Patrice Bernier (born September 23, 1979) is a Canadian retired professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player. A long-time mainstay of the Canada national team, the

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

played the majority of his career with Montreal Impact in addition to playing in Denmark, Germany, and Norway.

Club career

In 1998-99, Bernier played

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

for

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

in the United States. At Syracuse, Bernier played 38 matches and recorded 34 points with 12 goals and 10 assists. He was named to the

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

All-Rookie Team in his freshman year and the All-Big East First Team in his sophomore year. Bernier played for the original Montreal Impact in the

A-league A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

in Canada in 2000. He joined Norwegian side Moss F.K. to play alongside compatriot

Rob Friend Robert Douglas Friend (born 23 January 1981) is a Canadian former professional Association football, soccer player, the president and Organizational founder, co-founder of Vancouver Football Club, Vancouver FC, the chief executive officer, ceo ...

at the start of the 2003 season. He has some background in hockey, but he was told he was too short to reach the top level.

Tromsø

Bernier signed for

Tromsø IL Tromsø Idrettslag () is a Norwegian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Tromsø. They play their home games at the Romssa Arena which has a seating capacity of 6,801. Tromsø play in the Eliteserien. Despi ...

in the summer of 2004. He was picked up from the Norwegian 1st division team Moss F.K. for less than 500,000

NOK Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...

(approx.

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

63,000 or $75,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

). An almost complete midfielder, he was very aggressive, with good technique, a fine passing foot, heavy shot, and exceptional running capacity. He delivered the best stamina test results in the history of Tromsø, surpassing even former Tromsø player

Morten Gamst Pedersen Morten Gamst Pedersen (born 8 September 1981) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. During his spell for Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League he was known for his skill and long range goals. Pedersen began his care ...

. After a spectacular autumn season and a fine spring for Tromsø, they refused an offer of 10 million NOK (approx. €1.3 million) for him from the Turkish club

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

. Bernier started the 2007 season as one of the Tippeliga's best players, scoring two fantastic goals against Norway's best soccer club over the last 20 years,

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien (football), Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles ...

. Although Rosenborg went on to win the game with an injury-time goal by

Alexander Tettey Alexander Banor Tettey (born 4 April 1986) is a former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. Born in Ghana, he played for the Norway national team from 2007 to 2016, earning 34 caps. Having established himself at Rosen ...

, Bernier was awarded the "Man of the Match"-prize. Tromsø immediately offered Bernier a new contract; however, he rejected it as he wanted to leave Norway for a better league. Tromsø then put forth an even better deal, but Bernier was determined to leave Tippeligaen.

Kaiserslautern

On May 28, 2007, Bernier left Tromsø for the German 2. Bundesliga club

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

, where former Vålerenga I.F. Fotball

Kjetil Rekdal Kjetil André Rekdal (born 6 November 1968) is a Norwegian football manager and a former player. He is the manager of Norwegian club Aalesund. Rekdal began his playing career in Molde FK, playing afterwards for clubs in the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 ...

was the trainer.

Nordsjælland

On June 25, 2008, Bernier signed a contract with Danish club

FC Nordsjælland Football Club Nordsjælland, commonly known as FC Nordsjælland, Nordsjælland () or FCN, is a professional Danish association football, football team from the North Zealand town of Farum. Founded as ''Farum Boldklub'' from the merger of the to ...

. On August 14, 2008, he scored the winning goal in the first leg of a

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

second qualifying round match versus

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

club, Queen of the South of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

. Bernier scored the winning goal and his first goal of the 2010 season on November 14 in a 2–1 home win over

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish language, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping stre ...

. He ended his season early in May against

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, following an early substitution it was revealed that he suffered a fracture in his fibula. He played over 90 games in all competitions combined with FC Nordsjaelland from the summer of 2008 until the summer of 2011, winning the Danish Cup in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. He was voted Player of the Year in 2010 by the supporters of FC Nordsjaelland.

Lyngby Boldklub

On August 24, 2011, Bernier signed a one-year contract with

Lyngby Boldklub Lyngby Boldklub () is a professional Football (soccer), football club based in Kongens Lyngby, Lyngby, Denmark, founded in 1921. It is based at Lyngby Stadion. The club play in the Danish Superliga. From 1994 to 2001 the club was known as Lyngby ...

. He made his debut against his former club, in a 4–0 loss to FCN. On October 16, Bernier scored his first goal for the club in a 3–2 loss to

Silkeborg IF Silkeborg Idrætsforening, (; commonly known as Silkeborg IF or SIF in short) is a professional football club based in Silkeborg, Denmark. The club was founded in 1917, reached the highest level of Danish football in 1987, and afterwards became ...

