Montreal soccer fans head to World Cup in Qatar

“This World Cup was the best fit for me because my home country actually is Morocco,” says Montrealer Imad Agday, one of the fans from Montreal that heading to Doha, Qatar to be part of the world’s biggest sporting event. Wala Amara reports.

By Wala Amara, OMNI

Posted November 18, 2022 10:58 am.

Last Updated November 18, 2022 6:36 pm.

As the World Cup approaches, fans from Montreal are excited to be heading to Doha, Qatar to be part of the world’s biggest sporting event.

Imad Agday and Karim Benameur are soccer fans and players from Montreal and they’re some of the fans that will be making the global trip to Qatar to experience the World Cup when it all starts on November 20th.

“This World Cup was the best fit for me because my home country actually is Morocco,” said Agday. “My parents are from there, they grew up there, they’re from there and I’m born in Canada, I grew up in Canada, I’ve lived soccer all my life in Canada.”

Agday adding, “At the beginning of the year, I planned with my friends to try to register for some of the Morocco games and also the Canadian games.”

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As for Benameur, he says his roots might make for a conflict in a game he plans on watching live.

“I think I have the chance to have two countries to root for, so I don’t see that as being a problem. The problem is, both of them are in the same group so that’s very very special,” explained Benameur. “The third game of the group is gonna be between Canada and Morocco so that might be a decisive game so well see.”

“Also the fact it’s gonna be in winter so its the first in the history of the World Cup that’s gonna be held in the winter so that for sure is also pretty different the first in an Arabic country, the first in a Muslim country there’s a lot of firsts for this World Cup,” he added.

The last time Canada qualified for the world cup was in 1986. The 36-year gap has left many asking if they can go toe-to-toe in Group F with European powerhouses like Belgium on Nov. 23 and Croatia on Nov. 27, before meeting the North African side, Morocco on Dec. 1 to end the group stage.

“I think we shouldn’t think that Canada is just there to participate. I think they have the chance to cause some surprises and hopefully, they will do well,” said Benameur. “Definitely Canada is a dark horse. People don’t know them a lot but they’ve been dominant in the CONCACAF qualifiers. They have a few players playing at the highest level in the Champions League right now that are in form, so we never know what can happen for a tournament like that.”