DOHA: As is the case with every World Cup, as it comes to a close, thoughts and focus inevitably shift to the one that comes next. And in the final few days of the World Cup here in Qatar, while there were reflections on how the tournament had panned out in conjunction with the anticipation for Sunday’s final, there were also discussions over how the arrival of the World Cup in Canada — one of the three hosts for the expanded 48-team edition next up — will change the sport there.

Who better than to ask Dwayne De Rosario? De Rosario, who hung up his boots in 2014, was one of the best players produced by Canada. One of the best players to feature in Major League Soccer in the United States, De Rosario was part of the FIFA Legends exhibition tournament that was played here in Qatar during the break between the semi-finals and the final.

While De Rosario spoke about what the upcoming World Cup would mean, he would also reflect on Canada’s performance in Qatar as they made their first appearance at the World Cup since 1986. Canada ended winless as they faced the likes of Belgium, Croatia and Morocco at the group stage with the latter two reaching the semi-finals.

“It’s great to see,” De Rosario told Dawn in an interview on Thursday. “We’ve done a lot in terms of soccer organisation in Canada and the MLS too has contributed hugely for us to see the results here in Qatar.

“I mean a lot of those players, Alphonso Davies, Kyle Larin have come through MLS and have had fantastic careers in Europe. So hopefully for the future, it is an inspiration for the young kids. It’s an inspiration and it’s set a benchmark for Canadian soccer that we now know what it takes to go to the next level but we also know how much more we want to go in terms of football development, coaching development, and development in all aspects and with the World Cup coming to North America, hopefully we will see help that initiative and push it forward a lot sooner.”

De Rosario attributed the change in mindset coming from the fact that Canada Soccer had learnt how to treat the players.

“A lot has changed,” he would go on to say. “There wasn’t VAR when we were playing. There weren’t a lot of things, you can’t take credit away from my generation and the generation before us because I think a lot of things have come in our favour like VAR which helps protect our players in hostile environments.

“And we as an organisation have stepped up in the way we treat our players. It’s more like professionals now with first-class flights, proper hotels, proper staff and these are important things if you want to make it to the next level.

“A lot of people don’t know that, population wise, football has been the number one sport in Canada since the 1990s. Most professional ice hockey players, the stars, all played soccer. But when you got to 15, there was no outlet. Thankfully, the players today have the Canadian Premier League and then the MLS.”

There has also been a steady influx of academies of European clubs which have set foot in Canada.

“I have my own academy and it’s important for players like myself to set up academies as well,” De Rosario added. “A lot of time with these big clubs is that they come here and it’s just their name. But again it’s good because football is growing, more opportunities, more environments and that is what we need.”

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2022