Montreal amateur soccer wants to put on a show. An ambitious event, which its organizers hope to see become an “Osheaga of soccer,” will take place Sunday at the Claude-Robillard Center.
Raphaël Iscar-Gutierrez and his friends from the amateur club Inter Montréal pull out all the stops for this first presentation of the InterSky festival. At the center of the affair, a competition with eight teams, including seven teams from Montreal. The eighth ? Vinsky FC, team founded by French influencer Vinsky.
With his 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube, Vinsky has already collaborated with international players like Kylian Mbappé, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos… in addition to CF Montreal last year.
Vinsky is particularly known for broadcasting his club’s matches online, commentators included. And it is this “professionalization” of amateur soccer that Inter Montreal wants to bring with its InterSky festival: the tournament will be broadcast live on the Twitch platform.
PHOTO RAPHAEL SCELLIER, PROVIDED BY RAPHAËL ISCAR-GUTIERREZ
The Vinsky influencer
“What I want to show the world is that we are capable of offering quality, even at a lower level,” explains Iscar-Gutierrez, co-founder as well as marketing and communications director of Inter Montreal, in virtual call with The Press.
“My vision is very simple: I think we can set up an Osheaga of soccer in Montreal in 2026,” reveals the Frenchman of Mexican origin, who has been living in Quebec for seven years. Raphaël Iscar-Gutierrez is obviously referring to the FIFA Men’s World Cup, which will take place in Canada, the United States and Mexico that year.
But you have to start somewhere. And starting this year, InterSky has a busy game plan. In addition to soccer, there will be concerts, DJs, Latin dancing, food trucks, freestyle football, games for children and adults, skills competitions. We also expect the presence of Jonathan Sirois, CF Montreal goalkeeper.
Inter Montreal says it wants to create a “Super Bowl” type event, or to “bring back the North American recipe” of the extra-sporting spectacle in soccer.
“You can go to the hot air balloon festival without liking hot air balloons,” illustrates Iscar-Gutierrez, who wants everyone to be challenged by the InterSky.
A “life-size test”
The craze for professionalized amateur soccer is felt across the world. Some recent examples, like the Sidemen Charity Match featuring American influencer iShowSpeed, have gotten over 20 million views on YouTube. The audiovisual bill is to be mistaken for a Premier League match. The Kings League (seven-a-side soccer league founded by Gerard Piqué) and Hashtag United (English semi-pro club created by YouTuber Spencer Carmichael-Brown) are all examples demonstrating that a new wave of soccer-related entertainment is seeing the light of day.
Some documentary format videos of Vinsky FC matches on YouTube, for example, fetch up to 900,000 views. Raphaël Iscar-Gutierrez mentions that around 10% of Vinsky’s social media reach comes from Canada.
The two football enthusiasts met a few times, both in Montreal and on the other side of the Atlantic. The idea to collaborate came a few years ago.
“He told me: ‘I love Montreal, I would like to play a match against you, we film the thing, and you bring your vibe, etc.” »
Initially, the planned project was only to play a match between Inter and Vinsky FC. But when the rental of the Claude-Robillard Center materialized, the opportunity was great to do more.
“We invested a small fee, so we said to ourselves that we were going to do things big. We need to bring back other Montreal amateur clubs, which are very well known. »
He cites the participation of Montreal City FC, Bandjos FC and Montreal Arsenal, in particular.
Wait, if we just do a tournament like that, we want an audience, so we’re going to bring in singers, artists. We will make sure that people want to come, but not just for soccer.
Raphaël Iscar-Gutierrez, co-founder and marketing and communications director of Inter Montreal
Tickets will cost $5, but access will be free for children under 10 years old. The organization is also planning a draw which will allow three ticket holders to attend the CF Montreal match in the box seat with Vinsky, on October 7 at the Saputo stadium, the day before the event.
Iscar-Gutierrez agrees that this first edition will be something of a “life-size test”.
“We’ve been organizing it for three, four months. We have put a very professional ecosystem on this. It’s not something we’ve been preparing for a year, with big funding, etc. »
There is ambition. Will the success be enough to repeat the experience until it becomes Montreal’s center of attraction during the 2026 World Cup?
“You know what Montreal is like,” emphasizes Raphaël Iscar-Gutierrez. Montreal is going to want to party in the summer, that’s for sure. So we are sure that this product can work. »
The InterSky festival will take place Sunday, at the Claude-Robillard Center, from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.