Historically, England’s second tier of professional soccer, the Championship, has been an uncommon landing ground for Canadians. Currently, however, this league has six Canadian men’s national team (CanMNT) players: Hull City’s Liam Millar, Middlesbrough’s Alfie Jones, Sheffield Wednesday’s Iké Ugbo, Preston North End’s Daniel Jebbison, Norwich City’s Ali Ahmed, and Southampton’s Cyle Larin.
These last two, Ahmed and Larin, are the most recent additions to Canada’s list of Championship players. Ahmed signed with Norwich in January, and Larin was loaned from Mallorca (in La Liga, Spain’s top tier) to Southampton in February. On Wednesday, Norwich will travel to Saint Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, which means Ali Ahmed, in the Canaries’ yellow, will face a Cyle Larin clad in the Saints’ red and white.
Both Ahmed and Larin made immediate waves at their new clubs, providing important goal contributions in their debut matches, and have continued to thrive. The two players’ career trajectories when they arrived in England, however, were radically different. Ahmed had made stunning progress with the ’Caps and the CanMNT, which he then kicked into hyperdrive with Norwich. Larin’s career, meanwhile, was plummeting, but he has begun to bend the narrative into a redemption arc with Southampton.
Despite their drastically different paths, these two Greater Toronto natives could join each other in Canada’s starting eleven at this summer’s World Cup.
From ’Caps to Canaries
Ahmed is a 25-year-old late bloomer who has made leaps and bounds in quality every year since joining Whitecaps FC 2 as a 21-year-old rookie. With his dynamic dribbling, the winger has always been proficient at beating defenders in one-on-one scenarios, but he has added the final product — goal contributions — to his game in 2025 and 2026. Under the tutelage of Whitecaps manager Jesper Sørensen last year, Ahmed saw his assist numbers climb dramatically.
His incredible 2025 season ended with him scoring the Whitecaps’ lone goal in the 2–1 loss to Miami FC in the MLS Cup Final. At that point, Ahmed was still not much of a goal scorer, but his shining moment on the biggest stage in MLS was a sign of things to come in the Championship.
After contributing a brilliant assist and blasting a long-distance shot off the crossbar on his Norwich debut, Ahmed netted a goal in his second match with the Canaries. In the next game, he got both a goal and an assist in a 2–1 upset of league-leading Coventry. His third goal came against Leicester City. Now, the former ’Cap is up to an impressive four goals, after scoring against Preston North End and CanMNT teammate Daniel Jebbison on the weekend.
A Pressing Machine Seeking a Place
In addition to sensational dribbles, assists, and goals, Ahmed brings the ability to press relentlessly, which CanMNT coach Jesse Marsch — a former Red Bull manager who subscribes to the high-intensity Red Bull Way — values greatly. Ahmed’s first goal for Canada came in a 3–0 win over Romania in September 2025, when he chased a Romanian back-pass into the six-yard box, tackled the goalkeeper, and buried the ball in the net. Essentially, Ahmed pressed his way to his first international goal.
Tajon Buchanan seems destined to start for Canada on the right wing at the World Cup. On the left wing, Ahmed has distanced himself from Liam Millar and Jacob Shaffelburg as the frontrunner. However, Ahmed’s competition might end up being the Bayern Munich superstar Alphonso Davies.
Richie Laryea has played so well at left-back during Davies’s injury absence that Marsch might choose to keep Laryea at left-back and move Davies up to the left wing, where Davies would replace Ahmed.
But Ahmed has been so good for club and country over the past year that he also seems irreplaceable. In Canada’s game of musical chairs around the flanks, Laryea could move to right-back (he is a natural right-footer, after all), which would leave Davies at left-back and Ahmed at left wing.
In such a scenario, Laryea would take Alistair Johnston’s place. Johnston has been a fantastic right-back for Canada, but his long absence for a hamstring injury and surgery has allowed Laryea and Ahmed to become more established in Marsch’s current CanMNT setup. Johnston’s missed months could result in him being the odd man out of a World Cup starting eleven that includes Ahmed.
Saved by the Saints
Like Ahmed, Larin began his roller coaster of a career in MLS. A goal-scoring dynamo for Orlando City from 2015 to 2017, he later hit sweet highs with Beşiktaş in Türkiye and then bitter lows with Club Brugge in Belgium. When he arrived in La Liga in 2023, he revived his career with 8 goals in 19 matches for Valladolid.
Subsequently, after two poor seasons with Mallorca and an awful spell while on loan to Feyenoord in the Netherlands’ Eredivisie, Larin had lost his grip on Canada’s starting eleven and was even letting his spot in the 26-man roster slip away. He went to Southampton in need of another revival.
Larin’s first touch in a Southampton shirt was also his first goal for the Saints. Mere moments after subbing into a match against Watford, he drove a diving header firmly into the back of the net and celebrated with the raucous home crowd like a man who had been jolted back to life.
Larin secured the 1–0 victory on his debut and has since added a penalty kick and another header to his goal tally. The three goals in his first five weeks with Southampton are a big improvement on his zero goals in five months with Feyenoord.
Mr. Mojo Risin’
Larin’s recent form is giving Jesse Marsch reason to include him on the CanMNT World Cup roster and perhaps even slot him into the starting eleven. A streaky striker, Larin is deeply affected by vibes, and he has gotten his mojo, his swagger, back. The 30-year-old has risen to meet the sky-high intensity and diehard passion of English football, and he looks like he is on a mission to score each time he enters an opponent’s box.
Marsch typically plays a two-striker system, and superstar Jonathan David is a shoo-in for one of those two places at the World Cup. The opportunity to be Jonathan David’s partner, however, has opened up recently.
Promise David, the country’s most in-form striker in the 2025/26 season before collapsing with a hip tendon injury, is unlikely to recover from surgery in time for the World Cup. Tani Oluwaseyi, Marsch’s favourite partner for Jonathan David in recent international windows, has been getting few minutes and few goals with Villarreal in La Liga.
As Marsch loves effective pressing, he loves Oluwaseyi’s speed and hustle. But Larin is capable of bringing a level of finesse, cleverness, clinical finishing, and well-roundedness that the 25-year-old Oluwaseyi has yet to show in his career. When at his best, Larin also surpasses Canadian strikers Iké Ugbo, Theo Bair, Aribim Pepple, Daniel Jebbison, and Jacen Russell-Rowe in those areas.
Marsch, who has spoken out against CanMNT fans’ criticism of Larin, seems well aware of what his veteran striker can do. Larin has shone for Orlando City, Beşiktaş, Valladolid, and Southampton, and he was the leading scorer in the CanMNT’s historic qualifying run to Qatar 2022.
If Larin’s mojo keeps rising, he is likely to join Jonathan David in Marsch’s striker twosome when Canada’s World Cup kicks off on June 12. The next indication of Marsch’s plans will come in the friendlies against Iceland (March 28) and Tunisia (March 31).
Two Canucks Across the Pond
Neither Ahmed nor Larin is guaranteed a single start at the World Cup, so the remainder of their 2025/26 Championship campaigns are supremely significant. The match between 7th-place Southampton and 12th-place Norwich on Wednesday, March 18, is an opportunity for them to showcase their talents and take bragging rights into the CanMNT training camp at the end of the month.
(Image: OneSoccer)