BEDAKIAN: 1 new CanPL signing per club that could turn heads in 2024 season
The 2024 Canadian Premier League season may be weeks away still, but each of the eight clubs vying for the renewed yearly prize have made significant changes – subtractions and, of course, additions – to their rosters as pre-season camps kick off.
But with so many new names and faces to pour over on Transfermarkt and the like, who should you be watching for, anyway?
Here are a few standouts – one per club for a total of eight – that may be worth keeping tabs on in 2024:
Atlético Ottawa: Liberman Torres
The club from the Canadian capital that so enjoyed its successes in 2022 found themselves on the wrong foot in 2023, and while there were many reasons for those missteps, one of them came simply down to personnel in key positions – or, rather, a lack of it.
In retrospect, Atlético Ottawa never fully replaced the more defensive-minded contributions that Abdoul Sissoko and Ben McKendry offered in midfield, relying instead on the now-departed duo of Miguel Acosta and Noah Verhoeven to step up to limited effect alongside Ollie Bassett. With a need to shore up, the club also brought in 38-year-old Alberto Zapater midway through the 2023 campaign to help out, too.
So, adding a proper defensive midfielder to their ranks was a key priority for Carlos Gonzalez in 2024, and in Liberman Torres, they may have found exactly that. The 21-year-old Ecuadorian joins out of Villarreal B and will be looking to finally find some consistent playing time.
What I'm watching for: Can Liberman Torres be the defensive midfield anchor Atleti need to be more adventurous and attacking? Ballou Tabla is back in the mix, but he'll need to build off a solid foundation if this team can pull off being riskier, to greater reward.
Cavalry FC: Lucas Dias
The 2024 off-season has already been a curious one for the Canadian Premier League, in that a number of fringe Canadian internationals plying their trade in more remote parts of the footballing world have made their way back home to try their hand at domestic league football. Among the Kris Twardeks and Frank Sturings and Juan Cordovas is young Lucas Dias, who joins Cavalry FC on loan out of Sporting CP B.
The Canadian Under-23 international was one of those dual-national names we'd been tracking for some time, eligible to represent both Portugal and Canada. He returns to Canada to get some valuable (U-21!) minutes under his belt, but more than that... perhaps the Canadian Premier League represents an even greater opportunity for the versatile attacker.
What I'm watching for: Dias joins a Cavalry FC roster that looks fairly complete top to bottom, with plenty of competition across every position. Can he be a breakout phenom in the CPL, and take that confidence back to Europe (and, possibly, into the CanMNT picture)?
Forge FC: Nana Opoku Ampomah
Replacing Woobens Pacius won't be easy for Forge FC. The newly-minted Nashville SC striker accounted for 32 goals in 92 games for the Hamilton-based outfit, after all. But, with plenty of firepower across the Forge front line, head coach Bobby Smyrniotis has dipped back into the transfer market to add yet another key piece in Nana Opoku Ampomah.
The Ghanaian winger-forward joins Forge out of the Fortuna Dusseldorf system, and, like most of Forge's offensive additions, little is known about him.
In this case, though, what is out there isn't necessarily the most glowing of reviews. Royal Antwerp fans, for instance, were none too impressed during his time on loan at the club for failed dribbles and a poor first touch, but Bobby says Ampomah is "an explosive attacker" whose "presence on the pitch and ability to generate offence adds a unique dimension" to the Forge attack "that will surely make an immediate impact."
No pressure!
What I'm watching for: So who's right? I have absolutely no reason to doubt Bobby's eye for talent, so I'm siding with the gaffer on this one. Let's see if Forge have another attacking gem on their hands.
HFX Wanderers FC: Christian Volesky
On paper, Christian Volesky isn't much of a standout: The 31-year-old American striker counts FC Tucson, the Rochester Rhinos, Saint Louis FC, OKC Energy, Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Colorado Springs Switchbacks, and, most recently, Monterey Bay on his playing resume, scoring goals by the handful over the years to carve out a respectable reputation in the U.S. lower leagues.
So why should fans out in Halifax be interested in a player who is, essentially, Mr. USL Championship?
