Mark Your Player, Exploit the Space: Constructing, Deconstructing, and Reconstructing Canadian Multiculturalism through a Historicization of Soccer and the Men's National Team (1970s–2000s).

The article examines the Canadian men's national soccer team's rise to prominence through the lenses of immigration, multiculturalism, and transnationalism, focusing on its historic qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup after a 36-year absence. It explores how Canadian soccer has long been associated with ethnic diversity and diasporic identities, yet remains framed as an "alien" sport within a predominantly White Canadian national identity. Through a historical media analysis of coverage in Toronto's The Globe and Mail from the 1970s to the early 2000s, the article highlights the paradoxical role of multiculturalism in Canadian soccer: while the visibility of racialized and immigrant players is celebrated as integral to Canadianness, it simultaneously reinforces their outsider status. The study underscores ongoing tensions in Canadian national identity construction, where soccer's multicultural narrative both challenges and sustains racialized boundaries within the nation.