FIFA U-17 World Cup Team Profile: Canada, More Achievements in Ice Hockey but Cannot Be Underestimated

The Canadian U-17 national team hopes to make history in the U-17 FIFA World Cup. (Twitter @CanadaSoccerEN)

JAKARTA - Canada wants to make history in Indonesia. The 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup is a moment for Canada which has the ambition to make a mark by passing the group stage.

Football is not a popular sport in Canada. This is what has made football develop in the past years. Moreover, Canada already has a world-famous sport, ice hockey. The most anticipated National Hockey League competition in Canada.

Hockey is what brought Canada to the world stage. The aftermath of football in this prosperous country in North America is unheard of.

The Canadian national team has never competed in the World Cup. However, Les Rouges have started to show off in the Gold Cup. In the biggest soccer tournament in the CONCACAF zone, Canada immediately ranked fourth on its debut in 1977.

Since then, Canada has regularly participated in the Gold Cup and won in 1985 and 2000. Canadian football is no longer underestimated even though it has never competed in the World Cup. It's just that football is still inferior to hockey and other sports that have achieved great achievements.

Even though it is a bit slow, the growth of Canadian football is actually showing good progress.

Youth development is also carried out in stages. As a result, the U-17 national team has almost never missed the CONCACAF Cup since 1985. Likewise, in the U-17 World Cup, Canada has tasted it earlier than the senior national team.

Canadian football entered its peak era with the birth of a golden generation led by Alphonso Davies, defender for elite European club Bayern Munich. Davies, who helped lead Bayern to win the 2020 Champions League, is the most expensive player in Canadian football history.

Apart from Davies, there is Jonathan David, who was brought in by Lille with a transfer of 30 million euros in 2020. Now, almost all the players who are the backbone of the national team are scattered in the United States and Europe.

Davies et al also made a charming achievement when they qualified for the 2022 World Cup finals. Even though they only survived the group stage, Canada, with a league that was only founded in 2017, was able to register as a World Cup participant.

In the next edition, the 2026 World Cup, Canada will co-host Mexico and the United States. A rapid development of Canadian football.

Compare this with PSSI, which has had a league since the 1980s, and even though Indonesia has a population of 270 million, it has never once qualified for the World Cup. While PSSI still dreams of hosting the World Cup, Canada has already confirmed the next edition

Interestingly, the Canadian national team at various levels has also shown progress. In the end, football has become part of this country which has a population of 40 million people, especially after the birth of domestic competitions.

Not only at senior level, the U-17 national team has established itself as a force in CONCACAF. Even Canada U-17 is actually no longer a mediocre team. During the CONCACAF U-17 Cup, Canada was only absent twice, in 1983, when it was first held, and 1987.

Furthermore, Canada is never absent. Les Rouges even reached the final even though they ended up runners-up after losing to the United States in the 2011 CONCACAF U-17 Cup.

In the 2023 edition, Canada reached the semifinals and thus pocketed a ticket to the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia. This was Canada's eighth appearance at the youth World Cup.

During their participation in the U-17 World Cup, Canada never got past the group stage. However, while in Indonesia, The Canucks are targeting better performance or at least qualifying from the preliminary round first.

In order to meet this target, Canada U-17 specifically underwent a training camp. Director of Youth Development for the Canadian Football Association (CSA), Andrew Olivieri, who is also the coach of the U-17 national team, said that this training camp aims to build unity and strengthen the team's collective play.

Their mentality is also strengthened so that they have the courage to show their best performance when competing in Indonesia.

"This talented young player needs experience and can rise to the highest level of the world game. The player is taking part in a training camp program so he can fulfill the target of qualifying for the knockout rounds for the first time at the FIFA U-17 World Cup," said Olivieri.

Olivieri said the FIFA U-17 World Cup was very important for the development of the Canadian youth national team.

From the youth championship, Canada U-17 can move on to the CONCACAF U-20 championship and the FUFA U-20 World Cup. Furthermore, they are projected to compete in various CONCACAF tournaments, the Olympics, and the World Cup.

Canada is taking the right and appropriate steps in developing young soccer players in stages. There is nothing instant in developing young athletes.