What I'm watching for: Christian Volesky may be something of a road paver. Very few American players have made the switch over to Canada – besides FC Edmonton's penchant for them, no CPL club has ever had more than one on their roster over five years. But the quality gap between the CPL and the USL Championship (and MLS Next Pro, for that matter) isn't wide at all by my estimation, so if Volesky can compete, then perhaps it opens the door to even more interest south of the Canadian border.
And if he can't, maybe CPL becomes an inviting challenge for the more ambitious in USL, too. Speaking of...
Valour FC: Themi Antonoglou
I've long held a theory about the place that Major League Soccer and the Canadian Premier League hold in relation to one another. My theory goes that the quality gap between the very best of the CPL and the... let's call them, less frequently seen names on MLS rosters is tiny (or completely non-existent).
It's why it doesn't really surprise me to see the likes of Joel Waterman, Lukas MacNaughton, Jonathan Sirois or Mo Farsi thriving in the U.S. top flight – anyone who's watched CPL long enough knows there are top quality players in this league that little but a lack of attention (or stubborn pride) keep from moving on.
What I'm watching for: The reverse. To those who believe my theory to be fundamentally wrong, let's see how Themi Antonoglou performs this season for Valour FC. The 22-year-old defender spent 2022 and 2023 bouncing in and out of the Toronto FC first-team roster before being cut. If Themi Antonoglou is a lights-out sensation for Valour? Then I suppose that quality gap is indeed quite wide. But if he's ordinary, or worse? I'm gonna need an explanation for why, say, Daniel Nimick is still with HFX Wanderers FC this season.
Pacific FC: Aly Ndom
As far as experienced signings go in the Canadian Premier League, Aly Ndom is certainly a player with some pedigree. The French defensive midfielder has racked up over 100 matches playing for outfits like Stade Reims, Auxerre, and most recently, IFK Mariehamn, and joins a Pacific FC team in need of reinforcements: The Tridents have key names like Amer Didic, Manny Aparicio and Djenairo Daniels listed under confirmed departures by the league's transfer tracker, so any additions here will have big shoes to fill.
What I'm watching for: It's not so much about Ndom himself – though I'm curious to see how a player with a fair amount of Ligue2 experience translates his midfield game to CPL. No, I'm more curious to see how Pacific FC rebuilds around him. Besides forward Reon Moore and goalkeeper Sean Melvin, there's been very little movement from Vancouver Island during this off-season...
Vancouver FC: Jose Navarro
Far be it for me to judge a 21-year-old player on the Pumas UNAM youth team for what amounts to a career still getting going, the fact that Vancouver FC have plucked a prospect out of one of Mexico's best prospect developers has me intrigued. Head coach Afshin Ghotbi said Navarro's "physical power, work rate, and presence in the penalty box will make the young Mexican one of the most exciting young strikers in the Canadian Premier League" and I'm inclined to believe him.
Very few players from Liga MX have made their way over to the CPL, but the ones who have have all been more successful than not, so... let's see how this story goes.
What I'm watching for: Vancouver FC's inaugural campaign was interesting, but I want to see more in 2024 – more rivalry development with Pacific, more star-power, more confidence, more goals, more wins. Maybe Vancouver have a genuine league star on their hands here.
York United FC: Oswaldo Leon
Speaking of CPL signings out of Liga MX, York United's new Liga MX-savvy ownership took no time at all to dip into their familiar stomping grounds to bolster their new club roster, bringing on a handful of new signings that could re-shape this team entirely: The aforementioned Cordova and Sturing land in the GTA, alongside Orlando Botello and Josue Martinez from Monterrey and Mexico youth international Oswaldo Leon from Dorados de Sinaloa.
The 24-year-old centre-back came through the Club America system before bouncing around the Mexican second division. Now, he's headed to York United to carve out a new path for himself, and help shore up the backline of a club that conceded 44 goals in 2023 – the second-most across the league.
What I'm watching for: Under Angus McNab, York United made full use of their international roster spots, but to limited effectiveness. You'd be forgiven for forgetting quite a few of those players as they rotated in and out of the squad season by season. So I'm hoping this year, York's international scouting is built on more solid footing. Can Leon (and Botello and Martinez and Cordova) be more than just potential future transfer fodder for the Nine Stripes?
