Canada winger Liam Millar has set his sights on the FIFA World Cup 2026™ with a newfound spring in his step after bouncing back from a devastating ACL injury.
In October 2024, the Hull City star suffered the crippling blow which took a gruelling 11 months — both physically and mentally — to recover from. A crucial helping hand came from the paternalistic Canada coach Jesse Marsch, who kept tabs on Millar on an almost daily basis and even invited the winger and his family to his home in Tuscany.
Now re-energized, the 26-year-old is returning to the form that made him a regular under Marsch prior to his injury. He is eager to play a starring role at his second successive World Cup following a brief cameo performance at Qatar 2022, where he featured for nine minutes off the bench against Belgium.
Millar is especially looking forward to Canada’s group-stage match with Switzerland, having played for FC Basel from 2021-24.
The Toronto native spoke to FIFA about the prospect of playing in a home World Cup, his experiences at Qatar 2022 and the potential impact the global showpiece will have in Canada.
Liam Millar: It is definitely very surreal. If you would have asked me as a kid, would I have ever dreamed to play in a World Cup in Canada, my answer would have been probably not. It’s a huge honour for our country to host the World Cup and we’re all just hopeful that this will be a [great] platform for the sport for the future.
The World Cup is obviously the best competition in the world so no matter [what] team you get, whether it’s Pot One, Two, Three or Four… you’re always going to have a team that’s capable of winning any game. Every game is going to be difficult, that’s what the World Cup is, but we’re all going into it with a belief in ourselves [while] knowing that it’s not going to be a walk in the park. We all have that belief that we can do it but we don’t want to be over-confident, for sure.
For me, it does. I lived there for two years and played for the biggest team in Switzerland. It was a very nice time in my life and had a lot of friends who played for the Swiss national team. It will be good to see them so obviously it does mean more to me but I’m there to help Canada win the football match. I’ll do everything I can to make sure that happens on the pitch and after the game we can be friends again.
We learned a lot of different lessons that we’re trying to implement now to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes as last time. Obviously, the last World Cup was the first one we went to in 36 years so it was obviously going to be a bit of a learning experience for all of us. Our goal now is to make sure it doesn’t happen again and make sure we have a better World Cup than we did last time.
I told my kids that one thing that no one can take away from me, no matter what happens in my career, is that I’ve stepped on the pitch and represented my country at a World Cup. It was a very proud moment for me to be able to be on that pitch on the world stage. For it to happen was a surreal experience and to have the opportunity to go to a second World Cup and hopefully get more significant minutes than last time will definitely be a goal of mine. We all want to do Canada proud and represent our country accordingly.
Good. I felt really, really sharp when I came back from my ACL, being out of football for a long time… really understanding and appreciating football and [I] came back from that and felt really good. I picked up a minor hamstring injury and [am] feeling back to full fitness now. I’m getting there, the ACL and hamstring can be quite difficult at times but I know that with time I’ll get more fit and better and better. I’m trying to continue to play and get my fitness so I’m really for what’s coming in the summer.
He was very important for me. I think he’s such a great guy, not just a great coach but a great human. He understands the human part of football – it’s not just football for him, we’re people as well. He was able to help me get through a tough period in my life. He offered me a lot of support, a lot of trust and when I came back I felt the trust [again] and that can only help me on the pitch to perform each game when the coach has trust in me. He is such a great guy that when you have any problems, if you have any questions or whatever, he is happy to answer them without it being any negative. He has been great, I can’t ask for more. It’s been great since he’s been in.
I think it can have a massive impact. When I was a kid, I would’t have thought this was ever possible as soccer wasn’t as big as it is now in Canada and I never got to see Canada play in a World Cup as a kid. I can only imagine that little kids who are living in Canada and watching us in a World Cup will be thinking, ‘I want to do that someday.’ I think it can make a real impact for future generations in the country. That is something that is always in the back of our minds, we want to create the pathway for someone else after us. This will be a big, big honour for all of us and it can help transform the country to become a full soccer nation.
