“It was really difficult for me," Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau told FIFA as he reflected on his heartache of missing out on the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ after fracturing his tibia just a few days before the tournament while playing for the Portland Timbers.
"It was tougher mentally in the first few weeks as I watched the matches. I had friends who had already booked plane tickets, everything was already done, so it was more mentally challenging at the beginning. The physical work came after the World Cup, and it's not easy to come back from that."
As he watched the tournament from his couch with a cast around his leg, the stopper made a vow that he would be back for the . “It's basically a promise to myself," . "I said to myself, ‘There's no way I won't be here in 2026, absolutely no way!’”
Crepeau's comeback from those dark and uncertain moments has now been completed after being named as Canada's starting goalkeeper for the upcoming showpiece by Jesse Marsch over his close friend and rival Dayne St. Clair.
Marsch admitted that it was one of the toughest decisions he has had to make as a coach but, in the end, the Orlando City stopper's "maturity" and "experience" gave him the edge. It certainly helped that Crepeau helped Canada reach the semi-finals of the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024.
“Life has this journey... sometimes it's not that the sky is blue, the birds are chirping, and life is good; there are some moments that can push you to difficult places, mentally and physically. But I'm proud that I was always able to come back from moments, whether good or bad,” Crepeau said in a press conference.
“Life, it does this thing sometimes, and the fact that it brought us here to the last game before the World Cup, and the decision to arrive here, it's pretty special... When I called my wife, it was happy tears, just raw emotions.”
Crepeau has forged a close relationship with St Clair, which made the moment even more bittersweet with one of the pair having to suffer the disappointment of not being named the starter in a home World Cup.
“Dayne and I knew that one guy would be happy, and the other guy would get the other face of the [coin]; we knew that a moment like this would bring up raw emotions. Both of us are here to support one another in those terms," Crepeau added.
“For me, right now, I have to be present for him with highs and lows, and it's super important that he feels that, because as goalkeepers, we are a team within the team.”
With Crepeau between the sticks, Canada will begin their World Cup campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium in 12 June before group-stage fixtures against Qatar and Switzerland.
Sources: FIFA Official
