How Cyle Larin stepped out of the shadows to conquer the Championship

“The best striker in the Championship,” according to his boss, Larin has responded to Tonda Eckert’s glowing praise with a red-hot start to the season, continuing the form he showed at the World Cup during the summer.

Draped in his nation’s flag at Staplewood, Larin reflects on 2026 so far. A year that started with doubts and uncertainty has quickly turned into the most productive of his career.

This is a story that merits more than a 15-minute chat about chance conversion, confidence and Canada. But time is of the essence – even if Larin himself cannot be rushed.

He eases into the room with an understated, laid-back swagger. He’s as calm in person as he is in front of goal.

His career is littered with new adventures and experiences. From Brampton, Ontario, football has taken Larin to northwestern Spain, the Balearic Islands, Rotterdam and the south coast of England via Orlando, Istanbul, West Flanders and Bruges. He’s never been afraid to try something new, taking every change of pace in his own unhurried, sauntering stride.

You sense there are hours of stories to be told, including an international career nearing a century of caps dating back to 2014, but for now the focus is on this year alone.

Larin’s first stroll through the Staplewood doors was met with little fanfare. Saints had just sold their top scorer, Adam Armstrong, to Wolves, whose famous winner at Wembley – the last of his 37 goal contributions in 2023/24 – had clinched the club’s last promotion from the Championship. Larin, two years older, had one goal to his name all season.

“I came from not playing in the Netherlands,” he admits, reflecting on a difficult loan spell at Feyenoord under the management of Premier League legend Robin van Persie that yielded one goal in 15 appearances – only three of which were starts. “You first go to a team and you are told certain things, and then certain things didn’t happen.

“I don’t regret going there,” he’s quick to add. “I wouldn’t be in Southampton if I didn’t go there.

“Coming to Southampton was like a fresh start for me and to find my minutes, because when I’ve played and I’ve started games I’ve always scored. I’ve always been like that at every club I’ve played at.

“I knew I could score goals here – just the way Southampton plays, the amount of chances the team was creating when I was watching video before I came, I think it was a perfect fit for me.”

What’s clearly never strayed is Larin’s self-belief. Confidence is everything for a striker, and his was revived within seconds of his debut.

Saints were locked at 0-0 in a mid-table clash against Watford when Larin got the call to replace Ross Stewart midway through the second half.

Straightaway Saints were on the attack, as fellow substitute Samuel Edozie combined with Welington, whose cross from the left was cut out by Hornets defender Stephen Mfuni just in front of the on-the-shoulder Larin, who had thrown himself at the ball anticipating a diving header.

Cue a Saints corner from the left, delivered by James Bree. Still yet to touch the ball for his new club, Larin wrestled with his marker and propelled himself once more, this time connecting perfectly with the cross and burying a header past Egil Selvik to score the only goal of the game, saluting the Northam End of St Mary’s as his XXL basketball-sized shorts billowed in the winter breeze.

The initially sceptical Saints support had a new hero, and Larin’s name has been ringing out around the ground ever since. “I hear it,” he grins.

Following Saturday’s Bristol City brace, he’s now made 31 appearances for the club, racking up 17 goals from just 19 starts. He’s been proved right – Saints’ style was tailor-made for his game.

Quickly into the groove in the red and white, the same colours as his beloved national team, Larin scored memorable but contrasting goals against promotion rivals Wrexham, where he powered through on goal from the halfway line, and Ipswich, when his touch in a tight space was deft and his finish caressed, as Saints soared into the play-off places.

“To score with my first touch and help the team win was amazing. It just kickstarted everything,” Larin reflects on his instant impact in the fourth game – his first – of Saints’ 21-match unbeaten league run that propelled the team from 21st in the table to fourth.

All that was left was to finish it off at Wembley, where perhaps Larin against Hull could’ve been 2026’s answer to Armstrong against Leeds, only for Saints’ season to end prematurely and, in the eyes of the Canadian, unfairly.

“With the group we have and what the team went through last year, not losing many games – 21 games in the league unbeaten – you don’t get that feeling a lot,” he says.

“You don’t get that feeling at many clubs. I’ve been in different countries at many clubs, so just to have that, and that group of players, and the support from the staff and the coaches, I think that’s a feeling players want to have.

“I think Southampton deserves to be in the Premier League, just for what we did last season and what was taken away.”

