When Rob Notenboom first got involved with Canadian soccer supporters group the Voyageurs around 2005, he had no idea what it could grow into.
Now the president of the organization, he says fans have embraced the boys’s national team throughout the World Cup in a way that’s exceeded his “wildest expectations.”
“Interest has never been higher. We will type of barely sustain with it,” he said in an interview Monday.
Hundreds of fans have joined Voyageurs-led marches through Toronto and Vancouver, and on Wednesday they’ll be out in force again, marching to BC Place for Canada’s match against Switzerland.
Notenboom said the Voyageurs will probably be honouring Canadian midfielder Ismaël Koné, who suffered a broken leg in last week’s match against Qatar, and so they’ll print out 3,000 copies of Koné’s number 8 to display throughout the match.
He said the group has also been working on a banner to carry up throughout the game in honour of Koné.
Notenboom said the goal is to point out players that supporters “have their backs 100 per cent.”
“Koné is the one which got injured, and yes, we wish to ensure that he individually understands that all of us recognize his sacrifice and what he’s put into all this, but it surely translates out to the players as well — that they not only have our support, but that they’re all playing for one another, and we’re there for them too,” he said.
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“It’s an unlucky event, but we desired to capitalize on it in a positive option to make a little bit of a press release, in order that’s what we’re attempting to do at that game.”
Notenboom helped lead the march in Vancouver last Thursday and said he didn’t realize how big the gang behind him was until he saw videos the following day.
“It was just massive,” he said. “It was really something. We’re quite happy with that really.”
The group has been planning its events in Toronto and Vancouver since around December, liaising with police in addition to city and FIFA officials, but Notenboom said he didn’t anticipate the swell of support that got here when the tournament kicked off.
The energy generated by fans on the marches has been palpable.
“The march itself type of took on a lifetime of its own,” Notenboom said. “We didn’t anticipate in our wildest dreams that it could snowball like this.”
Chanting, drumming, waving flags and smoke canisters and wearing red, hundreds of fans joined the Thursday’s march down the “last mile” to BC Place.
Voyageurs organizers have been leading the crowds in cries of “allez les Rouges,” and call-and-response chants.
Notenboom said Wednesday’s march, which assembles at 9:30 a.m. and can depart at 10 a.m. from around Quebec and Central streets, “will still be huge.”
“There’ll be tons of energy and the stadium itself will once more be this incredible sea of red,” Notenboom said.
Wednesday’s kickoff is at noon. If Canada wins or draws, they will probably be playing their round-of-32 knockout match on home turf in Vancouver.
The Voyageurs were formed in Edmonton in 1996, to spice up Canada’s ultimately unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the 1998 World Cup.
The club says on its website that its name was chosen “for reflecting the difficult task ahead for supporters of Canadian soccer.”
The club has come a great distance on that journey, alongside the national men’s team, and has “turn into a little bit of a force to be reckoned with, if I do say so myself,” said Notenboom.
Membership of the Voyageurs grew when the boys’s national team qualified for the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022, but numbers surged again as soon as ticketing began for 2026, Notenboom said. The impact of social media and notable moments for the team also had quite a bit to do with spikes in membership, which costs $30 a 12 months and brings advantages including fan-zone ticketing for matches and other perks.
There at the moment are about 3,000 members.
“It’s just such a moment, and so interest has never been higher. We will type of barely sustain with it, but we’re more in a position to handle that now.”
He said he hopes the energy continues long after the tournament has ended.
“This is a lot fun and it’s enriched so many individuals’s lives, being a soccer supporter,” Notenboom said.
“We’ve got an excellent community and we’re wide open for anybody that desires to (join). It’s a giant bus and we don’t mind people jumping on the bus because that’s what makes it more fun.”
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