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jersey swap A \u201cjersey swap\u201d in Toronto\u2019s Little Italy quickly turned into a giveaway Saturday April 4, 2026 (CP24 photo). <\/p>\nSoccer fans in Little Italy scored a surprise as a planned \u2018jersey swap\u2019 became a giveaway, letting them keep old kits and leave with new Canadian gear. <\/p>\n
What was billed as a \u201cjersey swap\u201d in Toronto\u2019s Little Italy quickly turned into a giveaway Saturday morning, as soccer fans who arrived with Italian shirts were told they could keep them \u2014 and still walk away in new Canadian threads.<\/p>\n
The twist, part of Canada Soccer\u2019s push to rally support ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, was aimed at Italian-Canadians who have long been a driving force behind the sport\u2019s growth in the country. <\/p>\n
Officials say it was a symbolic campaign to bring more fans under one flag without asking them to give up their roots.<\/p>\n
The event, held outside Caf\u00e9 Diplomatico on College Street, drew massive crowds early this morning, with hundreds lining up ahead of the 10 a.m. start.<\/p>\n
Paulo Senra, Canada Soccer\u2019s chief communications & content officer, said he walked down the line and told each fan that a trade-in was no longer required. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some tears, a lot of joy, a lot of hugs, and overwhelmingly people were just super excited to go home and be able to don the red jersey this summer,\u201d Senra said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week\u2026 we actually launched a new brand campaign for the World Cup. It\u2019s called \u2018Our Game Now,\u2019 and it\u2019s a bold new campaign to say to Canadians, that soccer is no longer on the sidelines.”<\/p>\n
More than 100 jerseys were distributed in just over an hour, according to Senra, with supply running out shortly after.<\/p>\n
Fans who missed out still left with merchandise, including scarves, hats and more than 500 posters handed out on site.<\/p>\n
jersey swap A \u201cjersey swap\u201d in Toronto\u2019s Little Italy quickly turned into a giveaway Saturday April 4, 2026 (CP24 photo). <\/p>\n
The event was deliberately staged in a neighbourhood synonymous with Italian-Canadian soccer culture, a community Senra said has shaped the sport in Canada for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been communities in this country that have actually built up this sport in our country for decades, including the Italian Canadians,\u201d he said. \u201cToday was about honoring their dedication to the sport\u2026 by giving away free jerseys in order to have massive amounts of support when our guys take the field in less than 70 days here in Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some fans, the moment was as much about identity as it was about the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeels great. Proudly Canadian. I got a jersey for it\u2026 feels great,\u201d one attendee told CTV News.<\/p>\n
Senra, reflecting on the setting, said the choice of Little Italy was personal as well as symbolic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been hanging out in this community (for years). I have cried on this patio over the last 30 years. This is the heartbeat of soccer in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campaign comes after Italy\u2019s failure to qualify for the 2026 tournament, leaving many supporters without a team and giving Canada Soccer an opening to grow its base ahead of a tournament set to be played, in part, on home soil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer fans in Little Italy scored a surprise as a planned \u2018jersey swap\u2019 became a giveaway, letting them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[712,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-582284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582284","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=582284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}