TORONTO, ONTARIO — Ask almost any fan at Thursday’s FIFA World Cup Round of 32 match in Toronto about the best player on their favored team and you’re going to get descriptions of the highest admiration in words that will dare you to call out exaggeration.
But don’t you dare when it comes to Portuguese fans and Cristiano Ronaldo or Croatian supporters and Luka Modric.
MORE — Portugal 2-1 Croatia recap and video highlights
Now note that Modric, 40, and Ronaldo, 41, had defied time just to participate in this tournament and that one was likely to be playing his last World Cup game on this sweltering occasion in Ontario. While Portugal fans told me they feared a day without CR7 in their shirt, a Croatian supporter made an even bolder proclamation.
“In our country there’s Jesus Christ and then there’s Luka Modric right after,” said Krunoslav Ljubanopic from nearby Mississauga. “I’m going to be completely honest with you. If Modric plays his last game we’re all going to cry. He’s played with us since 2006 World Cup. I was four years old when he played his first World Cup. He means a lot to us.”
Furthermore, consider that this massive metropolis and its surrounding region — the Greater Toronto Area or GTA — has long been home to massive and fervent Portuguese and Croatian populations.
And finally, consider that many in this crowd had the added desperation and desire to celebrate given the fact that so many spent a good deal of savings on getting here as outlandish resale prices spiked when the identities of these two massive teams were confirmed for this big fixtures.
Stanley Park is already buzzing here. A few hundred Portugal supporters have gathered nearly two hours before their march to Toronto Stadium. #FIFAWorldCup #WeAreToronto pic.twitter.com/CkT7WnqH4p— Jermaine Wilson | CP24/CTV News (@Jerrmainewilson) July 2, 2026
Toronto’s history formed the perfect cauldron for Portugal vs Croatia
Almost half a million Canadians boast Portuguese heritage, and more than 110,000 live in the Greater Toronto Area according to the 2021 census, contributing to a figure of 300,000-plus in Ontario.
Canadians with Croatian heritage also make up a notable portion of the Ontario population, with nearly 100,000 in the state and a passionate base in Toronto.
The history looms larger because of Toronto Croatia, who purchased Toronto Metros in 1975 and became Toronto Metros-Croatia. This team, ironically enough, was propelled to great heights in the North American Soccer League with Portuguese legend Eusebio — the Black Pearl — helping to lead them to a Soccer Bowl ’76 triumph over the Minnesota Kicks.
So the spirit around the stadium was pretty friendly before the game. After all, those who’d celebrate Modric would’ve cheered on Ronaldo when both were with Real Madrid, and vice versa.
“The fact that it’s here with so much on the line with two massive players,” said Marco Carvalho of Toronto. “One reaches the end, one goes on. It’s a big deal.”
Croatia fans made noise early in warm-ups but Portugal turned up the juice upon arrival, greeting even Ronaldo’s kicks into empty goals with “Siiiiiiuuuuuuuuu.”
And then came Ronaldo pumping up the crowd as a VAR review was announced for a possible penalty with Croatia up 1-0. The build-up and explosion when Ronaldo started his penalty run-up, stopped it, and deposited the ball into the vacated part of the goal was almost too much. Waves of noise that crashed with more and more power — relief and joy.
Ironically, of course, Portugal would find their winner from their other center forward after Ronaldo had subbed out of the game. The noise was no less powerful, though, as the Portuguese faithful celebrated the extended life in this tournament at the expense of Croatia. Ronaldo was asked about Modric after the game.
“Yeah I spoke with him,” Ronaldo said. “He’s a legend of football. I played so many years together with him at Real Madrid. I hope he continues to play.”
Croatia’s end to the tournament was less celebratory, of course, and the moment will remain rife with controversy thanks to VAR and little chips inside of soccer balls. The spectacle of cups and other trash tossed onto the field was unwelcome, unnecessary, and sad yet human — it came as the away fans processed the instant drop from ecstasy to despair so deep in stoppage time.
Generational passion links Croatian Canadians and Portuguese Canadians
So many Croatians and Portuguese came to Canada in the middle of the 20th century, and to a person they love their nation they adopted as home.
But that only extends so far in sports. The Raptors? Sure. The Blue Jays? of course. But the World Cup?
