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Canada's Cyle Larin (9) celebrates after scoring his sides first goal of the game in the second half of the World Cup Group B soccer match between Canada and Bosnia, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Toronto. (AP Photo/Sam Balkansky)
By The Canadian Press

Brampton, Ont., is Canada’s soccer factory with six players on national team

Jun 17, 2026 | 3:10 PM

Sigma FC usually holds its training sessions on Thursday evenings, but co-founder Bobby Smyrniotis is giving everyone the night off when Canada plays Qatar in the FIFA men’s World Cup.

Many of Sigma’s players are from Brampton, Ont., the hometown of six players on Canada’s men’s senior team, the most of any city in the country. Smyrniotis doesn’t want the players in his development academy to miss out on seeing who they could become some day.

“It’s to make sure everyone is watching the game. That’s a very important thing,” said Smyrniotis, who is also the head coach and technical director for Forge FC of the Canadian Premier League. “These are memorable moments for soccer in this nation. We need to make sure that everyone that’s involved in the game is indulging in it and we’re not taking away from it.

“I hope that all across the country there are no soccer games, there are no training sessions going on tomorrow during the game, because we need everyone watching this.”

Midfielders Jonathan Osorio, Tajon Buchanan, Liam Millar, and Jayden Nelson as well as forwards Cyle Larin and Promise David are all from the large suburb northwest of Toronto. Those six make Brampton the No. 1 producer of men’s national soccer team players, outstripping larger centres like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Larin, whose goal-scoring prowess earned him the nickname “The Brampton Bagsman” with his teammates at English club Southampton, scored the tying goal in Canada’s 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday in Toronto.

“I jokingly say we just tell the players to drink the water,” Paula Phillips, executive director of the Brampton Soccer Club, said with a laugh.

“I believe it starts from the coach and the message they put to the players: ‘if this is what you want, this is what you’re going to have to do to achieve that,’ They really push the players, so the passion and commitment comes from the volunteer parents that want to coach because they have a love of the game, and they pass it on.”

Sigma FC is based in neighbouring Mississauga, Ont., but has developed many players from Brampton, including Larin. Smyrniotis said municipal infrastructure has had a huge impact on soccer in Peel Region.

“When Sigma started in 2005, there wasn’t much from a facilities standpoint or turf field that allowed you to train longer, train into the winter months,” said Smyrniotis, who also coached national team midfielder Richie Laryea. “That started to change in 2007. You started seeing more turf fields, you started seeing each of the municipalities, the ones I know best in Mississauga and Brampton, start investing to allow players to play outdoors longer.

“They also started investing in indoor centres as well, that kept players training on a proper pitch 10 to 11 months a year as opposed to me, growing up many years ago in Toronto and you’re six months on the pitch and six months in a gymnasium.”

Phillips agreed that the City of Brampton has had a huge impact on her club’s ability to plan soccer programs year-round.

“They maintain all the fields, they line them, they put the nets up,” said Phillips, who also gave credit to the local school boards for their help maintaining fields. “If there’s something we need, we could contact the mayor’s office and he’ll take the time to sit and talk to us because he’s huge into the promotion of youth, as is the rest of the city.”

Phillips and representatives of the Brampton Soccer Club will be running a booth at the City of Brampton’s watch party Thursday night. Garden Square in the city’s downtown will have the match on a big screen, another initiative to engage local youth.

“We will be there to support them, 100 per cent,” said Phillips. “It’s about pride, and I guess almost gratitude, because the current six players, and even the alumni, they never hesitate to say where they came, which is to me very heartwarming, very heartfelt.

“They could say, ‘yeah, OK, I’m from Toronto,’ when people from outside of Canada ask ‘where are you from?'”

Aidan Nagy, a former Sigma FC player who played alongside Larin and Laryea, said that even as a youth player he was struck by the culture surrounding Brampton’s soccer teams.

“Just the eagerness to let their play do the talking,” said Nagy. “There’s always a lot of talking from coaches and parents and sometimes that would seep into the kids but from what I remember playing any team from Brampton, especially the (Brampton Soccer Club), was just the willingness to put their heads down and prove themselves on the field without talking smack or anything like that.

“I think as we grew up and started to grow into our teens, those guys just carried like a humility with them that was not surprising to see based on how they acted as like 9, 10, 11 year olds.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press


by The Canadian Press