After a disappointing first half against Honduras to start Canada’s final World Cup qualifying round, Stephen Eustaquio and Canada head coach John Herdman emerged from the BMO Field tunnel together.
Herdman needed a sharper performance from his team, but instead of the coach offering instruction to his central midfielder, it was the 24-year-old Eustaquio raising two fingers together to describe a play unfolding, mid-stride, with Herdman nodding in agreement.
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“He can be such a key player for us to dictate the tempo of the game, and that’s what he did,” Herdman said after the 1-1 draw, during which Eustaquio’s frequent strong challenges and ability to break lines with direct, long passes made him one of Canada’s best players.
Hundreds of kilometres away in Calgary, Alberta, Eustaquio’s brother Mauro watched and smiled.
If Canada’s first two games have led more Canadians to discover Eustaquio, one of the team’s most consistent performers, they also served as a reminder to Mauro about how his cerebral brother has developed from a young age.
“My dad always said, ‘You have to be a student of the game. The day that you’re not a student of the game is the day that you’re not going to develop,’” said Mauro
Throughout his career, Stephen Eustaquio has never stopped being that student of the game. And in the process, he has established the kind of vision that Herdman doesn’t just appreciate, but that has made him a vital part of Canada’s World Cup hopes.
“(Eustaquio) embodies everything we want this football country to be moving forward,” Herdman said during the summer’s Gold Cup.
Every time Mauro Eustaquio went out with his friends to kick the ball around, he could not shake his brother Stephen, four years his junior.
Was it an annoyance at times to have his short, skinny brother tagging along? Perhaps. But in hindsight, Stephen getting “bullied around,” according to Mauro, while playing with the older kids was one of the first steps in his development path.
“Everybody’s stronger and quicker and that’s something that was good for him,” said Mauro. “He worked on how to read the game at a very early age.”
His parents moved to Canada from Portugal before Stephen was born, seeking more opportunities for their children. They eventually returned to Portugal after 10 years in Ontario, taking the boys back with them.
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Spending that long away from other family members made the family grow closer to the point that if Mauro was going for tryouts with teams in Portugal, he implored coaches to give Stephen a trial, as well.
As he started through the youth ranks with UD Leiria, Eustaquio kept notebooks in order to track his own development, with growing lists of areas of his game where he wanted to improve, and what he had to do to make those improvements.
In high school, Eustaquio’s parents could not afford a gym membership for their children. So Stephen opted to take an internship at a local gym just so he could have access to the facilities after his shifts.
From the ages of 16 to 20, while desperately trying to crack into Leiria’s first team lineup, Eustaquio avoided eating fried foods. At parties, Eustaquio would habitually be the first to retire, often to the jeers of friends or family members. But he recognized the value of a good night’s sleep ahead of training.
His family recalled that he eventually began to improve and enjoyed playing against opponents far older than him. So he took the unconventional step to leave Leiria, which at the time was playing in Portugal’s U-18 first division, and joined his brother for a loan spell with Nazarenos, a senior fourth-division side.
Some people around Eustaquio questioned the rationality of leaving a U-18 team that was playing against some of Portugal’s top youth sides for a team full of players who had day jobs, but he believed he needed to understand what it would be like to read a senior game. Still on the small side for a 17-year-old, he learned the importance of better body positioning, winning fouls and developing a tactical awareness to keep him playing with grown men.
Eustaquio’s soccer IQ has long been a calling card.
Growing up, it was a regular occurrence in the Eustaquio household for the family to review games together, pausing the video multiple times to dissect how plays unfolded, and when plays broke down, what the better options for the ball-handler were.
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That approach stuck with Eustaquio.
“It’s ridiculous the amount of times during family holidays and we’ll just be watching TV and he’ll grab his laptop and go watch a game from months ago and say, ‘Oh, I could have made that play.’ He doesn’t look at how many passes he made, or how many shots he had. For him, it’s about how he positioned himself, and how he could have positioned himself better. It seems like he never breaks a sweat because he’s always in the right position. That’s something that he takes pride in,” said Mauro.
As Eutaquio turned heads in Portugal by moving from second-division Leixoes to make his top-flight debut with Chaves in 2018, newly-hired Canada head coach John Herdman was paying attention.
Eustaquio was already competing for Portugal in European Under-21 Championship qualifiers, lining up alongside the likes of Joao Felix and Diogo Jota.
Coming off a major title win at Euro 2016, Portugal’s international track record was far more established than Canada’s and Eustaquio might have been able to garner some international caps for Portugal if all worked out well. But he still asked frequent questions of those with the Portuguese national team, especially regarding what the path looked like for some players in similar positions to his.
“He thinks about things long-term, not just in the moment,” said a source.