Montreal Impact

On December 19, 2011, Bernier signed a contract to join Montreal Impact upon their entry into

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

in 2012. He remained under contract with Lyngby Boldklub while they finished their season. However, he had an out clause that allowed him to leave without a transfer fee to the Impact. Bernier scored his first goal for Montreal in a 2–0 away victory against

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The ad ...

on May 5, 2012. He was named MLS Player of the Week for Week 13–15 in the 2012 MLS. He was also named MLS Player of the Month for the month of August 2012. Under his captaincy, the Impact reached the

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...

final in 2015 and the

MLS Eastern Conference The Eastern Conference () is one of Major League Soccer's two conferences, along with the Western Conference. The division of the conferences broadly follows the path of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, with c ...

final losing to Toronto FC in 2016. At age 38, he played the final match of his career on October 22, 2017 against the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

International career

Bernier played at the

1995 FIFA U-17 World Championship The 1995 FIFA U-17 World Championship was the sixth edition of the FIFA U-17 World Championship which was held in the cities of Guayaquil, Portoviejo, Quito, Ibarra, Cuenca, and Riobamba in Ecuador from 3 to 20 August 1995. Players born after ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, alongside Brad Parker. They are the only ones of that squad to make it to the senior team. He made his senior debut for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in a November 2003 friendly match against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. By December 2009, he earned a total of 43 caps, scoring two goals. He reached 50 caps in a friendly against Jamaica on September 9, 2014. After a two-year absence, Bernier returned to the national team under

Octavio Zambrano Octavio Zambrano Viera (born 3 February 1958) is an Ecuadorian football coach. He is a former player with international coaching experience. Zambrano has coached in North America, Latin America, and Europe. He holds a UEFA "A" diploma and a USSF ...

for a friendly against Curaçao on June 13, 2017. The next month he captained Canada at the

2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 14th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF, and 24th CONCACAF regional championship ove ...

, retiring from the national team after Canada's elimination in the quarter-finals to

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Personal life

Bernier was born in

Brossard Brossard ( , , ) is a municipality in the Montérégie region of Quebec, Canada and is part of the Greater Montreal, Greater Montreal area. According to the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census, Brossard's population was 91,525. It shares powers with ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, in a

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an family to Jean and Gladys Bernier. After watching the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

in Mexico (the only World Cup that Canada had appeared in until

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

), he was drawn to the sport. His family signed him up for soccer as it was the most popular sport in Haiti. He began his club career at ''L'Association de Soccer de Brossard'' (AS Brossard), with his father as his first coach.

Coaching career

In 2018, a few weeks after his retirement, it was announced that Bernier was named as a U13, U15, U17, and U19 assistant coach at the

Montreal Impact Academy Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

. In 2019, he became an assistant coach with the first team under

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (; born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, sports broadcaster and former player. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time and widely regarded as the greatest player in Premi ...

. In February 2021, he announced he was leaving his role with the first team to take a broadcasting position, but will remain with the club's academy as post-training supervisor, particularly with the Under-23 team.

Broadcasting career

In February 2021, Bernier announced he would quit his coaching position at CF Montreal to become an analyst for

TVA Sports TVA Sports is a Canadian French-language sports specialty channel owned by the Groupe TVA, a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media. The channel is a general-interest sports network, and the first major competitor to RDS, the only other F ...

Hockey career

Bernier was also placed in hockey at the age of six. He played two seasons in the major-junior

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL; , LHJMQ), formerly the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). The league includes teams in Quebec ...

(QMJHL) as a defender. He spent parts of those seasons with the

Val-d'Or Foreurs The are a Canadian junior ice hockey team based in Val-d'Or, in the region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Quebec. They play in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, one of the three component leagues of the Canadian Hockey League. The team n ...

where he would be teammates with future

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

players

Steve Bégin Joseph Denis Stéphan Bégin (); born June 14, 1978) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played in 13 National Hockey League (NHL) seasons. He was a second-round selection of the Calgary Flames, 40th overall, in the 1996 NH ...

and

Roberto Luongo Roberto Luongo (, , ; born April 4, 1979) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. He played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, and Vancouver Canucks. In 2022, Luongo was ...

, and the

Sherbrooke Castors The Sherbrooke Castors or Beavers (in English) was the name of two different junior ice hockey teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and another team in the Quebec Eastern Provincial Hockey League. Both later franchises played at the Pal ...

. In his first season in 1996-97, Bernier's

took part in the QMJHL playoffs and made it through the second round before being eliminated in the division final by the

Hull Olympiques The Gatineau Olympiques are a Canadian junior ice hockey team based in Gatineau, Quebec, that plays in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Starting with the 2021–22 season, the Olympiques play home games at Centre Slush Pupp ...

, the eventual playoff winners. He began the following season with Val-d'Or, but roughly 40 games later joined the

who failed to qualify for the playoffs. Bernier decided to end his hockey career following discussions with an agent who told him that he lacked interest from any

teams. In 143 games, he amassed 17 goals and 73 points.

Honours

Club

FC Nordsjælland *

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

: 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Montreal Impact *

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Va ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual * Quebec Soccer Hall of Fame: 2017 *

Canada Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2024, the Canada Soccer Ha ...

: 2022

References

External links

* * /

Patrice Bernier
at Montreal Impact
FC Nordsjælland stats
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernier, Patrice 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Brossard Francophone Quebec people Black Canadian men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders Soccer people from Quebec Canadian men's soccer players Canada men's international soccer players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Syracuse Orange men's soccer players Montreal Impact (1992–2011) players Moss FK players Tromsø IL players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players FC Nordsjælland players Lyngby Boldklub players CF Montréal players A-League (1995–2004) players Eliteserien players Danish Superliga players 2. Bundesliga players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Canadian sportspeople of Haitian descent Canada men's youth international soccer players Canada men's under-23 international soccer players Val-d'Or Foreurs players Sherbrooke Faucons players