Halifax Wanderers Cale Loughrey, Riley Ferrazzo and Tomas Giraldo share a moment after defeating Forge FC on Sept. 30, 2023. Credit: Trevor MacMillan / Canadian Premier League

The Halifax Wanderers were a gift to watch in 2023: After two straight years of missed playoff appearances and MVP runs cut short by injury, the Canadian Premier League soccer club won back the hearts of its supporters with fluid football, a roster loaded with more talent than ever before and a slew of instant classics at the Wanderers Grounds. (A 2-1 penalty winner over Forge FC in late June? Yes, please. A 3-2 heart-stopper against Atlético Ottawa? Why not?)

In the spirit of holiday giving, The Coast’s Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman return the favour with entirely real, definitely-not-made-up Christmas gifts for every Wanderers player (and most coaches)—and to do so, they enlist the help of Canadian soccer podcasters Joshua Healey and Mitchell Bailey (Healey & Bailey Notebook). The foursome also dishes out New Year’s resolutions for the Wanderers squad.

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This article appears in Dec 4-31, 2023.

Martin Bauman is an award-winning journalist and interviewer, whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Capital Daily, and Waterloo Region Record, among other places. In 2020, he was...

Matt spent 10 years in the Navy where he deployed to Libya with HMCS Charlottetown and then became a submariner until ‘retiring’ in 2018. In 2019 he completed his Bachelor of Journalism from the University...

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