Dayne St. Clair (97) walks with Lionel Messi (10) and teammates after an Inter Miami match earlier this month. St. Clair said that playing on Messi's team has put a World Cup-like spotlight on the group, which will help him come this summer's tournament.Dustin Markland/Getty Images
There are myriad reasons why someone would want to play goalkeeper for Inter Miami right now.
The pitch-level view to watch arguably history’s greatest soccer player go about his business on a daily basis is one perk, to say nothing of the year-round sunshine and lack of state income tax.
But for Dayne St. Clair, currently embroiled in a two-horse race with Max Crépeau to start in goal for the Canadian men’s national team at this summer’s World Cup, there is an added bonus to playing alongside Lionel Messi in Major League Soccer.
“Every game I play now is the most-watched game in the MLS, you know what I mean, whether it’s in the stands or whether it’s on TV,” St. Clair said Wednesday. “So that amount of eyes and pressure is something that I knew that going into it would help me prepare for something that’s like the World Cup, where everyone’s watching.”
Those onlookers have seen the 28-year-old Pickering, Ont., native have something of a torrid start to his playing career in South Florida. After conceding three goals against Los Angeles Football Club in his first start for Miami – a 3-0 loss in the season opener – the reigning MLS goalkeeper of the year has settled down somewhat, giving up six goals in the five starts since.
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However, he was unable to prevent the defending MLS Cup champions from crashing out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup on away goals to Nashville SC earlier this month, as Miami’s high-powered attack mustered just one goal over 180 minutes.
St. Clair says that while it’s easy to judge a goalkeeper based on the goals he lets it, those statistics don’t always tell the full story.
“No, not necessarily,” he said. “I think as a goalkeeper, of course, the easiest thing is to judge by goals, but I think that doesn’t always tell the story of the game. … There’s so much more that goes into being a goalkeeper than just the keeping the ball out of the net.”
In contrast to his club form, his international résumé is almost unblemished of late. St. Clair has conceded just two goals in his last seven starts for the national team, spanning 630 minutes. He will get a chance to build on that impressive run on Saturday, when he gets the start against Iceland at Toronto’s BMO Field.
Crépeau, who has been hampered this training camp by a nagging injury, is currently slated to start against Tunisia on Tuesday.
St. Clair, seen here competing in the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024 third place match against Uruguay, will start on Saturday when Canada faces Iceland.Grant Halverson/Getty Images
The national-team rivalry between the two goalkeepers has turned into an intrastate rivalry domestically too, with Crépeau joining Orlando City for the 2026 season. St. Clair says the competition between the pair can be overblown at times, particularly given that the decision of who starts this June is out of their hands.
“I think the media has probably blown it up as this huge competition of me versus him, or him versus me, but internally we push each other and we support each other, and we know at the end of day we’re both putting our best foot forward,” he said. “But at the end of the day [head coach] Jesse [Marsch] is going to be the one that makes the decision.”
Although St. Clair and Crépeau’s teammates have a vested interest in who ends up winning the starting job, Liam Millar, for one, says that the team will do just fine whatever the outcome.
“It doesn’t make a difference for me,” said the Hull City midfielder. “I think both the goalkeepers – all the goalkeepers – that are coming here, are more than capable of playing at this level. So I have full trust in Max, full trust in Dayne, also in Owen [Goodman] as well. Owen’s a good young goalkeeper as well coming up.”
While much of Canada frets over the goalkeeper position, arguably above any other area of the pitch, many would like Marsch to have anointed his No. 1 by now. But unfortunately that isn’t the reality of the situation, and St. Clair simply takes it in stride.
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“I’m not surprised,” he said. “Of course, I’d love him to pick me today or yesterday or tomorrow, but at the same time, I know my job doesn’t change, because even if he picks me tomorrow, that doesn’t guarantee me for June 12 or the rest of World Cup.”
But with a few more months of playing alongside Messi – and often against him in training – St. Clair knows he can only benefit from that situation.
“I think going there was going to be something that was going to be able to challenge me, obviously, being on the defensive side of the ball,” he said. “But it’s been definitely nice to be able to play with the best player in the world.”