{"id":784430,"date":"2026-07-06T18:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/784430\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:52:13","slug":"future-of-canadian-soccer-cpl-part-of-world-cup-legacy-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/784430\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Future of Canadian Soccer’: CPL part of World Cup legacy in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada’s 2026 World Cup journey has, sadly, come to an end. This week, the tournament \u2014 for years, anticipated as a turning point for the sport in this country \u2014 will depart Canadian soil.<\/p>\n

As a World Cup host nation, Canada has generally triumphed. Visitors to Toronto and Vancouver have effused on the welcoming nature and party atmosphere in both cities. Canadians have seen our country in the global spotlight, and thousands fell in love with our national team as they made history on the pitch.<\/p>\n

Now comes the next phase.<\/p>\n

The lights will go out, the signs will come down and the world’s attention will move on.<\/p>\n

Here in Canada, the question is: What will be the legacy of hosting the World Cup? And how do we harness a swell of momentum behind the sport?<\/p>\n

Part of that legacy is the day-to-day backbone of Canadian soccer: the club game. Whether that’s the Canadian Premier League, Northern Super League,\u00a0Premier Soccer Leagues Canada<\/a>, or the three MLS sides, the sport continues.<\/p>\n

Soccer will be played on Canadian fields week in and week out, and hundreds of Canadian players keep dreaming of playing at a World Cup.<\/p>\n

Several members of Canada’s World Cup squad returned to Toronto on Sunday and spoke with reporters about the next steps for Canadian soccer.<\/p>\n

“It’s important to go out, support your local teams,” said Tani Oluwaseyi. “You can have teams outside of Canada, but it’s also nice to support the team closest to you.”<\/p>\n

The players pointed specifically at the Canadian Premier League and its importance in strengthening Canada’s soccer ecosystem.<\/p>\n

“This World Cup, I hope, will help with the CPL in this country,” Ali Ahmed said.<\/p>\n

“I hope there will be more eyeballs on the CPL because there is some young talent there. It’s a league of opportunity, a league of hidden talent. Some players could be playing for our national team in the next World Cup.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada’s 2026 World Cup journey has, sadly, come to an end. This week, the tournament \u2014 for years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-784430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784430","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=784430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}