursuit of Napoli and Italy star Lorenzo Insigne ended earlier this month with the winger becoming the richest recruit in Major League Soccer history. It began with Manning in front of a laptop scouring transfermarkt.com for the kind of stop-the-world signing that this moment in Canadian football was calling for, if not demanding.

“Lorenzo Insigne is going to be a player that people want to come see,” Manning said when the deal, which sees Insigne paid $15m a year over the next four years, was confirmed. “We think the World Cup here in Toronto in 2026 [is] going to be a transformational moment for this sport in this country and we want to be at the forefront.”

The transfer’s ambition and execution was impressive. But Manning might have still been a little off on one of his numbers. That transformational moment may come a whole lot sooner than the summer of 2026. In truth there’s a feeling in Canada that over the past six months, it has already begun.

In August the Canadian women’s team claimed historic Olympic gold in Tokyo. Then the men’s team continued their emergence as the most improved side in the world. When you add in the Insigne coup, this has been a period without parallel north of the 49th. On the eve of a six-day international window which could end with Canada qualifying for a men’s World Cup for the first time since the 1980s, the idea that Canada has now become a football nation is inching away from provocative quote tweet territory and towards reality.

“It’s the definition of serious momentum,