Former Canada captain Marcel de Jong retires from active play

Marcel de Jong, who captained Canada on his 50^th international appearance for Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team, has announced his retirement from football as an active player. Marcel hangs up his boots after a career of more than 15 years as a professional footballer in Netherlands, Germany, USA and Canada.

De Jong represented Canada in three cycles of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, five editions of the Concacaf Gold Cup, and one edition of Concacaf Nations League Qualifying. From 2007 to 2018 with Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team, he made 56 international “A” appearances including the one start as Canada’s captain.

He was 21 years old when he made his debut for Canada on 20 November 2007. Two years later at his first Concacaf Gold Cup, he scored his first international “A” goal in a 2:2 draw with Costa Rica. He later scored international goals against Jamaica and Ghana.

At the club level, de Jong played for youth programs in Netherlands before joining Helmond Sport and then Roda JC, making his Dutch Eredivisie debut at age 19 on 19 August 2006. He later moved to FC Augsburg in Germany and made 41 appearances in the Bundesliga across four seasons. From there, he moved to USA where he helped Sporting Kansas City win the 2015 US Open Cup.

In Canada, de Jong played for Ottawa Fury FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Pacific FC. He was an original member of Pacific FC in the Canadian Premier League in 2019, although missed most of the season through injury. He was back healthy in 2020 and featured in seven of Pacific FC’s 10 matches at the Island Games.

At the international youth level, de Jong represented Canada at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Netherlands 2005 and scored one goal in the group stage. He was 16 years old when he made his debut in the Canadian youth program in 2003 with coach Stephen Hart. He also represented Canada at both the 2003 Concacaf Under-17 Qualification Tournament and the 2005 Concacaf Under-20 Qualification Tournament.