CanMNT storylines to watch ahead of the European club season
Published
Just a month after Canada's historic run to the Copa America semifinals, new challenges are already here for the Canadians playing in Europe as the continent’s top leagues kick off the new club season.
Here's a look at the storylines to follow as the European club season becomes the next stage for Canada's men to build on their summertime momentum.
The futures of Davies, David
There's been constant speculation surrounding Canada's two biggest stars, but everyone is still waiting to find out where Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David will move to next.
With the European transfer window set to close at the end of the month, no deal for Davies (Bayern Munich) or David (Lille) is imminent. Both players' contracts expire next summer, and if neither move before the beginning of September potential suitors can offer pre-contracts with no transfer fee that could then be announced, at the earliest, in January.
Davies’ future has alternated between signing a new Bayern contract or making a big-money move to Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich have started employing some hard negotiating tactics with their Canadian superstar.
In July, honourary team president Uli Hoeness said the German giants are willing to let Davies leave for nothing. If Davies can succeed despite the brinksmanship, it could put him in a strong position to negotiate a new Bayern deal or make the 23-year-old left back one of the most-coveted signings of 2025.
For the second straight summer, David is waiting late into the transfer window for a move. Last season it appeared to affect his early-season form, when David scored just five goals in his first 17 league games. But once the calendar flipped to 2024, David couldn't stop scoring, netting 14 goals in 17 league games.
David needs to score early and needs to score often to stay among Europe's most-desired strikers under 25.
France’s Ligue 1 becoming vital to CanMNT’s growth
No other European league could influence the men's national team early this European season like France's Ligue 1.
David is already one of the league's best forwards with Lille, but the arrival of both Ismael Koné and Derek Cornelius in Marseille shows that team's new head coach Roberto De Zerbi believes Canadians can help Marseille improve on a disappointing eighth-place finish last season.
Koné will have a great chance to reach his potential under De Zerbi, who previously helped develop a pair of top Premier League midfielders in Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister and Chelsea's Moises Caicedo.
Meanwhile, Cornelius gets his first chance at a Top-5 league after successful seasons in Greece and Sweden.
Auxerre made Canadian forward Theo Bair a priority signing following their promotion from Ligue 2 last season. Bair is coming of a breakout season in the Scottish Premiership, where he racked up 15 goals and six assists for Motherwell.
And there will be a Canadian ownership presence in Ligue 1 this season, too. In June, Larry Tanenbaum's Kilmer Sports Group finalized its ownership stake in historic French giants St. Etienne, who return to France's top division after two seasons in Ligue 2.
Canada’s top players need minutes
One of Jesse Marsch's demands coming out of Copa America is that his top players need to be playing significant minutes with their club teams. That will definitely apply to Bair, Cornelius, and Koné after their moves, but certainly also applies to Stephen Eustáquio at FC Porto.
Canada's midfield linchpin made just three league starts for Porto in 2024, and if the 27-year-old can't regain his place in the starting 11, could that make a January move inevitable?
Tajon Buchanan's playing time at Inter will also be a talking point once he returns from his broken leg later this season.
The rising cost of Canadian talent
Major League Soccer's secondary transfer window ends Aug. 14, but teams can still make future deals to transfer players to Europe, while the European transfer window closes at the end of the month. After Canada's run to the semifinals of Copa America, the cost of Canadians has apparently gone up.
Moïse Bombito, Tani Oluwaseyi, Jacen Russell-Rowe, and Jacob Shaffelburg have each garnered European interest, but all of them have seen their MLS price tags go up by millions of dollars, which drags negotiations for potential moves because Canadians are no longer low-cost gems.
Liam Millar's move from Switzerland's FC Basel to Hull City in the English Championship took time because both sides worked out a transfer fee that rose from an initial figure of 2.5 million Euros to 3.5 million.
That's the price of success – not uncommon for countries that make impressive, long tournament runs. Success brings heftier price tags.