Whitecaps make offer for Canada, Fulham rising talent Luc De Fougerolles

New York Times

6 days ago

Some Canadian national team players have arrived at the Gold Cup out of their desire to win a trophy and hopefully push themselves up the pecking order on Jesse Marsch's 2026 World Cup roster.
Others, like Luc De Fougerolles? The 19-year-old won't run from the fact that he needed to come to this tournament.
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A devastating knee injury kept him out of most of his season with Fulham's Under-21 squad. The mature, talented and physical center back only got his first serious run of games late in the spring. De Fougerolles accepted Marsch's call with the eagerness you'd expect.
'This season was a tough one. Whenever I was playing I felt really good,' De Fougerolles told The Athletic. 'It's great to have (Canada games) now, because otherwise I'd have just been just getting back to it and then done for offseason.'
De Fougerolles has logged just five appearances for Canada, the majority of which came this month. But if the explosiveness and smarts he's shown are anything to go on, he may have a promising and impactful national team career ahead of him. His physicality and knowhow on the ball have quickly made him one of Canada's rising stars.
'(De Fougerolles) is an incredibly intelligent player,' Marsch said after a standout showing against Ukraine. 'He has the right kind of behaviors and habits.'
And now, playing for Canada at the Gold Cup could change De Fougerolles' career path.
De Fougerolles is out of contract with Fulham at the end of the month. The Athletic has learned the Vancouver Whitecaps have made an initial offer to sign De Fougerolles to a multi-year contract. A source with knowledge of the offer said the MLS side met with De Fougerolles in Vancouver ahead of Canada's Gold Cup opener.
It's believed De Fougerolles is exploring multiple offers for his future, all of which have one common thread: no more youth soccer.
'I need first-team football,' he said defiantly.
The dual-national was born in England and joined Fulham's academy when he was 8. Current Canada assistant coach Mauro Biello first became aware of De Fougerolles in 2022, and Marsch has quickly given De Fougerolles opportunities to assert himself.
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Continuing as one of Canada's top young players at the Gold Cup could land him his desired first-team minutes, and this summer, he's getting what's he pined for all year: a chance to play consistently.
'When you are playing with a first team, the need to win for the fans, for yourself, for the players is so high compared to Under-21s, which is more about developing,' De Fougerolles said.
While some players utilize strong club seasons to propel them into the national team setup, De Fougerolles' path could be the inverse. Without a full season of games t to bolster his resume, so much of what De Fougerolles wants could be derived from his Canada performances.
'A lot of the players in my Under-21 team are great players, but they just don't have the kind of international (experience) that I have where they can play first-team games. Clubs will be looking at me seeing I've played (games for Canada),' De Fougerolles said. 'If I can play well, it'll definitely help.'
De Fougerolles has proven to be a natural fit under Marsch, coming out of his shell in the process. He's not afraid to step out of the back line and is as comfortable on the ball as any modern center back must be. There is a sense of aggression in his game that undercuts his lighthearted persona and boyish grin.
'In training, I always hear (Marsch) in my ear when I'm not tight enough to a striker, not jumping on the midfield or when I should,' De Fougerolles said. 'When I'm in camp, I then I feel like I have to win more duels as well. I can go for it and I'm not worried about what's behind me. I just go and press people and I feel that when I get back to Fulham, it puts me in a really good step because a lot of the players are not really expecting it especially in training: smashing a few people and winning the ball.'
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He used his time off the pitch with injury to bulk up, having constantly surprised Canada's trainers with how much size he has added between camps. And he's not afraid to lean into his physicality, as evidenced by the crunching tackles he landed against Ukraine, Ivory Coast and Honduras.
The result is a player who hardly looks like a teenager for Canada. At his best, he has straddled the line between depth center back and starter. Marsch's training sessions are continually exhaustive and demanding. Within those sessions, Marsch has continually challenged his depth players to push assumed starters for more playing time.
That's where De Fougerolles comes in. Moïse Bombito and Derek Cornelius remain the odds-on favorites to be Canada's starting center back tandem at the World Cup. Yet De Fougerolles' rapid progression and comfortability in a starting role suggests he could be called on immediately should one of them take a step back.
Outside of the locks, Joel Waterman provides dependability in the back. Kamal Miller's game has leveled off as of late, but he's a key cog in the culture of the team and has the World Cup playing time no other Canadian center back can boast. Jamie Knight-Lebel remains full of potential, but he needs more playing time, possibly with Bristol City, to develop more confidence and aggression.
Where De Fougerolles fits for Canada in 2026 remains to be seen. That he started alongside Canada's best available players against Ukraine and also started in Canada's Gold Cup opener likely slots him third on the depth chart. He wants to take the experience playing with and against full-time senior players for Canada to show he is ready for the next stage of his career – whether that's in Vancouver or elsewhere.
'I know how good I am and I know what I could be doing,' he said. 'I'm just ready to show people.'
De Fougerolles admits his next step could catch him by surprise. And frankly, he's fine with that.
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He formed a friendship with national team forward Liam Millar after the two roomed together at De Fougerolles' first Canada camp. Both players came up through Fulham's academy. Eventually, the two suffered similar injuries, which they traded notes on. Yet throughout their friendship, Millar has shared insight on his path, including detours into Switzerland and the pros and cons of various loan deals.
'I call and text him for advice,' De Fougerolles said. 'I'm quite interested in the different routes you can take.'
Playing in MLS, should that be the avenue De Fougerolles considers, could make him familiar with his North American surroundings ahead of a pivotal World Cup on home soil. The Whitecaps trying to sign him suggests De Fougerolles could play regularly in their starting XI under a tactically strong and attack-minded head coach in Jesper Sørensen.
The flip side is that for a player raised in a strong English academy, moving across the Atlantic now could make it difficult to hop back over. De Fougerolles doesn't run from the fact that he'd like to play first-team soccer in England eventually. It's worth wondering if staying in England, possibly re-upping with Fulham and going out on loan a lower-tier league, presents a more likely path for De Fougerolles to eventually crack Fulham's first-team squad.
'It's obviously not fully my decision to make,' De Fougerolles said. 'If Fulham want me around, I'll gladly stay and be around the team. But a loan would be amazing. Just to play 40 professional games, I feel like that's part of the game that maybe I'm missing with Under-21s. It's less competitive. So if I were to go to a League One or a Championship team, I think every game would be competitive and that experience would really put me on a good start.'
So much of De Fougerolles' club future will be determined over the next two weeks while playing for Canada. He's keeping a level head throughout, with his sights set on something even bigger.
'Everyone's looking towards next summer and they want to have the best year possible next year,' De Fougerolles said. 'So I feel for me, to really push myself and improve I'd have to be playing first-team football somewhere, whether that's at Fulham or somewhere else definitely, because I think I would learn so much and I'd be going to the World Cup in a really good place.'