SoccerOpportunity knocks

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When I was 16, I made a decision to pursue a career as a professional soccer player. I signed my first professional contract with the London Lasers of the Canadian Soccer League, and off I went.

Eighteen years later, I can look back on that time and realize how lucky I was. Lucky that there was a professional team in London, and lucky that the two years that it was in existence coincided with the age that I was able to play at that level.

Lucky that the CSL was able to survive long enough for me to play against experienced Canadian National Team players like John Catliff, Domenic Mobilio and Paul Peschisolido. Lucky that when the CSL eventually folded, I was able to move on to bigger and better things.

Since that time, when I was given an opportunity to begin my career as a soccer player, there have been precious few opportunities for kids to do the same in my hometown of London, Ont.

All that is about to change.

Forest City London, or FC London for short, will begin play next season in the Premier Development League of the United Soccer Leagues.

For those of you who don’t know, the PDL is a 67-team elite amateur league with teams from across North America. The season is a relatively short one, running from May until July, with 16 league games per team, eight at home and eighth on the road.

Restricting the league to just amateurs allows the players to maintain their university eligibility while still giving them a chance to play at a highly competitive level during the summer months.

FC London will play their home games at the North London Stadium. As soccer stadiums go, it is certainly not BMO Field, nor is it Saputo Stadium. But it gives the organization a place to call home, and something to build on.

I’ve known some of the people involved with bringing this franchise to life for a long time. Others, like CEO Ian Campbell, I have only recently met. They are all determined to make FC London a success, and if the turnout at last week’s introductory press conference is any indication, they are well on their way.

As soccer stories go, this might not rank up there with the unveiling of Toronto FC, or the Montreal Impact qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals. But I think the addition of another PDL team in Canada is a big boost to the sport in our country.

We lose so many talented kids from the game of soccer between the ages of 16 and 19. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that there is no place for them to carry on playing at a competitive level. It is impossible to tell how many talented players have given up on the game at such a young age because they simply outgrew the structure of the game in Canada. A PDL team will give these kids a platform to exhibit their skills to scouts from both the university systems in Canada and the United States, as well as from the professional ranks.

There is no guarantee that we are going to see a future Canadian International playing in the PDL next season. Nor is there any guarantee that those players will go on to become professional players in Major League Soccer or in Europe.

But every talented player has to start somewhere.

Maybe we’ll see the next Julian DeGuzman or Dwayne DeRosario pulling on the FC London jersey over the next few years. You see, that’s the beautiful thing about giving your kids the opportunity to pursue their dreams: Sometimes those dreams come true.

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