Herdman had made it a focal point of his early tenure to convince dual nationals to play for Canada. That year, Eustaquio and Herdman had over a dozen calls to discuss the player’s future. There was a fairly quick connection between the two.
One person close to Eustaquio said that many of his recent decisions regarding where he should play came after carefully considering who the coach of those club teams was, and whether they would connect in a meaningful way.
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Another person added that Eustaquio’s coaches consistently marvel at his intelligence and how some have come to view him as an extension of themselves on the pitch. It is Eustaquio’s ability to provide constant reinforcement of what the players around him should be doing on the pitch that has resonated with those coaches as he can connect his teammates on the pitch with ease: “He’s a coach on the field and he’s only 24 years old.”
It was both the details and the sincerity Herdman brought to those conversations that Eustaquio appreciated.
“When a coach has confidence in you and wants to count on you, you feel special,” Mauro said of those conversations.
Eustaquio looked at the young talent emerging in Canada and wondered if he could play a more prominent role there than with Portugal. It was hard to ignore that Canada’s long-standing defensive midfielder, Atiba Hutchinson, was nearing the end of his career. And the opportunity to possibly play a World Cup on home soil in 2026 also mattered.
Herdman broke down Eustaquio’s clearly defined role for him again and again.
“Some coaches play mind games, but John was always sincere with him,” said a source with knowledge of those conversations.
Given Eustaquio’s history of wanting to share a connection with his coaches, the opportunity to work with someone equally as passionate as him was, in Mauro’s estimation, “a perfect fit.”
Then there were the constant conversations between Eustaquio and his family about whether he should play. Throughout those conversations, Mauro remembers a consistent message from his brother: “Canada provided for our family.”
That resonated so much that, when it came time to make his decision early in 2019, he told those close to him of his decision: “It’s my time to give back to Canada.”
Considering how seamless his fit into Canada’s team has been, and how comfortable he looks among his teammates, it is perhaps easy to forget that Eustaquio has just 12 caps.
You wouldn’t know it to hear him talk about playing for Canada, either.
“We’re Canada,” said Eustaquio on Sept. 1. “We’re capable of everything. This is a new era.”
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The 5-foot-8 midfielder has already solidified his spot in the starting lineup.
Canada has central, deep-lying midfielders who can hold the ball well in possession like Jonathan Osorio, those who can provide defensive presence like Samuel Piette, those who can spray passes like Liam Fraser and those who can provide calming, veteran poise like Atiba Hutchinson.
But Eustaquio is a rare bird in that he can provide all of those qualities at once, looking like both a No. 6 and No. 8 at times — as he did with his long-range passing against Honduras and pinpoint tackling against the United States.
Playmaking from the central midfield does not come easily to this Canadian team. They are often at their most dangerous when attacking from the wings. But to guard against opposing teams quickly figuring out how to defend against Canada, Herdman will depend on a midfield lynchpin who can pull the strings to create attacking opportunities.
“A very smart player that’s very important for the team,” said defender Steven Vitoria.
Perhaps most important for Canada is the relentless, driven mindset that’s become Eustaquio’s calling card.
“He might be young, but he plays with a lot of maturity in his game,” said Hutchinson.
Eustaquio recovered well after an ACL injury forced him out of nearly his entire tenure with Mexico’s Cruz Azul in 2019. To those closest to him, he called the devastating period merely a “blip.” A transfer to Portuguese top-flight side Pacos Ferreira has seen his stock rise once again. Last season he helped Pacos to a fifth-place finish, their best since 2013. A source said that, as a result, Premier League and La Liga teams have continued to track Eustaquio, with a move in the winter transfer window looking more and more possible.
His technical skill remains evident, but so too does his persistence and edge, as seen when he got in the face of Honduras head coach Fabian Coito after he debated a foul last week.
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“He has that warrior spirit,” said Herdman of Eustaquio. “For a very small guy he is right in that fight.”
Canada’s national team will eventually travel to hostile locales and the pace of play could become even more frenetic than it was at times through their first two games. Eustaquio’s demeanour will then become even more valuable. And so it was no surprise that he would pause and answer quizzically when asked what it meant for the team to be looking as relaxed as it was in training ahead of the team’s first Octagonal match.
“We believe in each other,” said Eustaquio. “If we showed that we were nervous, it would be because we don’t trust ourselves and we’re not ready for the main goal.”
That main goal of qualifying for a World Cup is still months away from fruition, if at all.
But their chances have improved with Eustaquio in the fold. After all, he knows about playing the long game.
And if he keeps up on his trajectory, he may end up giving back to Canada in a priceless way.
“He wants to change the soccer scene in Canada,” Mauro said of his brother. “He wants to put Canada on the map.”
(Photo: Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
