Over the past 15 years, association football in Canada has gone from somewhat of a novelty sport to a competition that the country prides itself on. With the Men’s National Team making its first World Cup appearance in 2022 and continuing to hover around the top 25 mark in FIFA’s World Rankings, Canada may be striving to make it into the round of 16 in 2026’s World Cup (some of which will be played on home turf).
With this in mind, though, how did it get to this point? Ten years ago to date, Canada wasn’t even a top 100 nation on the FIFA World Rankings, and by the start of 2020, the team was still outside of the top 70.
When asking about what changed, we can point to many factors, but sometimes, it’s just as simple as we struck gold with some international-quality talent. Young prospects aged into stars worthy of playing in Europe, and suddenly the men’s national team had a pool of true footballers.
In today’s article, I’m going to talk about these stars. Specifically, who are the 5 best Canadian soccer players in the world right now? Without further ado, here’s the list!
Best Canadian Soccer Players (2025)
Honourable Mentions: Kone, Crépeau, Buchanan, Larin, Osorio, and more.
5. Alistair Johnston
Johnston has been a starter on Celtic (one of the best non-big-five clubs in the world) for a few years now, but he’s really come into his own over the past season, having scored 4 goals and 10 assists in 32 appearances as a defender in the 2024-25 season. On top of this, Johnston proved to be one of Canada’s most crucial players during the nation’s impressive 2024 Copa America run.
At just 26 years old and seemingly only getting better by the day, there’s still good chance that Johnston will be picked up by a top European club, but until then, he’s going to continue to crush it with Celtic, who have won the Scottish Premiership in every season that Johnston has been there.
4. Moïse Bombito
Bombito’s time in the professional leagues has been characterized by a turbulent and rapid rise. Having spent four full seasons playing college soccer, Bombito only took two years in the MLS with Colorado Rapids before getting the call from Ligue 1 in France, where he’d join league contender Nice.
Starting as a CB in 25 matches for Nice over the course of the 2024-25 season, Bombito proved a very competent defender, and one that will likely remain in Team Canada’s starting XI for years to come.
3. Stephen Eustáquio
Similar to Alistair Johnston, Eustáquio is a player who has all of the tools to join a Big 5 team, but has instead opted to remain among the very best in the respectable Portuguese Primeira Liga with Porto, largely because Eustáquio is also Portuguese and spent much of his childhood in the country.
Over the past few seasons, Eustáquio has cemented himself as a solid rotational midfielder for Porto, as well as one of the most important members of the Canadian National Team’s rotation.
2. Jonathan David
Most football fans would agree with the idea that David is one of two true international stars from Canada. And at just 25 years old, he certainly still has much of his prime ahead of him.
Having just left France’s Ligue 1 with Lille, David was one of the league’s best goal scorers, having scored at least 15 goals in each of his last 4 seasons with the club. In each of his last 3 seasons with the club, he’s been in the top 5 in league goals scored. A true scorer through and through, David is also Team Canada’s all-time leading goal scorer.
As David now moves onto Big 5 club Juventus, there is no telling what the limit of his potential is.
1. Alphonso Davies
At this point, the name Alphonso Davies is synonymous with elite Canadian football. Still not even 25 years old yet, Davies is a left-back for Bayern Munich, one of the top football clubs in the world. With experience as a striker with Team Canada and in his youth, Davies plays a role as an attacking defender at times for Bayern and has cemented himself as one of the very best in the world at that role.
Davies still has a whole career ahead of him. Whether he continues to play striker with Canada or plays left-back for the team as its talent pool progresses is to be seen, but, whatever happens, he is still the future of football for the country.
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