Written by Hussam Al Masaid
Italian-Canadians have been influential members of Canadian society who have significantly impacted Canadian culture, music, and sports ever since the late 1800s when Italians started to immigrate to Canada in larger numbers. In the course ITAL-2P98, Italians in Canada and Italy-Canada Relations, we have been investigating the impact Italians had in Canada, and for this poster project, we have been assigned to look at some of the most influential Italian-Canadians in sports history. We’re looking at the sports industry specifically because the Canada games are taking place in Niagara and at Brock, so the school wants to promote the contributions of Italian athletes in the posters to fit the theme of the Canada games. The Italian-Canadian athlete I examine is Tino Lettieri, the former Canadian national soccer goalkeeper during the 1976 and 1984 Summer Olympics, the 1985 CONCACAF Championship (which he helped Canada win), and the 1986 World Cup.
Tino Lettieri was born on September 27, 1957, in Bari, Italy and his family immigrated to Montreal when he was just three months old. Lettieri was raised in Montreal where he played ice hockey and soccer in the goalkeeper position, which would later develop into his passion and career as a professional goalkeeper. Lettieri would go on to play soccer professionally in the North American Soccer League (NASL) on teams like the Minnesota kicksand Vancouver Whitecaps, and he would serve as Canada’s primary goalkeeper from 1980-1986.Lettieri would make 318 appearances in the North American domestic leagues and 24 for the Canadian National team from 1976-87. In 1983 he would be named the NASL player of the yearand in 1987 he would also be voted as the goalkeeper of the year by fans. Lettieri would represent Canada’s national team in a lot of international competitions with the most notable ones being the two summer Olympics, Concacaf championships, and the World cup in 1986. Letteiri and his squad would win Canada it’s first ever Concacaf championship in 1985 (the North American equivalent to the Euros) and in 1986 he would help Canada qualify for it’s first ever World Cup, and in 2001 Lettieri and many of his former teammates on the national squad would be inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame for their achievements. Tino Lettieri’s shot-stopping for Canada during the World Cup and CONCACAF championships, and his widely known personality for being a fun, happy, outgoing individual who would put his pet stuffed parrot named Ozzie in his net for good luck would forever cement Lettieri as a Canadian soccer legend and he is arguably one of the greatest goalkeepers in Canadian history.
Tino Lettieri was a founding figure in International Canadian football with him being a part of the Canadian golden soccer generation from the late 70s to 1986 when he and his team would take Canada to never before seen heights in international football by winning Canada’s first-ever CONCACAF Championship. More importantly, this squad would be the first and only Canadian squad to qualify for the world cup until this year when the new Canadian soccer generation (which was inspired by Lettieri’s generation) managed to qualify for the world cup again after a 36-year qualification drought. After Canada’s golden soccer generation came to an end soccer would continue to grow consistently in popularity around Canada because the country now had a soccer history that Canadians could be proud of, and Tino Lettieri would be an integral part of this history because of his contributions to the national team.
Tino Lettieri is an Italian-Canadian athlete who significantly impacted soccer in Canada by helping his country reach all-time highs which has inspired the next Canadian generation to play more soccer and dream of one day playing in the world cup like Lettieri and his squad did back in 1986. Also Tino Lettieri helped Canada win its first-ever international soccer trophy. He played in the 1980s and by then Italians had started to get accepted by wider Anglo-North American society as another “white” ethnic group, so racism and prejudice, against the Italian community, had decreased by Lettieri’s time (not saying it didn’t exist) and many Italian-Canadian athletes had come before him to break stereotypes and notions against Italian capabilities in sports.
Bibliography
Black, Matthew. “Where Are They Now?: Canada’s One and Only World Cup Team 32 Years Later | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 14 June 2018, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-1986-wherearetheynow-1.4703373.
Davidson, Neil. “Canadian Soccer Hall Welcomes 11 Inductees | CBC Sports.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 15 Nov. 2000, https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/canadian-soccer-hall-welcomes-11-inductees-1.226185.
“North American Soccer League Players.” NASL, https://www.nasljerseys.com/Players/L/Lettieri.Tino.htm.
“Profile.” Canada Soccer, 7 Feb. 2020, https://www.canadasoccer.com/profile/?id=1877.
“Vancouver Whitecaps’ All-Time Greats: The NASL Goalkeeper.” Canadian Soccer News, 19 Jan. 2014, https://www.canadiansoccernews.com/csn-archives/aftn/vancouver-whitecaps-all-time-greats-the-nasl-goalkeeper-r4361/.
How to cite this page:
MLA STYLE: Author. “Title.” Title of container, Other contributors, Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors.
Scozzari, Gianni. “Learning about Italian-Canadian NHL Athlete Kevin Francesco Bieska with Ms. Lombard.” In Archival Research of Italian-Canadian Immigration and Culture, supvr. T. Russo, issue 4: Sports in Italian-Canadian Communities, Brock University, December 2022, St. Catherines (Sports in Italian-Canadian Communities – Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (italianheritage.ca)). Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (ICNS), Sandra Parmegiani and Nivashinee Ponambalum.