Men's Soccer | 6/10/2026 10:00:00 AM
Former York University Lions men's soccer player Niko Sigur has been selected to the Canadian men's national team for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, as announced by Canada Soccer on May 29.
Sigur spent the 2021 season with the Lions before turning professional. He started eight of the nine regular season games in which he played for York, netting one goal, which came in a 4-0 win over the Trent Excalibur on Oct. 17 of that year. Sigur's biggest impact, however, came in the postseason. He was in the starting 11 for all three playoff games and netted the winning goal in the dying seconds of extra time of the OUA semifinal, securing a 3-2 win over the then-Ryerson Rams and sending the Lions to their eighth consecutive OUA championship. Sigur also assisted on the game's opening goal scored by Omar Marzouk.
Following the 2021 campaign, the Burnaby, B.C., native briefly moved to Slovenia to play for the NK Radomlje youth program. He then transferred to Hadjuk Split of the Croation Football League, his current team, playing for their youth academy for the remainder of the 2022 season. Sigur made his senior professional debut on Apr. 23, 2023, against NK Varaždin, where he played as a right back. His first Croation Football League goal came in February of the next year, coincidentally also against Varaždin. Sigur is in his fourth full year with the Hadjuk senior squad and has made 29 appearances in 2025-26 with a goal and three helpers.
This will be Sigur's first time representing Canada on the global stage, but he is no stranger to international competition. A dual citizen of Canada and Croatia, he suited up for the Croatians in the 2023 UEFA European U-21 Championship. In August 2024, Sigur changed his international representation to Canada, and was called up by the Canadians for a pair of friendlies later that year. The former York defender made his Canadian national team debut against Mexico on Sept. 10. He was named to the Canadian side for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, where he scored his first international goal in a 6-0 thumping of Honduras in the tournament opener.
This will be the second consecutive World Cup in which a former Lion will suit up for Canada, following in the footsteps of Mark-Anthony Kaye, among whose accolades as a Lion include York men's rookie of the year (2012-13), OUA West rookie of the year (2012), OUA West first team all-star (2013) and U SPORTS first team all-Canadian (2013). Kaye represented his nation in the 2022 tournament, starting in Canada's final group stage game against Moracco before being subbed off just prior to the hour mark.
"Nico, Mark-Anthony, Ryan Telfer (who has played for Trinidad & Tobago in the last two World Cup Qualifiers) and others that have represented national teams validate the level competition in U SPORTS, the OUA and the York program for being a great platform for elite athlete development," said York soccer master coach Carmine Isacco. "They are proud of where they came from and thankful to the many people that support them, and a lot of their motivation comes from representing those people with pride."
Sigur is the only former OUA player on the Canadian squad, and one of only two former U SPORTS student-athletes, alongside fellow defender Joel Waterman who spent five years with the Trinity Western Spartans of Canada West from 2014-18. Sigur and Canada kick off their tournament on June 12 against Bosnia at Toronto Stadium (regularly BMO FIeld), before playing its final two games of group play – June 18 vs. Qatar and June 24 vs. Switzerland – at B.C. Place in Vancouver, near Sigur's hometown of Burnaby.
You can attend viewings of each of Canada's group stage games at Tait McKenzie Centre. See below for more information.
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For more information on Sigur's journey to the World Cup, read this profile from News@York.
To learn more on Sigur's impact on the Lions men's soccer program, watch this interview on CTV News.
