The Montreal Impact (French: Impact de Montréal) is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Montreal, Quebec that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS).

As Major League Soccer's 19th franchise and third Canadian club, the Impact replace the second division team of same name. The new team is run by the old organization's ownership group, led by owner Joey Saputo.

Toward the end of 2007, much speculation had been made about a possible franchise move for the lower division Impact to Major League Soccer. The construction of the expandable Saputo Stadium further suggests an interest on the part of the group to move up to the top level North American league. Although Toronto FC held a three-year Canadian exclusivity deal that did not expire until 2009, they stated in March 2008 that they would gladly welcome the Impact into MLS.^{[dead link]} Chairman Joey Saputo held talks with George Gillett (former co-owner of Liverpool F.C. and owner of the Montreal Canadiens) regarding possible joint ownership of a franchise. On July 24, 2008, MLS announced they were seeking to add two expansion teams for the 2011 season, of which Montreal was listed as a potential candidate.

Montreal (ⁱ/ˌmʌntriːˈɒl/;French: Montréal; pronounced [mɔ̃ʁeal] ( listen)) is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the fifteenth largest in North America. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", the city takes its present name from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, or Mont Réal as it was spelled in Middle French (Mont Royal in present French). The city is located on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard.

As of May 10, 2011, Statistics Canada identifies Montreal's Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) (land area 4,259 square kilometres (1,644 sq mi)) as Canada's second most populous with an estimated metropolitan area population of 3,824,221 and a population of 1,886,481 in the urban agglomeration of Montreal, which includes all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal. The city of Montreal proper had a population of 1,649,519.

Marco Di Vaio (born 15 July 1976) is an Italian football striker, who currently plays for Montreal Impact of Major League Soccer. In his long career, Di Vaio has played for the likes of Lazio, Hellas Verona, Bari, Salernitana, Parma, Juventus, Valencia, Monaco, Genoa and Bologna. He is tied for 27th on all-time Serie A goal-scorers list with 142 goals in 342 games. His nickname is the "The Stoat".

Di Vaio started his career at his hometown club S.S. Lazio. He made his Serie A debut on 20 November 1994 against Padova. He then played for Serie B clubs such as Verona and Bari before moving to Salernitana in 1997.

He was a revelation at Salernitana, leading them to their second promotion to the Serie A in 1997–98 as the top scorer in Serie B for that season.

Despite Salernitana's relegation the following season, Di Vaio remained in Serie A, after being purchased by Parma. He scored an impressive number of goals for the Gialloblu and he went on to become the 2nd highest scorer of the league in his third season for the team.