Five Canadians with four clubs are expected to feature in the men’s group phase of 2022-23 UEFA Champions League, a new high for Canadians competing in the European continental soccer competition. All four teams play their first of six group matches on Wednesday 7 September, with 2020 winners FC Bayern Munich and Alphonso Davies in action away against Italy’s Inter Milan.
The five Canadians are Davies for FC Bayern, Scott Arfield for Scotland’s Rangers FC, Tajon Buchanan and Cyle Larin for Belgium’s Club Brugge KV, and Stephen Eustáquio for Portugal’s FC Porto. Just last year, four Canadians reached the group phase of men’s UEFA Champions League with Davies at FC Bayern, Jonathan David at France’s Lille OSC, and both Larin and Atiba Hutchinson at Turkey’s Be\u015fikta\u015f JK.
Arfield, Buchanan and Eustáquio are all hoping to make their debut at this stage of the competition.
Since 2000-01, seven Canadians have featured in the men’s group phase and knockout phase of UEFA Champions League, with Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honoured member Tomasz Radzinski the ground breaker with Belgium’s RSC Anderlecht. Other Canadians to feature in this phase of the competition are Paul Stalteri, Hutchinson, Lars Hirschfeld, Milan Borjan, Davies, Larin and David.
Hutchinson is Canada’s all-time men’s leader with 23 UEFA Champions League appearances, not counting qualifying matches before the group phase. Davies, with 21 appearances, could break that record this year.
Canadians in men’s UEFA Champions League
\u200b23 Hutchinson, Atiba (20 starts, 1,799 minutes, one goal)
\u200b21 Davies, Alphonso (16 starts, 1,512 minutes) – 2019-20 UEFA Champions League winner
\u200b14 Borjan, Milan (14 starts, 1,260 minutes, two clean sheets)
\u200b12 Radzinski, Tomasz (12 starts, 1,025 minutes, five goals)
\u200b8 David, Jonathan (8 starts, 680 minutes, three goals)
\u200b6 Hirschfeld, Lars (6 starts, 540 minutes, two clean sheets)
\u200b5 Larin, Cyle (5 starts, 354 minutes, one goal)