‘I didn’t own a soccer ball until I came to Canada’: Retired Brantford hairdresser’s love of the game goes back to his childhood in Italy

In the spring of 1986, the last and only other time Canada qualified for the World Cup, Victor Faiella spent about six weeks perfecting a novelty hairdo to commemorate the historic moment.

With the help of his wife, Diane, the Brantford-based coiffeur and his model, Maureen Cowper, met twice a week to ensure the 'do - a crafty combination of bobby pins, cardboard, Halloween hair dye, a faux soccer ball made of Styrofoam, a wee Canadian flag and Cowper's long hair - was just right.

When you like something, you do anything to complete it," Faiella, now 84 and retired, explained to the Star on Wednesday, hours before the Canadian National Men's Team returned to the pitch to face off against Belgium - Canada's first World Cup appearance in 36 years.

Faiella's ode to his adopted home and the game he lives for" became national news. He said friends from as far flung as Argentina and his native Italy called to say they'd somehow seen the elaborate coif.

Since then, Canadian soccer has made significant strides, as displayed by its tenacious effort against No. 2-ranked Belgium. This year, Faiella said, the team isn't there to merely score a goal, a feat that eluded Canada in 1986, but to advance past the group stage to the Round of 16.

We're not equal with the rest of the world yet, but we're getting there."

Faiella's story is not simply about a zany sports fan but a reflection of the contribution first-generation Canadians and their children have made to soccer's rise in this country. More than 70 per cent of Canada's men's national team are immigrants themselves or second-generation Canadians, including Alphonso Davies, who was born to Liberian parents in a refugee camp in Ghana. Goalkeeper Milan Borjan, born to Serbian parents in Croatia, came to Canada after fleeing the Croatian War.

In 1957, a teenage Faiella immigrated to Canada in search of a better life. Back in Prezza, the small town in central Italy where he grew up, the only person who owned a soccer ball was the priest. If he didn't lend it to Faiella and his friends, they'd play with rolled-up rags.

I didn't own a soccer ball until I came to Canada," he said. But then I coached, and I had 10 soccer balls."

After settling in Brantford, Faiella started cutting hair, married Diane and had three sons, all of whom he coached when they were growing up. His obsession over soccer - It's in my blood." - didn't wane. When his boys were old enough, he started bringing them to World Cups, attending four in a row from 1978 to 1990, the year Rome hosted the tournament, and Italy lost to Argentina in the semifinals. (Rome was dead.")

Faiella is disappointed Italy didn't qualify for the tournament this time, though he was quick to note his home country currently holds the UEFA European Championship, after defeating England in 2020.

I'm lucky that my wife stays with me," Faiella joked, prompting an immediate quip from Diane: Yeah, but I always knew where you were. If you weren't home, you were out playing soccer."

Michael Faiella was 12 when his dad brought him to Madrid in 1982, the year Italy won one of its four World Cups. The atmosphere was electric, and that energy pulsed through you, he recalled.

Oh, man, we saw Paolo Rossi score three goals," he added, citing the star Italian striker who won the Golden Ball for best player that year. I will never forget that with my dad. He was just screaming."

And it's a wonder he was able to bring his family halfway around the world to watch the World Cup, remarked Michael, now 52, who like his dad cuts hair for a living. It was a dream, and he did it on a hairdresser's salary."

The elder Faiella doesn't play soccer anymore. He stopped when he was 65, though not before pulling off a famed scissor-kick goal - an acrobatic feat where a player thrusts their body backwards, into the air, raising their foot upwards to thwack the airborne ball - in his final season, according to Michael.

But his dad still comes and watches him and his brothers play in the over-35 recreational league that he co-founded decades ago, catching up with old friends on the sidelines. (And he still promises a loonie for any goals his sons score.)

For an immigrant," Victor Faiella said, not knowing anybody - that soccer ball makes you meet a lot of people."

Ben Mussett is a Toronto-based general assignment reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: bmussett@thestar.ca