Canada men’s national team manager Jesse Marsch saw the cross-country attention the Toronto Blue Jays got in their run to the World Series, and thinks next year’s 2026 FIFA World Cup could be even bigger.
Sitting at his home in Tuscany, Italy, it takes something quite exceptional to get Marsch out of bed in the middle of the night. Most of the time, it only happens to scout soccer, but the Blue Jays’ run to Game 7 of the World Series captured his imagination.
Marsch was one of 51 million people worldwide who tuned in to the final series, which ended in a heartbreaking defeat for Canada’s lone MLB team.
“Since I’ve been living in Europe, I’ve only gotten up in the middle of the night to watch football—soccer matches—until the World Series this year,” Marsch said Thursday.
“So I was a Jays fan, maybe not as much as the rest of Toronto, the rest of Canada, but this is the first time, for another sport, that I was getting up in the middle of the night because I had the fever as well.”
Across Canada, the Blue Jays took over. For Game 7, 14 million or 45% of all Canadians tuned in, and the game became one of the most-watched sports broadcasts in the nation’s history.
The cross-Canada attention to the Blue Jays also gave Marsch another look into what could be coming at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where Canada could have a chance to capture the nation’s sporting infatuation.
“I believe that we will be even bigger. I believe that the World Cup at home, in Canada, will be even bigger [than the World Series],” he added. “I can tell you right now that is exactly what this national team will be about. And it will electrify this country.”
