Hometown heroes featured on community billboards across the nation

Canada Soccer’s FIFA World Cup heroes will be featured on community billboards across the nation as part of a 2022-23 WeCAN promotion to help inspire Canadians from coast to coast. The first 26 outdoor billboards will celebrate the 26 Men’s National Team players in their home communities during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The Canada Soccer billboards recognise and celebrate the incredible support each community has provided in developing Canada’s heroes into the athletes they are today.

Built around Canada Soccer’s unifying message of WeCAN, the outdoor billboards launched on Sunday 13 November with the announcement of Canada’s official squad for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. This year’s 26 billboards were placed in communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Québec.

Next summer, new billboards will be placed in the home communities of the players selected to Canada’s official squad for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.

To support and inspire Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team, the #WeCAN campaign encourages Canadians to post a video featuring the words ‘We Can’ along with at least one reason why they believe in Canada’s quest at Qatar 2022. At the same time, fans are encouraged to follow Canada Soccer’s digital channels on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube to find extended coverage featuring the hashtag #CANMNT.

CANADA SOCCER’S MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM
Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team are the reigning Kings of Concacaf, having finished first overall in the Concacaf Final Round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers from September 2021 to March 2022. It marked the third time that Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team won a Concacaf title, having previously won the 1985 Concacaf Championship and the 2000 Concacaf Gold Cup.

Across FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Canada posted 14 wins, four draws and just two losses over three rounds as they became the first nation from the region to qualify for Qatar with a 4:0 home win on 27 March 2022 in Toronto. Canada scored a Men’s National Team record 54 goals across the cycle while Cyle Larin set the Canadian record for goals (13), Alphonso Davies set the Canadian record for assists (eight), and Milan Borjan set the Canadian record for clean sheets (nine). Of note, both Larin (13) and Jonathan David (nine) were the top-two goalscorers across all Concacaf nations in 2021-22 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

Throughout the qualifying campaign, Canada set numerous team and individual records, also setting a Concacaf record for the longest undefeated streak in a FIFA World Cup Qualifiers campaign. Canada set their own Men’s National Team records for consecutive wins (eight) and longest home undefeated streak (14 matches). In all, 39 different players represented Canada across FIFA World Cup Qualifiers from March 2021 through March 2022.