“Have you heard of Thomas Müller before?”
The question, asked in jest, makes 17-year old Emrick Fotsing laugh. Anybody with an iota of football knowledge knows the legendary German midfielder who collected 13 Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, not to mention a FIFA World Cup with Germany. But the fact that Fotsing and his Vancouver FC teammates will soon battle Müller and the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are enjoying a club-defining season, for the Voyageurs Cup seems surreal.
It’s also a reward for the Canadian Premier League’s last-placed team; the Canadian Championship, says Fotsing, has allowed the Langley-based club to showcase their talents during a tough year. Potentially sharing the pitch with Müller is yet another highlight in the young midfielder’s bright rookie campaign that’s spanned from British Columbia to Finland.
“Yeah, obviously, he’s a top player, one of the top players of this generation,” Fotsing says in an exclusive interview with CanPL.ca. “Individually, for me, it’d be great to go out there and play against him and see what he’s made of. For all of the guys, obviously, it’s in the back of our minds but you want to focus on the team performance and the win.”
Cheering against Müller is nothing new. In fact, Fotsing remembers avidly rooting against the German star during the 2014 World Cup as one of millions enamoured by a certain Argentinian footballer by the name of Lionel Messi.
“Since I was a Messi fan, I was for Argentina so it was kind of a problem in my family because they were all for Germany,” he says, noting his parents lived in Germany and watched a lot of Bundesliga. “I’ve watched (Müller) a couple times and I like him a lot.”
Müller ultimately beat out Messi to hoist the World Cup in 2014 but Fotsing and Vancouver FC are hoping the same won’t be said of the Voyageurs Cup on Oct. 1. Having dispatched Atlético Ottawa in a gritty tie, Fotsing says they’ve earned the opportunity to compete against one of the best in Major League Soccer.
“We’ve had lows, a lot of lows, I’d say this season but as a group, we felt like we could’ve done better and so the Canadian Championship was an opportunity for us to go out there and actually show what we’re capable of,” he says.
Fotsing has grown into himself this season, playing mainly as a substitute before earning his way into the starting XI. He’s amassed 21 appearances across all competitions, including three goals. It’s one of the reasons he was called up to represent Canada’s U-18s in Finland earlier this year.
But interim head coach Martin Nash, who replaced Afshin Ghotbi in July, also hasn’t been afraid of giving Fotsing opportunities. He opted to bring on the Montréal native as a substitute in their semifinal tie versus Atlético Ottawa as the club looked to close out the match.
Nash’s trust, during a pivotal moment in the Vancouver FC’s final bid, is not lost on the 17-year old.
“Having the trust of the coach to go out there and to close the game out, obviously, felt really good for me and it’s just something to build on for the rest of the season,” says Fotsing.
“Coming here, for me, was about getting minutes and just developing my game. Obviously, sometimes the transition from academy to senior football can be tricky. Going here, I didn’t really know the level of the league. I was like: ‘Okay, am I going to be able to do this, do this, and do this?’ I’m kind of seeing what I’m capable of doing, even if it was academy or senior football, and I’m better at knowing my qualities now.”
The Whitecaps are easily the favourites versus Vancouver FC but the magic of cup football means anything is possible. And when asked what the chatter’s been like locally, Fotsing says the city finally has an all-Vancouver derby, which has people talking.
The fact that the Whitecaps are looking for a fourth consecutive Voyageurs Cup only adds motivation to Vancouver FC’s underdog story.
“It’s just the perfect team to play in the final,” says Fotsing.
