Brendan Dunlop, Guest Contributor
It’s been said before that life is not always going to be roses and rainbows. You are going to have uncomfortable moments. It’s what we do with those moments that is going to count and determine our destiny. What Bruny Surin did in the moment he had in Atlanta made him an Olympic champion. Roses de Montréal FC are stepping into their moment, determined to write new history for women’s soccer in Quebec.
The Beautiful Game has long been dubbed the fastest growing sport in Canada. The country’s first professional women’s league has two of Canada’s fastest ever Olympians involved in two of the Northern Super League’s biggest markets.
Surin was the second sprinter to be announced as a NSL club investor, after seven-time Olympic medalist and two-time Olympic champion Andre De Grasse joined the ownership group at AFC Toronto. But the Atlanta 1996 gold medalist insists he was first to the finish line.
“I knew that Toronto was talking to Andre and I said to Jean-François [Crevier] ‘you’ve got to announce me first. I’m older,’ Surin says with a laugh, insisting that he’s happy to have a friendly soccer rivalry with De Grasse since the two didn’t get the chance to race against each other on the track.
It was another ball sport that brought Surin into the mix in Montréal. At Tennis Canada’s 2023 Unmatched conference for gender equity in sports, the Olympian learned that Montréal would be one of the NSL’s founding clubs.
“As soon as I heard that I said ‘well, I’ve got to get involved with this’” Surin says, describing that he immediately pulled then-Canada Soccer president Charmaine Crooks aside to get all the information he could about plans for the Montréal club.
“I love soccer. I used to play soccer when I was young. I have two daughters, so I’ve always promoted gender equality and encouraged them to pursue whatever it was they wanted in sports.
Surin didn’t know exactly what part he could play in Jean-François Crevier and Isabèle Chevalier’s project but knew once he sat down with Crevier to chat that he wanted to join the race.
“I had known Isabèle for years but didn’t know they were partners when someone put me in touch with Jean-François. After five minutes with him, I knew they were onto something special and that we shared the same feelings about having a team in this city,” Surin says.
“To me, it was natural to become one small part of Montréal’s NSL project as a small investor and club Ambassador.”
Founded by Chevalier and Crevier, the two successful Montréal business leaders have quickly built a NSL Montréal management team that has built success in professional front offices in both brands of football.
Annie Larouche was hired as club president in June, bringing with her 25 years of experience in the CFL with the Montréal Alouettes, and more recently as president of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL)’s Montréal Alliance. That same month, the club also hired former France international Marinette Pichon as sporting director. Capped 112 times for France’s women’s national team, Pichon scored over 300 goals across a 16 year playing career in France and the United States. In retirement, Pichon moved into the front office at Paris FC and helped build a squad that now has regular UEFA Women’s Champions League aspirations.
Since retiring from Athletics, Surin has been involved in several other ventures, including fashion and politics. In 2024, Surin was the Chef du Mission for Team Canada at the Paris Olympics.
“We couldn’t have Canada’s first professional women’s league and not have a team in Quebec,” he says. “I was very happy that the business community in Montréal were open to it, a lot of people that I already know and have worked with in other capacities.”
The other advantage Roses FC has is being a bilingual team with media coverage in French that will treat the club like a national property and a passionate group of local English media that will spotlight and cover the club amongst Montréal’s other franchises.
“The media here know how to get behind our sports teams. When Isabelle and Jean-Francois announced what they were going to do, they were all over the place. They had everyone talking about the NSL and that’s so important when you’re not the Canadiens. You need to make people curious. With soccer it doesn’t take much to get people interested. Now that the club has a name and a crest, you’ll really see Montréal embrace Roses FC.”
“I want everyone in Montréal and Quebec to show their support. Roses is our club in this brand new and hugely important league. That’s pretty special. You don’t always get such amazing opportunities like this in life,” Surin says.
The Olympian will be amongst the thousands in attendance for Roses de Montréal FC’s opening match next spring and cannot wait to see how fast the city falls in love with professional women’s soccer.