514 to Qatar: This weekend's World Cup quarter-finals match has a player from Montreal
Montreal’s Moroccan population has two things to be excited about it at this World Cup. The first one, of course, is that Morocco has advanced to the quarter-finals and is one of only eight remaining teams left in the tournament.
The other is the fact that the national team’s star goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou, is actually a Montreal native.
View this post on Instagram
That’s right, the 31-year-old Sevilla keeper was born here in la belle province.
- You might also like:
- There's a new professional women's soccer league coming to Canada
- "Four years to build": Davies, Herdman look ahead to Canada hosting 2026 FIFA World Cup
So why hasn’t Bounou, ever represented Canada?
At the age of three, Bounou and his Moroccan-born parents left Montreal for Casablanca. it was there that his love for soccer developed. By the time he was eight, he was playing for one of Morocco’s premier youth athletic clubs, Wydad AC.
When it came time to turn pro, Bounou was eligible to represent Canada or Morocco on the international stage at the 2012 Toulon Tournament. He opted for the latter, representing his country of heritage and of residence at the under-20 tournament.
Since then he has played most of his professional career in Spain’s La Liga. Ironically, Bounou made two pivotal saves during the round of 16 penalty shoot-out against Spain, leading to Morocco qualifying for the quarter-finals for the first time in history.
So, with Canada officially eliminated from the tournament, Quebecers looking for a team to cheer for may have just found one.
Morocco will face off against Portugal on Saturday, December 10 at 10 am ET.