“It’s not the same passion for the game in general, maybe in different sports,” said Maja Mandaric of Toronto, who was attending the game with her brothers Ante and Kristian. “I’ve always cheered for Cro. It’s amazing to see Canada as a host but I’m not going to switch over now.”
And there’s pride in what their elders have built in Canada on behalf of the lands they left behind.
“It means a lot for the Portuguese population in Toronto,” said Alessia Carvalho at the game with her father Marco. “My grandparents are immigrants. They came here. They worked hard. They showed the culture what it is to be Portuguese. Soccer is in our blood, in our veins.”
Ljubanovic took it a step further.
“It’s a religion, that’s all I can say,” he added. “We live and die for our country. Our families fought in the wars for a free Croatia. Thirty years ago we were not a country. Now we have more medals than England in the last 60 years, more medals than Italy, I think Brazil.”
The history may be recent but is woven into the fabric of Croatia. John Saric of Manhattan, New York, has been to over 120 Croatian games including the 2018 World Cup Final.
“The scale of it... I’m going to talk on behalf of Luka and Croatia,” Saric said. “We have a population of 3.9 million in Croatia. I grew up playing for the Croatian soccer club in New York. Here in Mississauga it’s huge. Look, I’m getting chills just talking about it. We were freedom fighters. We fought for for a free Croatia In 94, [Davor] Suker, [Zvonimir] Boban, and the Golden Generation couldn’t play because Yugoslavia qualified. For Luka it’s all about the country, not his individualism. Luka doesn’t have the notoriety of Ronaldo but the support they have in the Croatian community is incredible.”
Canada’s soccer melting pot a beautiful thing
As time goes forward, the Canadian national team will have deeper roots with almost all of their fans but the pull of family and history will remain immense.
Fernando Araujo and his family’s story puts a bow on this. He posited that the mere match-up of Portugal and Croatia in a World Cup knockout game instantly marks it the biggest single sporting event to take place in Canada given the Toronto Raptors sealed their NBA title on U.S. soil. He says it’s bigger than Joe Carter’s walk-off home run for the Blue Jays at the 1993 World Series.
The scenes outside and inside Toronto Stadium back him up.
Fernando’s lifelong love affair with soccer was fueled by Portuguese powers Benfica, though he remembers going to all of Canada’s World Cup qualifiers in the latter part of the 1990s and early 2000s. But Canada’s men — aside from the 2000 Gold Cup — struggled and World Cup hopes remained tied to Portugal.
Fernando and his wife Betty had children and they flourished in the sport. Jordan signed with Brighton and Hove Albion in 2017 and his daughter Kelsey signed for Le Havre in France after playing for Niagara University in 2021.
Kelsey scored plenty for Le Havre, who earned promotion to the French top flight where she’d play against PSG and Lyon while catching the attention of Portugal, where she’d progress from the U23s to the senior national team for World Cup qualifiers. Fernando and Betty had flights delayed for her first cap and left their late-arriving luggage at a Spanish airport rather than risk missing her debut
“I cried when my son signed for Brighton and when Kelsey went to France,” Fernando said. “But when I saw her play for Portugal it was a whole other feeling. I cannot describe it.”
Kelsey would’ve been on the radar of Canada in addition to Portugal but she says her roots were in Portuguese football.
“Portugal soccer was everything,” Kelsey said. “I can’t honestly tell you the first Canada soccer game I watched but I have memories back to 2004 when my family and I went to Portugal to watch EURO.”
Representing Portugal “was everything to me, because I knew it was everything to my family. I spent so much time with my grandparents growing up and that is their home. I felt like it was my way of bringing home to them even though they don’t live there anymore. They moved to Canada for a better life for my parents — but home never leaves you.”
“I think the best way to describe it is as a group of people who lived in a country who didn’t have a very good national team but had a country where their parents, grandparents, and great parents came from who excelled on national stages. Our favorite club teams came from Portugal. Toronto didn’t even have a team until 2007, by then I had watched more Benfica than the average person watches soccer. And soccer is everything in Europe. Our grandparents and parents brought that love with them from Portugal, and thus it’s what we love as it’s what we are raised on.”
Source: NBCSports.com
