Anyone looking for a nice little foreign club to ADOPT?

[heathgate]

Can't go wrong with the blue and white colour scheme, eh?

The MLS season kicks off tomorrow, but CF Montréal will play 6 away games before opening at home in mid-April -- for reasons altogether unfathomable to me.

Anyway, we're one of the better clubs at fostering homegrown talent -- there are 4 French-speaking Québécois and 4 English Canadians on the squad, plus half-a-dozen Yanks, and a number of European, Hispanic and African players. We actually finished 2nd in the Eastern Conference with 5 Canucks in our regular starting XI, but unfortunately lost to NYCFC in the quarter-finals.

Two of our greatest claims to fame: Thierry Henry coached us for a year, as did Wilfried Nancy, who led the Columbus Crew to the MLS title last year playing De Zerbi ball.

CF Montréal's owners are Italian-Canadian. The Saputos came to Québec from Sicily and became multi-millionnaires famous nationwide for their dairy products. The current family rep is Joey Saputo, who's also well-known as the chairman and majority shareholder of Bologna FC. In fact, back in May, I was having breakfast with an Italian couple at a B&B in Golders Green, and it turned out they were from Bologna! We ended up talking about the Saputo-Montréal-Bologna football nexus for the next hour, lol.

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Remarkably, I will be in Montreal for the Philadelphia game..... we are spending a month in Canada hopping around from Calgary-Banff-Jasper-Vancouver-Kelowna-Montreal-Quebec City- Halifax..... if our flight from Vancouver isn't delayed.... I may just add that game to my plans....if tickets are readily available of course.

 

[Quebec Seagull]

Do Montréal have a nickname, so I can enthusiastically cry "UP THE.......(whatever)!!", when required?

The club were called L'Impact (see the crest in my first image) for nearly 30 years before the owners changed it to just plain ol' CF Montréal. None of the fans was particularly pleased about this, but at least the blue-white-black colours were retained. (Speculation is that it was done in imitation of France clubs, who don't normally having nicknames.) So now we just yell "Allez Montréal!"

CF Montréal, like my NHL Ottawa Senators and Albion, is a small fish in a big pond, with limited means. We don't expect to be title contenders on a regular basis, so continued financial viability is strongly tied to fan identification with the players. We usually start 3 Québécois from our academy, as well as 2 or 3 English Canadians; that ratio applies across the club, so maybe less than half the players hail from Europe and Central/South America. Our managers are usually local or from France -- being able to speak both French and English fluently is a must.

So... UP THE UNDERDOGS !

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[ozzygull]

The club were called L'Impact (see the crest in my first image) for nearly 30 years before the owners changed it to just plain ol' CF Montréal. None of the fans was particularly pleased about this, but at least the blue-white-black colours were retained. (Speculation is that it was done in imitation of France clubs, who don't normally having nicknames.) So now we just yell "Allez Montréal!"

CF Montréal, like my NHL Ottawa Senators and Albion, is a small fish in a big pond, with limited means. We don't expect to be title contenders on a regular basis, so continued financial viability is strongly tied to fan identification with the players. We usually start 3 Québécois from our academy, as well as 2 or 3 English Canadians; that ratio applies across the club, so maybe less than half the players hail from Europe and Central/South America. Our managers are usually local or from France -- being able to speak both French and English fluently is a must.

So... UP THE UNDERDOGS !

.

Can't go wrong with the blue and white colour scheme, eh?

The MLS season kicks off tomorrow, but CF Montréal will play 6 away games before opening at home in mid-April -- for reasons altogether unfathomable to me.

Anyway, we're one of the better clubs at fostering homegrown talent -- there are 4 French-speaking Québécois and 4 English Canadians on the squad, plus half-a-dozen Yanks, and a number of European, Hispanic and African players. We actually finished 2nd in the Eastern Conference with 5 Canucks in our regular starting XI, but unfortunately lost to NYCFC in the quarter-finals.

Two of our greatest claims to fame: Thierry Henry coached us for a year, as did Wilfried Nancy, who led the Columbus Crew to the MLS title last year playing De Zerbi ball.

CF Montréal's owners are Italian-Canadian. The Saputos came to Québec from Sicily and became multi-millionnaires famous nationwide for their dairy products. The current family rep is Joey Saputo, who's also well-known as the chairman and majority shareholder of Bologna FC. In fact, back in May, I was having breakfast with an Italian couple at a B&B in Golders Green, and it turned out they were from Bologna! We ended up talking about the Saputo-Montréal-Bologna football nexus for the next hour, lol.

.

Boo! I follow Toronto FC, they are pants and the only reason is my Canadian Boss is from there and I found a TFC scarf in a charity shop in Reading For £2, but after following them last season I am thinking of gifting it back. Luckily they can’t get relegated, they have started this season with an encouraging 0-0

 

[Quebec Seagull]

TFC did win the MLS championship match -- at home -- vs the Sounders a few years ago, but they've been putrid since, yeah.

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[Quebec Seagull]

4 Québécois on the pitch last night for our 2-1 win in Dallas. Montréal-born and bred Jules-Anthony Vilsaint scored the first goal. Our Canadian-Québécois spine of Sirois (GK), Waterman (CB) and Choinière / Piette (CM) was steady at both ends.

Local products always make dishes taste better, don't they?

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