Patrice Bernier hopped onto a Zoom call in late January, expecting to meet with associates of his soccer company, Enov Sport. Instead, Canada men’s national team player Samuel Piette and Canada assistant coach Mauro Biello surprised Bernier, informing him of his selection to the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame.

Bernier, who played at Syracuse for two seasons from 1998-99, was formally celebrated for his induction at Canada’s 4-0 CONCACAF Nations League win over Curaçao in June. The longtime attacking midfielder made 56 senior international appearances across 14 years. When he retired in 2017, he finished as a two-time Canadian Championship winner with CF Montréal, formerly known as Montréal Impact.

“To know that I will be in the exclusive group of men and women who marked Canadian history. Not just Quebec, my province or my city, but the whole country,” Bernier said. “In a certain way, you tell yourself, ‘this is priceless because it’s a bit of payback of everything,’ that you put in the hours and the dark moments where you maybe…didn’t know if you’re gonna make it.”

Though he was already selected to Québec’s Soccer Hall of Fame a month after he retired, Bernier wasn’t expecting to be inducted into the Canadian hall until later in his lifetime.

His father, Jean, who was also on that Zoom call, was one of the main reasons Bernier got involved in the sport in the first place.

As a child, Bernier remembered watching the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico — the only World Cup that Canada has played in. Canada lost all three of its group stage matches, but its appearance at the world cup led Bernier to believe he could represent his country on the sport’s greatest stage.

Bernier’s Haitian parents placed him in soccer because it was the most popular sport in Haiti, and he demonstrated ability at 4 years old. He began his club career at AS Brossard in his hometown, Brossard, Québec, with his father as his first coach.

But Bernier was a “hyperactive, energetic kid,” so his parents also placed him in hockey when he was six years old to keep him physically active throughout the year. Bernier advanced in the junior ranks of hockey until he was 18, recording 17 goals and 73 points with the Val d’Or Foreurs and Sherbrooke Faucons in the Québec Major Junior Hockey League. He said he was on the cusp of potentially being drafted into the NHL.

Former SU men’s soccer coach Dean Foti gave Bernier his scholarship prior to Bernier joining the junior hockey level. But after two years, Bernier decided he was ready to come to Syracuse to play soccer.

Bernier joined SU during a “phenomenal athletic era,” said Neeraj Chopra, an SU teammate who maintains regular contact with Bernier. Donovan McNabb quarterbacked the football team and the Powell brothers led the lacrosse team at the time.

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“At soccer, we had Patrice Bernier. And that was pretty damn cool,” Chopra said.

Bernier immersed himself in a “very competitive” environment at SU, competing in the Big East and against several top-25 programs like Georgetown, Notre Dame and Rutgers. Being on the team was the first time in his life he solely focused on soccer, and had access to advanced athletic complexes.

At the 1995 U17 FIFA World Cup in Ecuador, Bernier noticed a difference while playing Brazil, whose players were already integrated into professional clubs at a youth level, while he was still at the amatuer level.

On the pitch, Bernier was more laid back and not as vocal. He was “wildly competitive” and his fitness levels were “through the roof,” said John Mark Andrade, Bernier’s teammate and roommate at Syracuse. Andrade recalled how Bernier watched VHS tapes of Brazil’s Ronaldo and the French national team to develop his craft.

In 38 matches at Syracuse, Bernier recorded 34 points with 12 goals and 10 assists. He was named to the Big East All-Rookie Team in his freshman year and the All-Big East First Team in his sophomore year. After his second season, Bernier, who had already played at the youth national level, informed Foti that it was time for him to go professional with hopes of playing for Canada at the World Cup.

Bernier played for Canada’s U17, U20 and U23 teams, eventually making his senior national team debut in a November 2003 friendly against the Czech Republic. He started his professional club career with 73 appearances for CF Montréal from 2000-02 before moving to Europe for the next nine years, where he netted nine goals.

Courtesy of Patrice Bernier

But he returned back to CF Montréal from 2012-17, adding 152 more appearances and 15 goals.

On Aug. 20, 2022, the club honored Bernier with an in-match celebration during its 4-0 win over New England Revolution. In 2012, Bernier was named the team’s most valuable player and he was selected to the Major League Soccer All-Star team in 2013.

Bernier played his final professional match on Oct. 22, 2017, against the New England Revolution. But by 2018, he was back with the club as a coach. He served as an assistant for the youth teams in the Montreal Impact Academy, CF Montréal’s youth system. In 2019, he joined Thierry Henry’s staff as an assistant for the first team. But Bernier eventually quit his coaching role to join TVA Sports as an analyst.

Though he never achieved his goal of reaching the World Cup, he helped develop and mentor “the new generation” of Canadian talent like Alphonso Davies, who plays professionally for the Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich. At the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Davies and Bernier, who was the captain of the team after a two-year hiatus from the squad, were roommates at the tournament and Bernier saw Davies’ potential first-hand.

“I was able to see him jump in and see, wow, this kid has potential to go do something and to go somewhere,” Bernier said. “I feel proud that I left the national team on a good note, knowing that I was captain and I was leaving Canada under some new generation.”

Bernier typically played the role as an attacking midfielder, and was more technical and possession-oriented, Chopra said. Though Bernier thrived on the attack, Chopra recalled a 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal at Lincoln Financial Field where Canada faced Honduras in Chopra’s hometown. Chopra received box seats from Bernier and remembered Bernier making a 40-yard run to chase down a Honduran attacker to get the ball back.

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“That was epic in my mind,” Chopra said. “Of course, his (offensive) mind itself continued to be (present), but it showed me just his tenacity and intensity of the game, but actually doing something defensively which was awesome to see.”

Chopra and Bernier still talk frequently, and Bernier consulted Chopra when he was debating whether to continue coaching at CF Montréal or pursue a broadcasting position. Their conversations have evolved over the years, mostly focused on family, raising their respective kids and balancing life decisions. Bernier continues to do business with his company, which designs advanced and innovative soccer equipment.

Bernier hasn’t had the opportunity to return to Syracuse. He’ll occasionally speak to SU head coach Ian McIntyre as well as some of his former SU teammates and reminisce about his time there.

“It was a great two years that were part of the start of becoming a professional soccer player,” Bernier said.

And the start all culminated with one of the highest honors in Canadian Soccer.

“You want to leave a footprint and this footprint now is in the Canadian Hall of Fame,” Bernier said. “And that, nobody can take it away.”

Published on August 30, 2022 at 12:42 am

Contact Cole: [email protected] | @ColeBambini