Do French Canadians like soccer?

[Michigan Bayern Fan]

Just curious as I recently returned from a Quebec vacation. The Montreal papers cover the game well (both the Gazette and Journal d'Montreal), professionally, internationally, and locally but I do not seen any Francophones on either the men's or women's national teams or the country's three professional teams (Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal). Everyone knows that hockey is a religion in Quebec, but what does the youth pursue in the summer? Soccer, baseball, lacrosse?

[simon99]

Just curious as I recently returned from a Quebec vacation. The Montreal papers cover the game well (both the Gazette and Journal d'Montreal), professionally, internationally, and locally but I do not seen any Francophones on either the men's or women's national teams or the country's three professional teams (Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal). Everyone knows that hockey is a religion in Quebec, but what does the youth pursue in the summer? Soccer, baseball, lacrosse?

Patrice Bernier is a francophone and plays for the MNT. Gabriel Gervais is another one.

Jonathan Beaulieu Bourgeault is playing for the U-20 MNT as well as Olivier Lacoste-Lebuis.

[CanuckFan]

Patrice Bernier is a francophone and plays for the MNT. Gabriel Gervais is another one.

Jonathan Beaulieu Bourgeault is playing for the U-20 MNT as well as Olivier Lacoste-Lebuis.

Also Oliver Occean is in our senior team pool but did not take part in the Gold Cup.

[FrenchCanucks]

Cristian Nunez (U20 squad), Ali Gerba and Andrew Hainault are also from Quebec and speaking french. And if you really wonder if french canadian love soccer, just look at the attendance for the Impact games (always sellout) and at the next saturday games at the Olympique Stadium (55 000 soldout crowd).

The problem is that our TV channel don't have much interest in our national team. RDS (TSN french' version) didn't shown any gold cup game.

[Grizzly]

but I do not seen any Francophones on either the men's or women's national teams or the country's three professional teams (Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal).

There is no harm in asking a question but at least you should take a look at the team's rosters before asking such a question. Others have commented on the national teams but regarding the club teams TFC does have a couple of Quebecers on the development roster and the Impact does have a decent number of Quebecers on the roster of well several of whom are ethnically French Canadians. Gervais and Leduc are the first two who come to mind and both are starters for the Impact.

[TopDogg]

Isn't Ali Gerba also a Francophone?

He's originally from Cameroon, so I would assume his first language is French.

EDIT: Just saw FrenchCanucks' post. Sorry for the repeated info.

[Daniel from Montréal]

Pretty much all national team players out of QC are French or bilingual (Braz is anglo, but bilingual).

French-language broadcast media is horrible. No one covered the Gold Cup and there will be a total of 7 (most tape-delayed) games on Radio-Canada, who is THE HOST BROADCASTER.

They are not even showing the games they are actually hosting (R-C is producing the feed for all Montreal games)!

[pace8]

Guys...the question was more do Quebecers like soccer. Those players that were mentioned are not quebecers really...they are simply francophones. 2 different things. Quebecers do like soccer but not as much as hockey thats for sure.

[Breakwood]

There's alot of support for soccer in Quebec. The Impact's success at the gate show that. But there is no doubt that Canadian football is the number one sport in Quebec durring the summer. But that isn't really all that different than the rest of Canada (except for Toronto, where soccer is becoming the summer sport, overtaking baseball).

[dqma]

Those players that were mentioned are not quebecers really...they are simply francophones.

Incorrect. Andre Hainault and Gervais are Quebecois Franchophone Pure Laine. Occean and Gerba are not old stock quebecois but I think they were born or grew up in quebec.

I heard stories that national team coaches prefer players from BC and Ontario over players from Quebec. But for sure it's no longer true right now if you just look at the number of players from Quebec in the national team.

Soccer is very popular in Quebec, probabaly less popular than hockey. But it's the same thing in other provinces.

[Daniel from Montréal]

Sidenote: Gervais' mom is Peruvian and he grew up in South America.

You mentioned "French Canadians", which is an ethnic group which consists about 80-85% of Québec's total population.

Soccer is popular in Québec. Yes.

[mpok]

My 2 cents, from what i know Quebec leads all provinces in sports investment on any level and Quebecois know and follow all sports more. TV5 and RDS both provide a much better football coverage than english channels. And wasn't Gold Cup only on GolTV in Ontario? Sportsnet had few games on, but MLB always received a priority call.

[metroflip73]

Attended the MTL-PRI game 2 Fridays ago. My buddies and I were unimpressed to start, since we looked at the stands (the one with the player benches) were pretty empty.

Then literally outta nowhere, the opposite side grandstand (with the smoke bomb wielding home fans) filled up to maximum and people sat on the grass. The announced crowd was 12k+, and I believed it. Then the rain came and A LOT of people left. And they missed the goal in stoppage time. Good goal, shame 85% of the crowd elected not to see it.

Also, not bad that Carlsberg is the official beer of the venue. Helped us out a lot. Interestingly enough, it was my first club match that I attended outside of the USA.

I think MTL should get an MLS team. There's enough people who would support the team. Guaranteed.