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34 B C B U S I N E S S . C A J U LY/A U G U S T 2 0 24 JUST OFF NANAIMO STREET in East Vancouver lies a block-long patch of grass adjacent to a playground and basketball and tennis courts called Garden Park. The grass, splotches of it barren and brown, is bookended by large metal soccer nets on either side. It looks entirely unspectacular—a neigh- bourhood park that tired parents use to distract their kids for a few minutes before they move on to the next activity. You'd never know it serves a leading role in the origin story of one of the most influential sporting figures Canada has ever seen. It was here, some 50 years ago, that you could find a young Victor Montagliani playing D.O.N.K.E.Y. with his friends, kick- ing a soccer ball against what was then a wooden wall before it was replaced by the green fence that sits behind the nets today. A half century later, Montagliani, now president of CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) and chairperson of the 2026 Men's World Cup, gets out of his black SUV and crosses the street confi- dently. In some countries, he wouldn't be able to walk the 50 metres to the park with- out a mob of people on top of him. As the "Tony Soprano of East Van"—a comparison more than one person made to me—walks toward the middle of the field in his blue suit, I start to wonder whether photographer Adam Blasberg and I are going to be greeted with carefully chosen and vaguely threatening words about the mistakes we've made. Thankfully, that's not the case. Monta- gliani showcases an easy friendliness that I never saw in six seasons of The Sopranos. He also can't help looking around and wax- ing poetic about the days that were. "This field, man... You got up in the morning and you played, recess you played, lunch you played, after school you played until your mom would scream 'Dinner!' from down the street," says the 58-year-old who went to Lord Nelson Elementary and Templeton Secondary School, both nearby. His par- ents still live a couple of blocks away—he's just come from coffee at their house. "In the development world, they say you have to have 10,000 hours to maximize your skills," he notes. "Well, most of the guys I grew up with easily had those 10,000 hours. We were always playing." BALL IS LIFE MONTAGLIANI GREW UP in a soccer family. Three uncles played professionally in Italy. His dad, Luciano, was, in Monta- gliani's words, a "nutbar soccer guy." The elder Montagliani was one of the found- ers of the Italian Canadian Sports Federation and was the president of Columbus FC, a sto- ried East Vancouver soccer club that was launched to provide a team for Italian immigrants in Van- couver. The club was later inducted into the BC Soccer Hall of Fame and served as a train- i n g g rou n d fo r players like Bobby Lenarduzzi. "His dad painted his little mini pickup truck black with blue stripes, the colours of [Italian soccer club] Inter Milan," says Franco Iuele, a long-time friend and former teammate of Mon- tagliani's. "You'd see [Luciano] driving around Commercial Drive with it. And his younger brother Mario was named after an Inter player." Montagliani was a formidable player himself, eventually playing professionally with Columbus and with the Canadian national futsal team (futsal is essentially indoor soccer with a smaller ball). "He was mature above his years, and as a player he was really skilled with a great left foot shot," says James Crescenzo, a former Templeton Secondary School teacher who also served as coach of the soccer team. "When we had our meetings, he was always the first guy to get there. I started teaching when he was in Grade 11 and he was really a young man. Incredibly easy to coach—always a positive person encouraging others on the field and in the classroom." Iuele and Montagliani both played cen- tre midfield for Columbus. "He'd say, 'Get the ball to me,'" Iuele remembers. "We had this relationship—he was the brains and I would chase and get the ball and find him." SPORTS

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