By Pearl Josephine Nazare and Mohammed Benmansour
VANCOUVER, July 1 (Reuters) - As fans descend on Vancouver's BC Place for World Cup matches, TSS Rovers, a supporter-owned semi-professional club from nearby Richmond, offer a reminder that Canada's soccer rise has been driven not only by elite investment but also by grassroots ambition.
Founded in 2017 out of the TSS Academy, which dates back to 1997, the club was created to provide a pathway for Canadian players to reach the professional ranks and,
ultimately, the national team.
That vision has already produced notable success stories.
Men's national team defender Joel Waterman, a member of the Rovers' inaugural side, was selected for Canada for the 2022 and 2026 World Cups, although he is yet to play at the tournament. Julia Grosso, another former Rover, scored the winning penalty in Canada's Olympic gold-medal triumph in Tokyo.
"If you had told us in 2017 that within five years we would have a player that played for us, that went on, developed himself in the other levels of the Canadian game and then showed up on the national team, we would have told you you were being optimistic," Chris Corrigan, one of the club's three majority shareholders, told Reuters.
"But we're a band of optimists, so we kind of began with that in mind. To see it happen feels like a dream come true."
Competing in the British Columbia Premier League, the third tier in Canadian soccer, Rovers have also become pioneers off the pitch.
In 2021, they became Canada's first supporter-owned soccer club, a move Corrigan said was aimed at securing long-term sustainability.
Since then, more than 450 community shareholders have bought into the project. Their supporters, known as the "Swanguardians", follow both the men's and women's teams home and away, creating an atmosphere rarely seen at semi-professional level.
Corrigan said the World Cup had generated unprecedented interest in soccer in Canada, where ice hockey has long dominated the sporting landscape.
"I've been a football fan for a decade and a half. This team, this moment, I've never seen so many people interested in the game," he added.
"They're jumping on the bandwagon. And it's not just Canada they're watching - they're watching all the games in the tournament... They're starting to understand what football means to the rest of the world."
Rovers play at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, where towering trees and mountain views provide a picturesque backdrop to a project fuelled by optimism and community spirit.
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
For goalkeeper Callum Weir, who grew up in Haines Junction in Canada's Yukon territory, the British Columbia Premier League and TSS Rovers provided a pathway that once did not exist for players from non-traditional soccer regions.
"From last year, I was lucky enough to make my professional debut with Valour in the Canadian Premier League... Development has been amazing and the club as a whole has been incredible," Weir said.
For supporter and shareholder Paul Sabourin-Herzog, Waterman's rise reflects the club's broader impact.
"I was at BC Place when Canada played Qatar at the World Cup, and the first thing I did was take a picture of Joel Waterman warming up. Because it kind of tied a lot of things together over the however many years we've been here," Sabourin-Herzog said.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Vancouver;Editing by Christian Radnedge)
