BC Represented on the National Stage

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is about to kick off and for the first time, Canada’s Men’s National Team will host World Cup matches on home soil. The same Canadian soil that has produced so many members of the Canadian National Teams.

At the upcoming tournament, there are three players that were born in British Columbia.

Alistair Johnston; 56 caps for Canada and currently plays for Glasgow Celtic in Scotland but was born in Vancouver before moving to Ontario at the age of four.

Joel Waterman; 17 caps for Canada and currently plays for Chicago Fire in MLS. Born in Surrey, raised in Aldergrove, Waterman is a testament to the player pathway coming through the BCSPL, U-Sports, CPL and now MLS.

Niko Sigur; 17 caps for Canada and currently plays for Hajduk Split in Croatia. He was born in Burnaby and won a BCSPL title before moving on to U-Sports which then lead him to Europe.

Previously, there have been 143 men and 49 women who have made appearances in senior Canadian national team international games from 1924 through to May 2026. BC players have made a combined 4,744 appearances for Canada, spanning from the ‘oldest’ born in 1891 to the youngest born in 2006.

All these 192 players are included in the BC Soccer Heritage website “Roll of Honour”, which recognizes individuals, teams and organizations making significant contributions to the sport.

The Men’s National Team player with the most Caps is Richmond’s Randy Samuel, followed by Mike Sweeney from Squamish and Mark Watson, raised in West Vancouver. Eighteen male BC players have made 50 appearances or more.

49 British Columbian women have played for Canada’s Women’s National Team, six making over 100 appearances. Burnaby’s Christine Sinclair played 331 games in 24 years and Sophie Schmidt from Abbotsford appeared 226 times in her 19-year career, both playing their last Canada game at BC Place on December 5^th, 2023.

The BC Soccer Hall of Fame and Heritage site has the full list of all British Columbians to have dawned the maple leaf.