The Voyageurs - by Joshua Kloke (Paperback)

About the Book

With insightful interviews, thorough reporting, and colourful storytelling, The Voyageurs takes readers inside the renaissance of the Canadian men's national soccer team, detailing how a generation of growth of soccer in the country led Canada's team from darkness to the world stage.

Book Synopsis

Tracing Canadian men's soccer's emergence from global obscurity to international powerhouse, featuring insight from star players like Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David and manager John Herdman.

The last time Canada qualified for a men's World Cup was in 1986. For a generation afterwards, the Canadian national men's soccer team struggled in obscurity, an afterthought in a country that was not yet soccer-mad. The twenty-first century brought a wave of soccer passion and expertise to this frozen country -- and a crop of new superstar players who lifted the forgotten team into the international spotlight.

Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David are now internationally known names, and soccer a national obsession. Through interviews with players and coaches, Joshua Kloke tracks the rise of men's soccer in Canada from darkness to the world stage in 2022. This is the inside story of how the best team in Canadian soccer history grew from disappointment to international fame.

Review Quotes

An enthralling book exploring the incredible rise of Canada's men's national team. The Voyageurs brings you unrivalled access to the stories behind Canada's journey back to the world's biggest stage. Kloke does a wonderful job highlighting the many ups and downs along the way, with first hand accounts from the personalities involved. A book that isn't just for soccer fans, but for anyone who loves a story of sporting redemption.-- "Luke Wileman, TSN soccer host and commentator"

Kloke takes you through all the heartache, and the happiness, that the Canadian soccer fan has lived through just as the entire country begins to understand why the entire world is in love with The Beautiful Game.-- "Brendan Dunlop, TV host and co-author of DeRo: My Life"

Led by golden boy Alphonso Davies, this generation is special... Kloke not only illuminates the path this golden generation took to the World Cup, but brings you through all the integral moments in the story of Canadian soccer.-- "Tom Bogert, MLS and US men's national team insider"

Over the past year, the Canadian men's national team has written one of the most compelling stories in soccer -- and one that has been decades in the making. In The Voyageurs, Joshua Kloke pulls the curtain back on the personalities that have shaped the sport, the potential that took so long to realize, and the many false dawns since 1986. This is the authoritative account of how a team that was overlooked in its own country for so long caught the world's attention.-- "Oliver Platt, analyst at OneSoccer"

Reading Joshua Kloke's thrilling account of Canada's return to the Men's World Cup filled me with the same feeling I had watching our amazing team qualify: finally.-- "Chris Jones, author of The Eye Test: A Case for Human Creativity in the Age of Analytics"

There was no better story on the planet in all of World Cup 2022 qualifying than Canada. Joshua Kloke's page-turning account does the best job I've seen of explaining the path of Canada's rise through the people closest to it over the years. You come away from reading this book with even greater respect for those who have made it happen.-- "Grant Wahl, author of The Beckham Experiment"

About the Author

Joshua Kloke is a staff writer at The Athletic, where he covers Canadian soccer and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and is the author of Come on You Reds: The Story of Toronto FC. He lives in Hamilton.