Alfie Jones brings Canadian ancestry, defensive skill to shore up Canadian men's soccer team

A poignant history has led Alfie Jones to a surprising present with Canada’s men’s soccer team, the thinnest thread of connection now feeling more like gravity’s pull.

This week, Jones, a towering, English-born centre back for Championship side Middlesbrough, has made his first visit to Canada with the unlikely seeming goal of representing it.

On Tuesday, he sat in the team hotel in Toronto with a maple leaf over his heart. “I’m just trying to take it all in,” he said, “and enjoy every moment, and do the best that I can.”

He was waiting only to take his Oath of Citizenship. That was still the case on Wednesday afternoon. Without it, he won’t be able to play in Thursday’s friendly against Ecuador at BMO Field, the next challenge in the team’s shortening march toward next summer’s home World Cup.

“We’ll see what happens in the next 24 to 36 hours,” head coach Jesse Marsch said.

If Jones does manage to make his pledge in time, he’ll have the chance to show his now-fellow Canadians the lashing intensity that runs through him like blood. 

“I’m quite an emotional guy, I’m a very passionate guy,” he said. “I’ve got the badge on my chest now. I’m here to represent it in the best way possible, on and off the pitch. Obviously not a lot of people here know my personality, but they’ll see: I’m all in, or I’m nothing.”

Jones can play for Canada because one of his grandmothers was born in Hillcrest, Alta. Her family had emigrated to Canada from England; when she was a teenager, they were driven back by hardship and homesickness. “The rumour was it was because of the weather,” Jones said.

Before making his own move to Middlesbrough, Jones played at Hull with Canadian Liam Millar. Last season, the two men were sharing a sauna, and Millar missed home enough to start talking about it. Jones mentioned his grandmother, who died when he was a child and rarely spoke of her time in Alberta.

“I wish I could ask her questions, come back over here with her to piece that puzzle together,” the 28-year-old Jones said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case.”

But in the beautiful way that an accident of history can seem purposeful in hindsight, her tattered birth certificate became a ticket back to Canada for her grandson. After that fateful sauna, Millar called Jesse Marsch, his head coach, and told him about Jones. Marsch called Jones, and the work to earn his citizenship began.

“I didn’t know if a grandparent was enough,” Jones said. “Thankfully, she was.” 

Jones joins 21-year-old goalkeeper Owen Goodman, who took his own Oath of Citizenship last month, in the ranks of new faces — and new Canadians — on Marsch’s ever-expanding team. 

Goodman has a stronger Canadian connection, having spent eight years of his childhood in Alliston, Ont., before returning to England to further his soccer career with Crystal Palace. But at Tuesday’s frigid training session, Goodman wore a balaclava, and Jones went bareheaded.