FC Ukraine United and FC Vorkuta clash at Centennial Park Stadium in 2018, two recent teams in a a new era of professional soccer in Canada . PHOTO: Michael Fayehun/F10 Sports Photography
NEW ERA OF PROFESSIONAL SOCCER IN CANADA
When the Canadian Soccer League kicks off its 2019 season mid-May there will be a special determination by its members that today’s league – which first kicked off on June 19, 1926, a match between Toronto Ulster and Windsor Rovers — will not soon end up in the history books. Instead, the league, described by former Toronto Star sports writer Bob Koep as being ‘one of a kind’, and author Colin Jose ‘has stood the test of time’, will continue to play an important part in edging soccer ever closer to becoming a mainstream sport in Canada, to find its deserved place in the Canadian sports community.
The CSL, rebranded from time to time, is after all, the longest running soccer league in the country, to survive where many have faded into obscurity.
When the CSL’s forerunner National Soccer League kicked off in 1926, so did the Interprovincial League, and numerous major leagues through the ages to what now appears to be a new era of stability in North American professional soccer.
The Canadian Soccer League sees a new era in this country, with the success of top flight teams Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps in Major League Soccer, the introduction of the Canadian Premier League and a rejuvenated CSL. The tough CSL has a reputation for introducing promising young local players to a professional environment with almost 50 of them making their way to youth national teams following time in the CSL during the past 10 years. Several have advanced to high level clubs and the national squad, the most successful being Atiba Hutchinson, who made a brief appearance in the CSL before joining top clubs in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Turkey, while the most recent was Jonathan Osorio of Toronto FC and Canada who earned the Rookie of the Year Award in his debut CSL season.
The league has benefitted by the use in recent years of import players, with half of the CSL’s First Division clubs signing established pros from Europe. A few of the many outstanding imports have been Sasa Viciknez of Serbian White Eagles who played in the European Champions League, Nikola Budalic, also of Serbian Eagles and now GM of Orlando of Major League Soccer, Vitaliy Sidirov from Russia with Kingston FC, Janer Guaza Lucumi with SC Toronto following his selection to the Colombian U-20 team, Krum Bibishkov, Scarborough SC and Real Mississauga who was prominent in Bulgaria and Portugal and stirred the interest of Bayern Munich, Aleksandar Stojiljkovic of SC Waterloo and Scarborough SC following time with high level clubs in Serbia, and Sergii Ivliev of Ukraine United, then FC Vorkuta, was prominent in Ukraine and Poland.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that the CSL’s new offices are located close to Toronto Airport where a procession of players from Europe arrive weekly to join teams strengthened and made more attractive by their presence.
