Bim Pepple ready to fulfill dream in Canadian national team debut with World Cup spot to play for

Chris Jones · CBC Sports

· Posted: Mar 26, 2026 5:58 PM EDT | Last Updated: 20 minutes ago

It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon, Bim Pepple remembers, the day before Canada Soccer announced its men’s roster for this month’s international window.

The 23-year-old forward had heard rumours that he might be included for the first time, but his phone hadn’t rung. A little deflated, he settled down for a nap. Plymouth Argyle, his English League One side, would soon have a game to play against Huddersfield. He could use the rest.

He woke up to a WhatsApp message from an unfamiliar number that started with +39, Italy’s country code.

“This is Jesse Marsch,” it began.

Canada’s head coach, texting from his home outside Pisa, was offering an invitation to camp.

“I thought it was a prank,” a beaming Pepple said Thursday at the team’s Toronto hotel.

He played Huddersfield — scoring the 15th goal of his breakout season — before heading to Heathrow for his flight to Pearson. He thought he’d next play Bradford City. Instead, he will don the Canadian jersey for Saturday’s friendly against Iceland at BMO Field.

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Pepple, who was born in the U.K. but moved to Calgary with his family when he was five years old, had harboured mostly private ambitions of playing for the national team.

“I always had it in the back of my mind,” he said. “Some people would say I was delusional, but I always willed it.”

His professional career began with great teenage promise with Calvary in the Canadian Premier League. At 19, his move to England with Luton Town proved less auspicious.

He endured a series of fruitless loans to Grimsby, Bromley, and Inverness, scoring only once in two seasons. He struggled to adapt to the physical play, looking to referees after he’d been felled and fouled, expecting calls to go his way. The game continued with him flat on his back.

“It was like I was playing a different sport,” he said.

Luton suggested that perhaps he should return to Canada. Only the affirmation of his parents, Reuben and Folake, back home in Calgary, kept him in England.

“They convinced me,” he said. “I just needed one more chance.”

In 2024, he found that chance at National League side Southend, where he scored seven goals in 19 games. After an equally productive stretch at Chesterfield in League Two, he was recalled by Luton.

He asked if he could make a permanent transfer to Plymouth Argyle, a sneaky big club that had given him the backing he felt he’d earned. Luton granted his wish.

“I prayed so much about it,” he said. “I just felt like it was the right place to be, like it was going to work out. Thankfully it has so far.”

A chance to make the World Cup

Beyond his incredible goal-scoring form, Pepple fits well into Marsch’s two-forward system — so much so that he might yet win an unlikely place on this summer’s World Cup squad.

“Obviously, it’s a goal of mine to make the World Cup,” Pepple said. “I’m not going to sit here and say it isn’t. If I keep scoring goals, I have a chance.”

Marsch likes to play Jonathan David, his premier striker, underneath a larger, more imposing forward, lately either Tani Oluwaseyi or Promise David. Cyle Larin’s recent play for Southampton might return him to starting consideration. But Promise David could miss the World Cup with a ruptured hip tendon, leaving a possible opening for Pepple.

He isn’t as big as David, but he runs better, an essential quality for Marsch’s relentless press. Pepple met Canadian veteran Junior Hoilett on his flight to Toronto, making the same journey. Hoilett introduced himself.

“What’s it like?” Pepple asked.

Hoilett smiled. “Just be ready to run,” he said.

Pepple ended his first training session, which Marsch had deemed “light,” with his hands on his knees. But with each subsequent outing, including Thursday’s practice in the rain, he’s felt more self-assured, more at home.

“I don’t feel like I just came in, to be honest,” he said. “It’s been so good. So good.”

There’s been only one small regret in Pepple’s otherwise fantastical emergence. Because his Canadian callup came so late, his mother had booked a trip with friends to Tokyo. She’ll be on the other side of the world when Pepple comes out of the tunnel at BMO Field.

But his father will be in the stands — now less to bolster his son’s confidence than to bask in it, less to seed an impossible dream than to watch it come true.