Driven by a sense of injustice and unfinished business, Larin turned his loan move permanent, putting his mind at rest before the start of a World Cup in which Canada would be co-hosts.

He looks back on the loan, from February to May, as “one of the most important times in my career – just to be able to go into the World Cup with a lot of confidence of scoring goals”.

Larin was firmly back in favour with Canada head coach Jesse Marsch, but had not scored for his country in nearly two years when their World Cup campaign began against Bosnia-Herzegovina – in Ontario.

Whilst the stage was undeniably grander, there were parallels with that winter’s weekend against Watford. Larin, who had not been scoring goals, was introduced with 14 minutes to go. Canada were behind.

Within seconds the ball was flicked his way, on the centre of the 18-yard line. In the blink of an eye, with a spin from his back to goal, Larin now faced the target and found it, arrowing a half-volley into the bottom corner to bring Toronto – a mere 25 miles from his Brampton home – to its feet, and Canada their first ever World Cup point.

“I score when Canada needs me – I’ve always done that,” he said after the game.

“I think that was my favourite moment in my career,” he adds, three months on. “Just because it was at home, my family was watching, and to score in the World Cup was one of my goals growing up.

“You don’t get that moment often, so that was an amazing moment for me, and especially the Canadian fans and my family.”

Canada’s World Cup adventure lasted five matches – a respectable showing that included a 6-0 win over Qatar, in which Larin scored again, and an emotional last-minute victory over South Africa in the knockout stages.

“It brought us new fans, it brought the country together and it also just showed the world that Canada is a good footballing country,” Larin says, proudly.

“It’s probably the number one sport played now, and just having the World Cup there opened up a lot of eyes to people who don’t know a lot about football in Canada.”

It feels fictional in such an ice hockey-mad country, but the statistics back him up. Around 50 per cent of Canadian kids participate in football at grassroots level.

“I would always say it, but I don’t think people knew. A lot of kids have always played football in Canada, there just wasn’t enough investment in it or enough eyes on it. Now there’s a lot more eyes on it, and people are investing in the sport in Canada.

“I played hockey a bit, but it’s an expensive sport and we didn’t have much. I was always playing football at school and in the streets – I was a lot better at football than at hockey.”

Unlike many goalkeepers and defenders who seem to work their way back, Larin reveals he did the opposite. “I played keeper, then defence, midfield, striker. But I could always score goals, so that wasn’t a problem.”

Larin’s confidence in his ability to score is justified. Only Jonathan David, now of Atlético Madrid on loan from Juventus, has more goals for Canada than Larin’s tally of 32. At club level, he’s approaching 150, most of which have been scored in Europe.

The last Southampton player to return for pre-season following a post-World Cup break, Larin was the first to find his feet, scoring Saints’ opening goal of the campaign in the Carabao Cup win at Colchester and never looking back.

With Stewart having departed, the No. 9 is now the undisputed leader of the Saints forward line, starting the season with eight goals in nine matches.

Larin’s second in the 5-1 mauling of Millwall may have been the best of his career, as he flicked the ball over the head of his marker, turned and volleyed into the bottom corner in one slick, premeditated movement. St Mary’s will do well to see a better goal all season.

Nominated for August’s Goal of the Month award, he was crowned Sky Bet Championship Player of the Month on Friday. Next week, when he returns home on international duty, Larin will receive a key to the city of Brampton in recognition of his stellar Canada career.

“I think I’m in a good way,” he says, typically understated. “Coming back off the World Cup and last season, I just wanted to keep the momentum going.

“I’m still getting my fitness back. I came in later than the group, but the goal has always been to have a great start and just build off that.”

The striker refuses to reveal the number but admits he does have a goals target for the season. The biggest target of all, however, remains the same as the first day he arrived in February: to tick off one of the few boxes on his career bucket list that’s still vacant – to play in the Premier League.

“It would be amazing,” he smiles. “That’s one of my dreams, to play in the Premier League, and I think this team can do it. If I do my job, I think we’ll have a good chance to.

“I think the club’s been through a lot of ups and a lot of downs, so just to have that back again would be amazing.

“That feeling last year, that was a big reason why I came back, and we mostly have the same group again, so I think it’s just about finding that again. If we find that and we’re able to build off that again, I don’t think any team in the Championship can stop us.”

This interview was originally published inside SAINTS, the club’s matchday programme, for the recent doubleheader against Swansea and Bristol City. Each edition of the programme contains a feature interview with a current player, club legend or the head coach.

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