“Canada reminds me of the US from twenty years ago”

Two years after leaving his position as performance director of Toronto FC, Pierre Barrieu is already back in Canada. The Frenchman followed Jesse Marsch to Leeds, then to the Canucks, becoming assistant coach with whom he now observes the internationals playing in Europe. "The club and the national team are two different jobs: I am the medical supervisor, so I have to be sure that each player reaches 100% of his potential when picked to play in the national team, because we don't have time to rehabilitate a player athletically during a training camp. So we have less room to manoeuvre, but we also have the chance to be able to call up only players who are in shape," continues the man who worked for eleven years with the US national team and who finds similarities in his new role. "Canada reminds me of the United States of twenty years ago, when I started: soccer is progressing, but it lacks development structures with only three training centers in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. There is still a huge margin for improvement."