MONTREAL – Talk about a win-win situation for Laurent Ciman.
On Sunday, the 29-year-old Belgian international left Standard Liège a hero, scoring the winner in a 2-0 triumph against archrivals Anderlecht. On Monday, he moved to Montreal, where he’s eager for his four-year-old autistic daughter to benefit from better support than she received in Belgium and excited to continue his on-field development in MLS.
“MLS, to me, is of the same [caliber], maybe even stronger than the Belgian league,” Ciman told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s a step forward for me in my sporting career. ... MLS is a really attractive league to me. I’ll be able to play against top players.”
Ciman, who will wear No. 23 for the Impact, met the press on Tuesday before a training session that he ended up skipping – he had played on Sunday, traveled on Monday and had been feeling jet-lagged since.
Despite all that, Ciman is excited to join his new teammates on the field, likely on Wednesday. He approaches his time in Montreal humbly – “I’ve got plenty of experience, but there’s still everything to learn,” he said – but with plenty of ambition, too.
“I’m not turning up out of nowhere, out of a club with no ambition,” Ciman said. “The Impact has a lot of ambition. I’ve spoken to them on the phone. They’ve got a sporting project, full of good stuff. Then, it all starts with a zero in our end, and if we can, every time, score a goal, we can win games.”
Ciman’s Impact debut will most likely occur in next month’s CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal first leg against Mexican club Pachuca. He’s looking forward to the opportunity, recalling on Tuesday that he’s never advanced this far in any of his previous runs in continental competition.
The return of the CCL knockout stage to Montreal has excited the Impact fans. Ciman’s arrival has, as well, not only because of the player’s quality, but also because of his reasons to make the move.
The Cimans decided to come to Montreal in large part because of the care Canada offers for children like his autistic daughter, an area he and his wife – who had to halt her career to care for their daughter full-time – feel Belgium lags behind in.
“They don’t do much, in Belgium, for children with issues,” Ciman said. “I speak of autism because it affects me, but there are other issues as well. Hopefully, in the future, then can improve and use Canada and the United States as examples, see where they are and apply that in Belgium.”
