The jersey swap is a long-time sports tradition, and after Italy was eliminated from the World Cup following a loss to Bosnia-Herzegovina earlier this week, Canada Soccer invited Italian Canadians to get behind the home team moving forward.
The soccer organization staged a jersey swap event on Saturday outside Cafe Diplomatico in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood, offering fans a chance to swap their Italian threads for a Canada Soccer men’s national team jersey.
“We want every Canadian — no matter their historic allegiances — to join the momentum around our men’s national team, because this time, it’s Canada,” the organization said in a social media post promoting the event, which also acknowledged the passion that generations of players, fans and communities have brought to help grow the game in Canada.
Despite some negative and predictable online responses to the post, there was a large turnout for the event, with organizers saying their supply of jerseys was gone in about an hour.
“Before we started giving away the jerseys, I went down the line and basically said to them, ‘We’re not taking any jerseys away today.’ This is about honouring a country that allows us to have multiple identities, to have multiple homes in our hearts,” said Paulo Senra, Canada Soccer’s chief communications and content officer.
“For a long time, this community and many other communities have built up this sport in this country. And so, when I told them that they were actually going to go home with both the Italian jersey and the Canadian jersey, there were some tears, a lot of hugs, a lot of people saying thank you.”
Canada will play host to Bosnia-Herzegovina at Toronto’s BMO Field on June 12 in the first game of Group B, marking the country’s first-ever men’s FIFA World Cup match on home soil.
