Stu Cowan: Patrice Bernier stays the face of soccer for CF Montréal

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Didier Drogba is probably the most well-known soccer participant to ever play in Montreal, however Patrice Bernier is the face of soccer on this metropolis.

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Whereas Drogba — probably the most well-known world-wide athlete to play any staff sport in Montreal — spent two seasons with the Impression in 2015 and 2016, it’s Bernier who connects the dots on the subject of the historical past of soccer within the metropolis after rising up in Brossard on the South Shore.

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On Saturday, CF Montréal will honour Bernier by inducting the staff’s former captain onto the Wall of Fame at Saputo Stadium throughout halftime of a recreation in opposition to Orlando Metropolis SC (7:30 p.m., TSN3, RDS, Apple TV).

Bernier will change into the fifth member of the Wall of Fame, becoming a member of Gabriel Gervais, Nevio Pizzolitto, Greg Sutton and Mauro Biello.

Bernier was a category act on and off the pitch and former teammate Evan Bush known as him “the inspiration of the staff.” He actually was and Bernier continues to work as an analyst for CF Montréal video games.

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Throughout a information convention Thursday, Gervais — now president and CEO of FC Montréal — thanked Bernier for the instance he set for different gamers together with his management, self-discipline, work ethic and the best way he handled followers and media whereas serving to promote soccer within the metropolis. He was one among my favorite professional athletes to cope with.

Bernier’s professional soccer profession started in 2000 with the Montreal Impression within the A-League when the membership was enjoying its dwelling video games in entrance of a few thousand followers on the Claude Robillard Sports activities Complicated. After three seasons with the Impression, Bernier spent 10 years in Europe, enjoying in Germany, Norway and Denmark. He returned to Montreal when town was granted an MLS franchise for the 2012 season. Bernier would play six seasons for the Impression in MLS, retiring in 2017. 4 years later, the membership modified its title to CF Montréal.

“Once I got here again (to play for the Impression), I understood that there was a duty on my shoulders,” Bernier mentioned throughout Thursday’s information convention. “I used to be the one one from the previous days as a participant and one of many solely ones from the province on the time.

“Off the sphere, I simply needed to be myself,” he added. “I really like soccer and I knew that the membership had their duty and a part of my duty was to develop it — and the easiest way I might develop it was to carry out. You change into the face of the franchise in a sure method and each time you go on the market you’re promoting soccer, you’re promoting the membership.”

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The bilingual Bernier did it with a character that shined on and off the pitch.

Bernier’s ardour for soccer got here from his father, Jean, who got here to Canada from Haiti in 1971 to review on the HEC Montréal enterprise faculty. Jean performed semi-pro soccer as a defender in a few of Montreal’s ethnic leagues and was his son’s first coach in youth soccer. Jean was one of many males liable for beginning up the annual Brossard Problem Cup youth event in 1986, which grew from 24 groups the primary yr to greater than 200. Jean was inducted into the Quebec Soccer Federation’s Corridor of Fame in 2004 as a builder.

Bernier joined his father within the Quebec Soccer Federation Corridor of Fame in 2017 and was additionally named to the Canada Soccer Corridor of Fame in 2022. Internationally, Bernier earned 56 senior caps with the Canadian nationwide staff between 1999 and 2017 and wore the captain’s armband 3 times. He performed in 224 regular-season video games with the Impression, rating third in membership historical past.

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Soccer continues to be a household affair for Bernier. The 43-year-old met his future spouse, Mélisa Barile, after they had been each enjoying youth soccer for Brossard groups and Barile was a teammate on Bernier’s sister’s staff. In 2016, Barile was a part of the AS Varennes membership that gained the provincial and nationwide over-30 girls’s championships.

The couple’s three younger kids — two ladies and a boy — all play soccer and hockey.

Bernier thanked FC Montréal proprietor/chairman Joey Saputo and his household for investing in soccer and displaying that town may be about extra than simply hockey and the Canadiens on the subject of sports activities.

Bernier is a throwback to the times when children might excel at a couple of sport as a substitute of changing into specialised at a younger age, specializing in one sport 12 months a yr. He was a ok at hockey to play two seasons within the QMJHL as a defenceman with the Val-d’Or Foreurs, the place his teammates included future Canadien Steve Bégin and future Corridor of Fame goalie Roberto Luongo. Bernier was additionally ok at soccer to earn a scholarship to Syracuse College.

“I do know we’ll by no means be No. 1 on the rostrum, however hopefully we had been No. 2 and we established a place when it comes to the hearts of the folks within the province and town,” Bernier mentioned about FC Montréal.

There is no such thing as a participant who deserves to be on the Wall of Fame at Saputo Stadium greater than Patrice Bernier.

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