To say that the 2025 season was one to forget for CF Montréal supporters would be an understatement.

An on-field collapse led the Bleu-Blanc-Noir organization — one that seemed distinctly disorganized — to go from wanting to ‘win a cup’ at the start of January, to declaring a rebuild in an open letter to fans by the end of July.

All that, while an ever-tightening of the purse strings continued from club ownership, leading to another splash into the intra-league market (more on that later) that yet again failed to yield the desired returns.

The club managed to achieve one goal — to develop local, Canadian talent — through the sale of prodigy Nathan Saliba to Belgium’s RSC Anderlecht, where the midfielder has since flourished, the high points were few and far between heading into 2026.

Related read: CF Montréal execs vow to rebuild and ‘launch a new chapter’ amidst historically poor season

2025 in review

If the club’s cold open to the season — literal, in this case, as their first seven matches came on the road due to Stade Saputo not being winterized, and renovations at Olympic Stadium — was any indication, there were going to be no trophies even remotely in sight.

A winless start through 11 games (3 draws, 8 losses) saw second-year head coach Laurent Courtois canned before the club even made it to their first home game in Montréal on April 12. Club legend and assistant coach Marco Donadel was given the reins, holding the interim tag until three days after the club’s final game of the regular season, a 3-0 loss to FC Cincinnati.

The club were bounced from the Leagues Cup group stages after losses to Liga MX’s Deportivo Toluca and Club Puebla, and worse yet, dumped out of the Canadian Championship in the quarter-finals by the CPL’s Forge FC for a second year running.

New designated player acquisition Giacomo Vrioni, arriving from the New England Revolution via trade, was a swing and a miss owing to his extensive injury record, while the club also shelled out big general allocation money (GAM) sums for defenders Jalen Neal and Efrain Morales.

Neal and Morales only combined for 1,617 minutes in CF Montréal shirts.

Instead, it was the relatively cheap acquisition of Prince Owusu from Canadian Classique rivals Toronto FC that was the most successful, as the Ghanaian striker supplied the club with 17 goals and 3 assists from 40 matches in all competitions.

His firepower helped CFMTL narrowly avoid Wooden Spoon honours, edged out by Atlanta United (29th) and DC United (30th) in the Supporters’ Shield standings, with a somewhat respectable finish.

With the departure of Saliba, two more academy homegrowns in Owen Graham-Roache and Aleksandr Guboglo were given their debuts in 2025 to continue the pipeline, though still early doors in the grand scheme of things.

Courtesy: CF Montréal

Arrivals and Departures

IN:OUT:Félix Samson (homegrown)Tom Pearce (buyout)Dagur Dan Þórhallsson (trade)Fernando Álvarez (option declined)Brayan Vera (trade)Bryce Duke (option declined)Josh-Duc Nteziryayo (homegrown)Giacomo Vrioni (option declined)Daniel Ríos (free agent)Alessandro Biello (option declined)Samsy Keita (homegrown)Matías Cóccaro (buyout)Wikelman Carmona (trade)Dante Sealy (trade)Noah Streit (transfer)Jonathan Sirois (trade)Ivan Losenko (loan)Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty (trade)Tomás Avilés (loan)

The club has lost some key players this winter, and how the replacements fare in their absence could make or break their season.

Three of those players were traded for other assets. Jonathan Sirois was dealt to FC Dallas for cash, as was Dante Sealy to the Colorado Rapids, while Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty was sent to Red Bull New York for midfielder Wiki Carmona. Giacomo Vrioni and Bryce Duke were among the players who had their contract options decline, making them free agents, while Tom Pearce and Matías Cóccaro were bought out by the club.

Some of that money was used to bring in players with MLS experience, including defenders Brayan Vera (Real Salt Lake) and Dagur Dan Þórhallsson (Orlando City), while Daniel Ríos was signed as a free agent after spending 2025 on loan at the Vancouver Whitecaps from Chivas de Guadalajara.

Time will tell if they have signed enough quality to add to their existing core and have a run at the playoffs in 2026, or if this is simply the first stage of the team’s rebuild.

Key Offseason Quotes

“We take a lot of pride in playing in front of our fans in Montréal and we’re determined to see our home record vastly improve next season. As players, we rely on our most loyal supporters to help us create a hostile environment for our visitors. We’re certain that we’ll be stronger together.” – CF Montreal captain Sam Piette

“I have a long history and great memories with this city. First, as a player and now as a member of the coaching staff. I would like to thank the Club for trusting me to continue to lead the squad.” – CF Montreal head coach Marco Donadel

Courtesy: CF Montréal

What are the club’s 2026 ambitions?

For one, to be better than they were in 2025. That’s the easy part.

The more difficult part? As an organization, progress with their ‘rebuild’, regain the support of the supporters groups as they alluded to in their July open letter, and restore the ‘grinta’ spirit championed by CFMTL greats like Donadel and Jason di Tullio.

In theory, it’s not the most impossible task.

Towards the end of last season, the on-field product already seemed to be more cohesive, stringing together valuable wins away at New England and Charlotte in July and September.

The club caught a good wave of form from someone like Dante Sealy, and while Sealy is now gone thanks to a trade with the Colorado Rapids, they’ve added Dagur Dan Þórhallsson, who had a similar profile with Orlando City, albeit in fits and starts.

MLS regulars Brayan Vera and Tomas Avilés stand to be decent adds at the back and loanee midfielder Ivan Losenko looks to be a good foil to Victor Loturi in centre midfield. Additional time for DP attacker Iván Jaime to become settled within the squad after arriving last summer will never hurt, either.

Optimistically, there seem to be actual goals in this side — and not just Josef Martínez (2024) or Owusu (2025) shouldering the load on their own — for the first time in a long time, if preseason results are anything to go by. If everything clicks, it’s not absurd to think they could be in for a wild card shout.

Courtesy: CF Montreal

Three key players

Prince Owusu

For all that was said above, Owusu will still need to produce the goods for Montréal this season if they’re going to have a chance at knocking on the playoff door. He seems to have found this groove in MLS after a decent 2024 for TFC and now a solid 2025 for CFMTL — now he just needs to show the type of consistency that a) makes a good #9 and b) he’s never truly shown before in his career.

Iván Jaime

It’s easy to single out the designated players on an MLS roster, sure, but that’s also a trope for a reason. Jaime arrived in Montréal with less than ten matches remaining in the season. Not a lot of time for a player to get accustomed to a new team, a new league and a new continent.

However, looking at once-fellow Porto teammate Stephen Eustáquio‘s start with LAFC in Concacaf Champions Cup action, the pedigree is there for Jaime to be the high-impact winger — or number 10 — that Donadel will need him to be to warrant extending his loan past the end of June.

Aleksandr Guboglo

Eighteen-year-old right back Aleksandr Guboglo had a breakout season with CF Montreal in 2025, his first professional season. He made his senior debut last March after several years in the academy, making 27 appearances in all competitions, with 23 of those coming in MLS play.

He is the latest MLS-quality player to come out of the Montreal youth setup, and could be set to play an even bigger role in 2026. The pacy fullback, who can also play on the left, is very highly regarded, and seen as a player for the present and the future, if another club doesn’t poach him that is. He also made appearances for the Canadian U18s and U20s last year after switching over from the Haitian youth teams, and could very well find himself in the senior Canada setup over the next few years.

By: Brandon Que, Benedict Rhodes