Fired-up Shaffelburg has plenty to prove

Jacob Shaffelburg knows he has work to do this upcoming MLS season.

“I’m not a young player anymore, I’m 25,” he said over the phone last week following Nashville SC’s preseason game against DC United. “I expect a lot more of myself, especially being someone the young guys might look up to now. So, just keeping a high standard every day – whether that’s getting after it right away [in training] or jogging to the next drill and being the first one there – set the standards.”

Shaffelburg is always cheery, but he's also beginning to sound like a guy who doesn’t want to buy into the hype he created last summer.

Shaffelburg was Canada’s out-of-nowhere shooting star during last summer’s Copa América, when his blazing energy down Canada’s flank made him an asset to head coach Jesse Marsch and a bit of a media darling. His friendly, open smile, coupled with his curly mop of hair and slaloming runs made “Maritime Messi” a fun and alliterative nickname.

Shaffelburg has never liked it, which is understandable when you consider how a self-effacing Maritimer could feel like he's being compared to one of the greatest athletes ever. He just isn't the type to draw that kind of attention to himself.

“I’m just trying to be the best I can every day and be a leader,” Shaffelburg said when asked about how he'll transfer his 2024 international success to his club team.

Shaffelburg played a career-high 1,400 league minutes for Nashville in 2024, but only scored two goals from his attacking position, compared to five in 13 appearances for Canada.

Shaffelburg says Nashville SC head coach B.J. Callaghan “got under his skin” this preseason, and he appreciated it. TSN wasn’t able to schedule time to speak to Callaghan, but his exacting preseason message to Shaffelburg, and the entire team, can be gleaned from Nashville’s in-season docuseries Made In Gold.

“The things that made you what you were and viable to get to this seat aren’t going to be the things that continue to make you viable,” Callaghan said in a recorded team meeting. “If you’re an older player, the threshold to make mistakes is smaller. The standard is going to be that you should know better.”

As mellow as Shaffelburg always appears to be, his tone changes when discussing how Callaghan's approach has helped him find a fuse within himself that he intends to light this season.

“It’s a ‘let’s do it this year’ type of thing,” Shaffelburg said. “It’s not like another preseason, you come in and you’re getting the work done… it’s like let’s f---ing do this. Let’s do the work. Let’s do it right and let’s f---ing do something this year. [Callaghan] got that across to me, and I’m super grateful that he did.”

For a player who has admitted in the past that he likes to keep his game uncomplicated and straightforward – like all his one-way runs down the sidelines – a new burning desire to want to be more deliberate and do more for his team can sound a bit out of character. But it also sounds like an approach Shaffelburg's national team coach would very much appreciate.

Alongside central defenders Derek Cornelius and Moïse Bombito, Shaffelburg has benefitted greatly from Marsch’s arrival. Before Marsch, Shaffelburg’s lone bright spot with the national team was an extra-time goal in Canada’s penalty shootout loss to the U.S. in the semifinals of the 2023 Gold Cup. Now Shaffelburg’s name is regularly on the team sheet among an outfield lineup full of European league winners and must-start talent.

But even with his burgeoning faith in Shaffelburg, Marsch wants plenty more from the midfielder.

“[Shaffelburg] has a lot of steps to go,” Marsch said back in November following Canada’s 3-0 win over Suriname. “The right moments to be inside [down the wing], the right moments to be outside; how to defend; and how to make sure he can sprint over and over and over in a match and play 90 minutes. I don’t think he’s played a 90-minute match for us since I’ve been here.

“For all these guys it’s of course about appreciating the progress they’ve made, but it’s about challenging them on how to move forward. And Shaff, I think, has much more to achieve, but he’s developed a lot and become a very important player for us.”

That importance was best encapsulated 12 minutes into the Copa America quarter-final when Shaffelburg punched right through Venezuela’s defence before depositing Jonathan David’s pass into the net. The goal and celebration – Shaffelburg’s self-described “goofy mood,” tongue-out pantomime and him raising Tajon Buchanan’s jersey up to honour his injured teammate – are together one of the great moments in the recent history of the men’s program.

His wild summer ride brought Shaffelburg instant social media love and sponsorship opportunities. But then he went home to Kentville, N.S., after the MLS season to spend much-needed time with his family, and insists that his father, Dr. Michael Shaffelburg, is more famous in his home province.

“Not even biased, I think he’s the best dermatologist in Nova Scotia,” the younger Shaffelburg said.

It's easy to believe Shaffelburg cares little for notoriety when he gushes over his wife, Robyne, and daughter, Daisy. Beside explaining how hard he’s willing to work to be a leader this MLS season, the only thing Shaffelburg talks more sincerely about is how much he delights in watching four-month-old Daisy smile.

“[Daisy] is coming into a personality now with smiling way more,” Shaffelburg said. “She smiled at me on Facetime a few days ago, so now that is a big achievement – especially with the lifestyle I have with being away quite a bit. It’s nice to see her smiling at me through Facetime, so that was probably my favourite [development in Daisy] as of late."

But family time is over and the new MLS season is here, and after four league games there’s the Concacaf Nations League Final. Then there's this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup – all steps on the road to the 2026 World Cup. Despite that good-natured outlook on life, Shaffelburg can't wait to light that fuse.

He denies that he's thinking about anything other than the work he wants to put into this season, but he's so intent now on showing his value and proving he’s much more than a one-tournament wonder.

"You’re never guaranteed a spot," Shaffelburg said. "No matter who you are, how old you are, how young you are, you’re never really guaranteed that spot. So, if you were in the past, that’s the past.

"That’s how I approach everything: You’ve got to be playing well and do the right things to either get called into that [international] spot, or even if it’s with your club, you’ve got to practise well and you’ve got to play well to continue to keep that spot."