Former Ottawa prodigy Coupland lands in Croatia: ‘Opportunities are there’

Antoine Coupland is just the latest in a cast of young Canadian players who have bravely taken their talents abroad after electrifying the Canadian Premier League closer to home.

The 18-year-old native of Chelsea, Québec has been tipped as a prodigy ever since making his professional debut with the Ottawa Fury at age 15, and in 2021 — his second year with hometown side Atlético Ottawa — his talents finally emerged into the spotlight. He scored his first pro goal for the club in July, and he brought TD Place to its feet in late October with perhaps his best performance yet.

Now, Coupland finds himself in Croatia, having penned a deal recently with top-flight side HNK Rijeka. After the 2021 CPL season, Coupland — looking to make the leap overseas to challenge himself at a new level of the game — trialed with several European clubs, including Bundesliga outfit VfB Stuttgart, but he ultimately landed in Rijeka, who offered him a clear vision for his development with their first team.

“I think the first couple of months it’s going to be an adaptation coming from Canada to Europe, not only on the footballing side of things but also living in my own apartment, living away from home,” Coupland told CanPL.ca from his new digs in Croatia. “I’ve been in Ottawa the past three years playing professionally and now moving out, I’m finally 18, this is what I’ve wanted, this is what I’ve been dreaming of so I’m ready to do the sacrifices that are needed. I think they made it very clear the first couple of months is going to be training with the first team, trying to crack the squad and get some small minutes, obviously if I can prove myself enough, and also playing regular consistent minutes with the U-19s and from there see what happens with the second year.”

Rijeka sit fourth in the top division right now, very much contending for a title and in the hunt for places in the UEFA Champions League or Europa Conference League. Coupland will now share a training pitch with some very talented players, some of whom have played at levels like the Bundesliga and English Premier League in recent years. As Coupland pointed out, the Croatian league has proven to be a good stepping stone for young players looking to break into the top European leagues — like Spanish national team midfielder Dani Olmo, for instance.

According to Coupland, he’s already been integrated with his new teammates, having started out with the U-19 side but moving into training with the first team quickly. The players and coaching staff have welcomed him quickly, already offering feedback from his first impressions at the club.

“The only little thing that’s more difficult is the Croatian language, that’s a bit of a barrier to integrate socially,” Coupland said. “But I’ve got my Duolingo app loaded up and I’ve been trying to work on some Croatian phrases.”

That Coupland has managed to land this move at his age is a testament to the Canadian soccer scene, and evidence of the CPL’s value in developing and promoting young players. Part of the league’s mandate, of course, is to help such players move onwards and upwards in the world of football, and Coupland now follows in the footsteps of several others, like Easton Ongaro who recently secured his own European transfer to UTA Arad in Romania.

Atlético Ottawa CEO Fernando López explained that clubs must always be prepared for their players to move on, especially those like Coupland.

“It’s a huge step for him, for the league, for our club,” López said in an interview with CanPL.ca. “It shows that here in Canada, in the CPL, there are a lot of talented young players like Antoine that can have an opportunity abroad. The moment that we launched the club back in 2020 we acknowledged the importance of having local players like Antoine in our roster.”

He added: “I think it’s key. It’s one of the goals and the mandate that we have as a club and as a league; I wish that he could have stayed with us a little bit longer, but when the call comes, and you are ready, it doesn’t matter if you’re 18, 20, 21, 26, opportunities are there to be taken… I’m glad that we could provide that platform for him and for many other players that I’m sure will follow Antoine. We just want to continue that work, continue working with the grassroots, with local teams, promoting football at a young level, and why not provide more opportunities like Antoine had this year?”

Similarly, a move like Coupland’s is one that the CPL itself welcomes. A local player coming through the CPL and leaving to pursue his dream in Europe certainly helps recruit the next Antoine Coupland in any market across the country, and it proves how the local pathway in Canada can be effective.

The other wrinkle in this is, of course, the financial incentive; thanks to FIFA’s rules, teams that sign players from abroad must make training compensation payments to the player’s previous clubs from between the ages of 12 and 21. Essentially, to try and reduce instances of the Manchester Uniteds and Barcelonas of the world signing spates of young players on free transfers, teams are categorized based on their level and region, with larger, higher-tier clubs required to pay more. Ultimately, when players like Coupland, Ongaro, or even Mo Farsi (who recently joined MLS Next Pro side Columbus Crew 2) sign outside of Canada, the Canadian clubs that developed them will receive that compensation.

“From the league’s point of view, there’s many factors to this,” said CPL Director of Football Oliver Gage. “We want to develop under-21 Canadians not just for financial reasons. We want good players in this league, it’s all about young Canadian players. But there’s also an aspect of, it makes business sense as well. Croatian first-division teams aren’t signing 28-year-olds from this league unless they’re absolute studs and they’re trying to win the league, and all that. Coupland makes a lot of sense.”

Gage also explained that, on top of the reputational boost from producing players like Coupland, clubs can become better-equipped to develop even more players thanks to the added financial incentive.

“Ottawa will be reinvesting that into medical or video analysis, they won’t just be pocketing that money,” he said. “They’re going to reinvest this money so the next young player at Ottawa can be given better coaching, better medical, become a better player overall.”

Now, Coupland has taken yet another step forward early in his career, after taking so many in his hometown the past few years. Though his sights are set firmly on the future, he was sure to mention that he’ll always look back on his time in the nation’s capital with affection.

A number of moments certainly stick out to Coupland, but he said the things he’ll remember most from playing in the CPL will be all the times he played in front of the Ottawa faithful:

“From my debut, to my first goal at TD Place — just in general,” he said. “The atmosphere, the fans, they’ve always been behind us, they’ve always been so supportive, and we can have a genuine relationship with the fans, we can connect with them, so I think they played a big role within those three years. And the relationships outside of the pitch that I created with some of my teammates, who are now some of my best friends who I speak to on a regular basis, and through the ups and downs as well; some of the older players like Chris Mannella or Drew Beckie, Brian Wright, Dylon (Powley), some of those guys to help me and guide me through their experience as well, their past in soccer.”

Atlético, meanwhile, will continue their extensive work this winter. The club has plenty of work to do in building a new squad — including putting a new head coach in place — but things are coming together. They’ve already made a litany of new signings — from Maxim Tissot to Nathan Ingham to Carl Haworth — with more to come, and López revealed in his interview with CanPL.ca that they’ve got their new coach picked out (apparently, he’s a young manager with plenty of experience in the Atlético Madrid family and some silverware in his locker).

Plus, they’ve already got a few more young Canadians waiting in the wings. Perhaps they, too, might one day find themselves in Coupland’s shoes after proving themselves in the CPL.