Liam Millar will feel an enormous sense of pride when he lines up to hear the strains of O Canada at Toronto Stadium on Friday night, as the World Cup kicks off in his hometown city.
That’s according to 81-cap Canadian legend Dwayne De Rosario, who believes Millar and the rest of Jesse Marsch’s team will feel the hope of a nation when they kick off against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Millar, who has just won promotion to the Premier League with Hull City, will likely start the game against the country where his Tigers’ boss, Sergej Jakirovic, was born.
The exciting winger could also come up against Bosnian midfielder and former City teammate Amir Hadziahmetovic in the opening game of Group B on the banks of Lake Ontario.
For Canada, hosting a World Cup is a huge event, and one that De Rosario says is almost a lifetime in the making for players like him, who have gone before.
“We’re living in a historic moment, an iconic opportunity to have the world’s game grace our backyards, our streets,” the Hall of Famer tells Hull Live inside the plush Lee Restaurant on Richmond Street in Toronto.
“I remember a young De-Ro growing up, watching the ’86 World Cup, watching Canada play in Mexico, so I could only imagine the youth, looking forward to the World Cup and looking forward to seeing their stars, their local stars, come to our country.
“Hopefully, the impact and the legacy will create new fans and new lovers for the game, and for me, it would be the greatest reward, not to mention the growth of the game across the city and in this country.”
Millar’s own journey has been difficult, and at one point, the prospect of playing in a World Cup would have seemed a distant pipe dream when he ruptured his ACL playing for City against Burnley in October 2024. After almost a year on the sidelines and battles with depression, Millar is back fully fit and enjoyed a terrific campaign as City stunned the footballing world last month to win promotion to the Premier League at Wembley.
“The unique thing is that every player is going to feel their own journey; it’s going to be surreal,” he continued. “The sacrifices they made, the journey that our parents made as immigrants or maybe first generation Canadians, second generation Canadians committed to sacrifice, all of it, is paid tenfold when you step out on that field or just even in the environment and you’re in the stadium and you’re looking around like you, you’re not going to believe that this is actually in Canada and this is in Toronto, so everybody’s going to feel that moment.
“Champions League, Europa League, EPL, MLS, Bundesliga, the World Cup is it. It’s the highest any player could ever reach, and it propels careers.
“It establishes legacies of careers, its historic moments that we all remember. Just being in that environment for a young kid like Liam Millar, he’s coming through injuries and everything, but all that goes out the window of what his club is doing and all that stuff, it’s what we all dream of.”
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Years of preparation will have gone into getting Millar to that white line on Friday evening, and De Rosario says the moment O Canada belts out around a sold-out BMO Field, or Toronto Stadium as it’s known during the tournament, will be an epic moment for the 26-year-old.
“I couldn’t wait,” he said of what Millar will be feeling ahead of the opener. “It’s the single greatest sporting event, and as a young kid, my biggest dream was to one day play for Canada in the World Cup.
“I fell short of that, but my efforts didn’t fall short because I did everything I could to help Canada propel it, and I would like to think I had a hand in the development of the sport in this country, but I played in the Youth World Cup and representing Canada for me was the highlight of my youth career.
“To get a glimpse of what that feels like and the passion that it evokes when you represent your country. When you’re hearing your anthem play is something special, so I could only imagine what those players are gonna feel on June 12th in Toronto Stadium, and that anthem is erupting, and just thinking about all the sacrifices they made as a kid. Every dream that they felt comes through in that moment, and it’s something that you really can’t put into words.
“It’s gonna be an epic moment for everybody.”
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