MONTREAL – In the Montreal Impact’s history of Homegrown Players getting national call-ups, there are two extremes.
At one end, Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé: on Sept. 8, 2013, he debuted for the senior Canada team with a couple of youth caps under his belt. Nearly 10 months later, Gagnon-Laparé… signed his first pro contract with the Impact.
At the other end, Maxim Tissot: he was the second Academy graduate to sign pro terms with Montreal, in February 2013. This Thursday, Tissot got his first call-up from Canada head coach Benito Floro, for the Nov. 18 friendly at Panama. And he has no history whatsoever in Canada's youth setup.
“I don’t know why that is,” Tissot told MLSsoccer.com by phone, adding that he has no regrets. “I’ve always been a late bloomer, even with the Academy. Maybe this explains that. But I don’t worry about this. It’s all right. Better late than never.”
Meanwhile, Tissot has seen teammates Karl W. Ouimette, Patrice Bernier and Issey Nakajima-Farran – in addition to Gagnon-Laparé – add to their caps collection against the likes of Bulgaria, Jamaica and Colombia.
This time, Tissot will travel with the former three. But he admits that seeing teammates leave for Canada duties before felt like a bit of tease.
“But I didn’t worry about that,” Tissot said. “I told myself that I’d do my job with the Impact and that, if it was to happen, it would happen. It’s happened, so I’m very happy.”
This Panama journey caps a promising 2014 for Tissot, who played more than twice as many minutes than during his rookie season and scored two goals for good measure. A left back by trade, Tissot is playing more and more at left midfield. He isn’t aware of Floro’s intentions in this respect; Tissot has only had contacts with a colleague of Floro’s, mostly about travel plans.
But Floro does speak on a regular basis with Tissot’s club head coach, Frank Klopas. It was Klopas who told Tissot, after Montreal’s 1-1 CONCACAF Champions League draw at New York on October 22, that Floro would call him up. Much to Klopas’ pleasure, it seems.
“Frank had told me about a month ago that he was speaking with the staff so they would call me up, Tissot said. “They put a bit of pressure on me at the same time so I would do well, but it’s good pressure. I’m really grateful for their insistence on a call-up. It shows that they have confidence in me.”
