{"id":487307,"date":"2026-02-20T09:12:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487307\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:12:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:12:37","slug":"can-cf-montreal-take-a-step-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487307\/","title":{"rendered":"Can CF Montreal take a step forward?"},"content":{"rendered":"

To say that the 2025 season was one to forget for CF Montr\u00e9al supporters would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

An on-field collapse led the Bleu-Blanc-Noir organization \u2014 one that seemed distinctly disorganized \u2014 to go from wanting to \u2018win a cup\u2019<\/a> at the start of January, to declaring a rebuild<\/a> in an open letter to fans by the end of July.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The club managed to achieve one goal \u2014 to develop local, Canadian talent \u2014 through the sale of prodigy Nathan Saliba to Belgium\u2019s RSC Anderlecht, where the midfielder has since flourished, the high points were few and far between heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

Related read: CF Montr\u00e9al execs vow to rebuild and \u2018launch a new chapter\u2019 amidst historically poor season<\/a><\/p>\n

2025 in review<\/p>\n

If the club\u2019s cold open to the season \u2014 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 \u2014 was any indication, there were going to be no trophies even remotely in sight.<\/p>\n

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 Montr\u00e9al on April 12. Club legend and assistant coach Marco Donadel was given the reins, holding the interim tag until three days after the club\u2019s final game of the regular season, a 3-0 loss to FC Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

The club were bounced from the Leagues Cup group stages after losses to Liga MX\u2019s Deportivo Toluca and Club Puebla, and worse yet, dumped out of the Canadian Championship in the quarter-finals by the CPL\u2019s Forge FC for a second year running.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Neal and Morales only combined for 1,617 minutes in CF Montr\u00e9al shirts.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

His firepower helped CFMTL narrowly avoid Wooden Spoon honours, edged out by Atlanta United (29th) and DC United (30th) in the Supporters\u2019 Shield standings, with a somewhat respectable finish.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy: CF Montr\u00e9al<\/p>\n

Arrivals and Departures<\/p>\n

IN:OUT:F\u00e9lix Samson (homegrown)Tom Pearce (buyout)Dagur Dan \u00de\u00f3rhallsson (trade)Fernando \u00c1lvarez (option declined)Brayan Vera (trade)Bryce Duke (option declined)Josh-Duc Nteziryayo (homegrown)Giacomo Vrioni (option declined)Daniel R\u00edos (free agent)Alessandro Biello (option declined)Samsy Keita (homegrown)Mat\u00edas C\u00f3ccaro (buyout)Wikelman Carmona (trade)Dante Sealy (trade)Noah Streit (transfer)Jonathan Sirois (trade)Ivan Losenko (loan)Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty (trade)Tom\u00e1s Avil\u00e9s (loan)<\/p>\n

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

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 Mat\u00edas C\u00f3ccaro were bought out by the club.<\/p>\n

Some of that money was used to bring in players with MLS experience, including defenders Brayan Vera (Real Salt Lake) and Dagur Dan \u00de\u00f3rhallsson (Orlando City), while Daniel R\u00edos was signed as a free agent after spending 2025 on loan at the Vancouver Whitecaps from Chivas de Guadalajara.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s rebuild.<\/p>\n

Key Offseason Quotes<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take a lot of pride in playing in front of our fans in Montr\u00e9al and we\u2019re 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\u2019re certain that we\u2019ll be stronger together.\u201d \u2013 CF Montreal captain Sam Piette<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d \u2013 CF Montreal head coach Marco Donadel <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy: CF Montr\u00e9al<\/p>\n

What are the club\u2019s 2026 ambitions?<\/p>\n

For one, to be better than they were in 2025. That\u2019s the easy part.<\/p>\n

The more difficult part? As an organization, progress with their \u2018rebuild\u2019, regain the support of the supporters groups as they alluded to in their July open letter, and restore the \u2018grinta\u2019 spirit championed by CFMTL greats like Donadel and Jason di Tullio.<\/p>\n

In theory, it\u2019s not the most impossible task.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve added Dagur Dan \u00de\u00f3rhallsson, who had a similar profile with Orlando City, albeit in fits and starts.<\/p>\n

MLS regulars Brayan Vera and Tomas Avil\u00e9s 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 Iv\u00e1n Jaime to become settled within the squad after arriving last summer will never hurt, either.<\/p>\n

Optimistically, there seem to be actual goals in this side \u2014 and not just Josef Mart\u00ednez (2024) or Owusu (2025) shouldering the load on their own \u2014 for the first time in a long time, if preseason results are anything to go by. If everything clicks, it\u2019s not absurd to think they could be in for a wild card shout.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy: CF Montreal <\/p>\n

Three key players<\/p>\n

Prince Owusu <\/p>\n

For all that was said above, Owusu will still need to produce the goods for Montr\u00e9al this season if they\u2019re 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 \u2014 now he just needs to show the type of consistency that a) makes a good #9 and b) he\u2019s never truly shown before in his career.<\/p>\n

Iv\u00e1n Jaime<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to single out the designated players on an MLS roster, sure, but that\u2019s also a trope for a reason. Jaime arrived in Montr\u00e9al 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.<\/p>\n

However, looking at once-fellow Porto teammate Stephen Eust\u00e1quio<\/a>\u2018s start with LAFC in Concacaf Champions Cup action, the pedigree is there for Jaime to be the high-impact winger \u2014 or number 10 \u2014 that Donadel will need him to be to warrant extending his loan past the end of June.<\/p>\n

Aleksandr Guboglo<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

By: Brandon Que, Benedict Rhodes <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To say that the 2025 season was one to forget for CF Montr\u00e9al supporters would be an understatement.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,16535,14701,573,2338],"class_list":{"0":"post-487307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cf-montreal","11":"tag-major-league-soccer","12":"tag-mls","13":"tag-montreal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}