SoccerNothing but good news for Montreal Impact

Beginning of Story Content

The Montreal Impact made some major announcements this week, including the acquisition of a Canadian Soccer League (CSL) franchise and the creation of the Montreal Impact Academy - more on that in a minute. 

 

The Impact has agreed contracts with three more players; forward Reda Agourram, goalkeeper Andrei Badescu and midfielder Pierre-Rudolph Mayard have all put pen to paper on new agreements with the club.  

 

Also signing two-year agreements with the club are Budweiser, who will become the official beer provider of the Impact, and Radio-Canada Television, who will become the official broadcaster of the club. 

 

As far as news goes, this has been a big week for Montreal. But with so many announcements coming in such a short period of time, it would be easy to overlook the importance of some of this information. 

 

The signing of players, especially young players, is always greeted with excitement by the fans. And the importance of attracting big-name corporate partners is also vital to the long-term success of a club. Gaining exposure for your club by having games on television will also help increase awareness about the team. All are important aspects of putting together a successful franchise. 

 

But for me, the most important bit of news in all of this is the creation of the Montreal Impact Academy. 

 

All across the country, I hear stories of talented youngsters slipping through the cracks or falling away from the game entirely because they do not have access to the proper training, facilities and coaching to develop their abilities.  

 

I don't for a second buy the argument that we are incapable of producing talented professional players in Canada - we simply do not have the infrastructure with which to do so.  

 

If we can improve that infrastructure by providing players with access to training, facilities and coaching - like in the Academies set up by the Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC and now the Montreal Impact - it can only be a benefit to the long-term prospects of the game in Canada.  

Having an in-house Academy will be an immense benefit for the Impact.  

 

The plan is for the Academy to become the club's reserve team, which will compete in the CSL. It is a natural extension for the Academy players, and it provides them with the competition needed to put into practice those skills learned in a training environment.   

 

The ability to train and develop youngsters is the lifeblood of clubs worldwide; such are the financial realities of modern football. Teams simply do not have the money to buy talented players to stock their rosters, so the ability to develop talented young players from within has become all-important. The success of even one youngster at the first-team level can more than offset the cost of such a development program. 

 

As a non-profit organization, it is not as if the Impact has a bottomless pit of money with which to purchase success. Yet they have managed to continually put together a competitive team. Being able to develop talented youngsters in their own Academy will only help them stay competitive. 

Looking down the road, Montreal look destined to be the 19th team in Major League Soccer. This week, Impact President Joey Saputo was in confident mood that talks to make that a reality would resume in the not-too-distant future. 

 

And can you blame him? When it comes to the future of soccer, there is nothing but good news coming out of Montreal these days. 

End of Story Content

Back to accessibility links