Orlando City's Maxime Crépeau named Canada's starting goalkeeper for 2026 World Cup | OneFootball

By Ben Steiner

MONTRÉAL – If the walls of the coffee room at CF Montréal’s Stade Saputo could talk, they’d wax poetic on the life of Maxime Crépeau.

Once the players' lounge, it was where an 18-year-old Crépeau signed his first professional contract. Flanked by a promising young head coach in Jesse Marsch, he set out on his professional journey. 

Now, 14 years later, after a broken leg kept Crépeau out of Canada’s first World Cup in 36 years, he found himself back in that same room, with Marsch, now Canada’s manager, beside him once again.

This time, Marsch delivered the news that Crépeau would be Canada's starting goalkeeper at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, ending a years-long battle between him and Dayne St. Clair.

“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,” Crépeau said Thursday, speaking after Marsch revealed his choice between the sticks before Friday's final pre-World Cup friendly against Ireland (7:30 pm ET | TSN, RDS, OneSoccer, FS2).

“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.”

The Choice

Marsch spent the past two years splitting starts between Inter Miami’s St. Clair and Orlando City’s Crépeau. He called naming a No. 1 for the World Cup one of his “most difficult decisions,” knowing he was ending one of their childhood dreams. 

Yet it came down to confidence and maturity as much as it did goalkeeping, with little concern for how many goals each has conceded for their clubs, who have both struggled defensively this year.

Crepéau, of course, started during Canada’s run to the Copa América semifinal in 2024, and ultimately, the impressive showing and calmness he displayed gave him the inside track. 

“Max's maturity and experience, I think, is exactly what we need in the goal, along with all of his goalkeeping qualities,” Marsch said. “Right now, the security that we get with Max, along with his overall talent and intelligence, makes us a better team heading into the World Cup.”

The broken leg

The World Cup dream is a long time coming for Crépeau, long seen as the heir apparent to the Canadian goal, practically since he signed that contract in the players’ lounge, now the coffee room, with Marsch.

On the path to 2022, he was the backup to veteran Milan Borjan in the journey to the nation’s second World Cup and first since 1986. That is, until disaster struck during MLS Cup in 2022, just 15 days before the World Cup was set to kick off.

Crépeau raced out of his box to deny Philadelphia Union striker Cory Burke. When he did, he made a critical stop – but had to be carried off on a stretcher in immense pain, while his teammates went on to win LAFC's first MLS Cup in penalty kicks. 

Crépeau woke up injured in a hospital bed and FaceTimed the celebrations at BMO Stadium. But with Qatar 2022 just days away, his dreams of playing at a World Cup were shattered.

The Copa América moment

Just over a year later, he got the chance to experience a moment not dissimilar to this week’s with his wife, Christina. It came as Marsch crowned him as the starter for the Copa América opener against the reigning World Cup champions, Argentina, in Atlanta.

“My wife and I shared a moment before the game,” Crépeau said in Atlanta two years ago. “We’d come a long, long way... that injury had put me in a very tough place physically and mentally over the last 12 months.”

That journey has now culminated in the World Cup starter’s role, and the responsibility bestowed upon him for June 12’s tournament opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

But Crépeau doesn’t forget the early days with Montréal, a loan to now-defunct Ottawa Fury and the ups and downs of seasons with Vancouver Whitecaps FC, LAFC, Portland Timbers and now Orlando, where he’ll get the chance to link up with Antoine Griezmann after the World Cup.

“I don’t take anything for granted when I put the jersey on, so it's a moment that I can be extra proud of,” Crépeau added.

“The World Cup will be on TV everywhere, and we will have a chance to be the group of men that represents the country to play against the best in the world and to go as far as possible. We’re allowing ourselves to dream.”

The goalkeeping brotherhood

Both Crépeau and St. Clair knew that a day like Thursday had to come. They split 45 minutes each against Uzbekistan in the summer’s first friendly, a 2-0 win in torrential rain in Edmonton, but awaited Marsch’s final decision this week. 

Through it all, the two have remained inseparable friends. They push each other in training, but joke calmly otherwise. St. Clair, too, knows he has to be ready – and that Canada’s No. 1 will continue to be a question post-World Cup, with the push of several other younger talents as well.

“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,” Crépeau said. “Both of us are here to support one another in those terms.”

“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.”

Now, all eyes turn to the World Cup. Millions from Canada and around the world will witness Crépeau and the rest of the starting lineup belt out “O Canada” throughout the tournament, with the chance to inspire a nation through their performances. 

And if they do, few people will play a more important role than Crépeau, whose full-circle moment will always be spoken of by the walls of that coffee room in Montréal.

WATCH: Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau | 2026 FIFA World Cup