Vancouver FC Eagles continue to fly the nest this off-season as forward Mikaël Cantave is the most recent player to be called up for international duty. The native of Ottawa, Ont. will be heading to Puerto Rico with the Haitian Men’s National team for the final two Group Stage matches of the 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League (CNL).
Cantave is the second VFC player to answer the call to play on the international stage. Vancouver teenager Grady McDonnell was the first Eagle to be called up in this window to represent the Republic of Ireland at the 2024/25 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifiers.
Now it is Cantave’s turn to take his Canadian skills on the road for the Haitian Men’s National team. However, this isn’t Cantave’s first taste of CNL as the 28-year-old forward has been a consistent feature for Les Grenadières in the latter half of 2024. Cantave has been with the Haitian National Team for the entirety of the nation’s 2024/25 CNL campaign dating back to the first Group Stage matches in September.
Cantave’s most recent call up came for the second round of Group Stage matches in October and across Haiti’s four games thus far, the 28-year-old has made one start in three caps. He even scored two goals in this tournament to date which came as a brace in Haiti’s 6-0 victory over Sint Maarten on September 9, 2024.
In the final installment of the CNL Group Stage matches, Cantave and Haiti will face Sint Maarten on Friday, Nov. 15 and host Puerto Rico on Monday, Nov. 18 at Estadio Centroamericano in Mayagüez. These games will be pivotal for Haiti who are currently winning Group C by being undefeated in the nation’s first four matches, a position that must be maintained to gain promotion into League A for next year’s edition of the CNL.
Not only does the 2024/25 CNL positions affect the placement of countries for the next tournament, the CNL also serves as the qualifiers for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. The group winners and the runners-up from each of the League B groups will qualify for the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup and Gold Cup Prelims, respectively.
Outside of the 2024/25 CNL this year, Cantave has also represented Haiti, the country of his father’s birth, in the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers in June. He made two appearances and registered one assist in that tournament which now brings his international total to 17 caps, six goals, and two assists since making his international debut for Haiti in 2018.
As an Eagle, Cantave has made 29 starts in 42 appearances across all competitions since joining Vancouver in June 2023. He has collected five goals and five assists in his VFC-career, ranking second amongst the Eagles for all-time assists to trail only Bitar who has registered six. Cantave earned three of his five assists in the 2024 Canadian Premier League (CPL) season which set a new personal CPL-career high for the native of Ottawa, Ont., beating his previous record of two in one season which he set in 2022 with Cavalry FC and reached once again in 2023.
