Aria Popel

And so, shortly after my parents immigrated to the east coast of Canada from Iran, football became the first sport I ever played.

My father was a huge fan of the game, and often retells the story of celebrating Manchester United’s treble-clinching win against Bayern Munich and waking up my mother (and the rest of our neighborhood in Fereydunkenar) at 1AM. He introduced me to football when we moved to Canada, and I fell in love with the game watching Sir Alex Ferguson’s United team of the early 2000s. The next decade saw my parents sacrifice many of their evenings and weekends to drive my sister and me to countless unkempt grass pitches across the province of Ontario. First as players, and then as beginner referees and coaches. We tried to be as involved in the game as possible. In school, I never had a close group of friends that cared about “soccer” or followed the professional leagues as closely as I did. Despite my parents’ generosity, I had a recurring complaint that I would throw at them: “Out of all the countries in the world, why would you move to one of the three where fútbol isn’t the biggest sport?”

But when I transitioned from playing to coaching at the age of sixteen, I realized that this could be a blessing in disguise. It was easy for a person like me, with no professional playing experience, to get an opportunity to work with young footballers. Beginning in recreational grassroots, and progressing to more competitive teams, I began to see what sport can give to young people. Sport is competition, exercise and play but more importantly it is a platform to build relationships, overcome adversity and develop discipline. Although the vast majority of players never become professional, these principles can be applied to every profession.

Football can transcend traditional barriers such as differences in race, gender or socioeconomic status. While football culture is still developing in Canada, it gives me and other fans a chance to be the pioneers of our nation’s football identity. Recent years have been incredibly successful, with huge strides being made in the development side of the game, as well as the launch of a brand new professional league in 2019. The successful World Cup 2026 co-host bid with USA and Mexico was the cherry on top.

Football is a simple medium with a simple objective but it is also infinitely complex and offers an infinite number of rewarding experiences. Football continues to evolve over time and I want to continue learning about it using the best resources possible. I would love to see how far I can go within the world of football, and help as many other players, coaches and analysts as I can along the way.