2024 CPL set for kick-off
Cavalry and Forge expected to lead the way in the sixth edition of the Canadian Premier League
Signs of the Canadian Premier League’s impact within the country continue ahead of its sixth season, with seven of the league’s alumni making it into Canada’s preliminary squad for their vital 2024 Copa America play-in against Trinidad & Tobago.
Cavalry and Forge also recently gained invaluable experience in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Both suffered defeat in round one, losing to MLS’s Orlando City and Mexican outfit Guadalajara respectively, but the former were making their first foray into continental competition and enjoyed a slice of history when Myer Bevan scored their first CONCACAF goal.
The route into the 2025 edition of the CONCACAF Champions Cup for CPL clubs will be either through winning the CPL Shield by finishing top of the regular season, or by winning the North Star Cup via the end-of-season play-offs.
Cavalry won their first silverware last season, topping the league table by13 points, and now want to add more. Tommy Wheeldon Jr. and his team have already displayed their ability to develop players while achieving success, which will have played a key role in the loan signings of Everton goalkeeper Jack Barrett and attacking midfielder Lucas Dias from Sporting.
The Cavs suffered defeat in a breathtaking play-off final against Forge last term, with Bobby Smyrniotis’ side now having won at that stage in four seasons out of five. Despite being so imperious at the end of the season, Forge’s only regular campaign win came in 2021.
Their hopes of putting that right in 2024 have been somewhat harmed by player departures. Woobens Pacius became the latest CPL player to be snapped up by an MLS team when he joined Nashville during the off-season; Rezart Rama, Aboubacar Sissoko and Manjrekar James have transferred elsewhere, while Ashtone Morgan has retired. Even so, much of their core remains intact, with Elimane Cisse returning from two years playing in Africa and four-cap Ghana international Nana Opoku Ampomah also joining.
HFX Wanderers recorded their highest finish in a full-length CPL campaign last season to reach the play-offs for just the second time in their history. Guided by 2023 Coach of the Year nominee Patrice Gheisar, they will be looking to build on that and have brought defender Julian Dunn back to Canada after two years with Norwegian side HamKam in addition to signing Brazilian midfielder Vitor Dias.
On the face of it, Pacific had an impressive campaign last term as they reached the semi-final of the Canadian Championship and play-offs while finishing fourth in the regular season. They will still feel that the campaign could have offered so much more after topping the table for11 matchweeks having lost just one of their first12 league games.
The Tridents are the only club outside of Forge to have won the CPL play-offs – doing so in 2021 – and they have added experience to avoid similar struggles to those endured in the latter stages of last season. One-cap Canada
goalkeeper Sean Melvin and French midfielder Aly Ndom, formerly of Reims and Auxerre, have come in.
York United capitalised on last season’s introduction of a fifth playoff spot to reach that stage for the second time before losing to Pacific. They have also boosted their 2024 squad with a goalkeeper, in the shape of Frenchman Thomas Vincensini, alongside the intriguing loan signings of Monterrey duo Orlando Botello and Josue Martinez, as well as Netherlandsborn centre-back Frank Sturing, who represented Canada twice in 2021 having previously won caps for the Dutch at various youth levels and spent last season in the Austrian second tier.
Atletico Ottawa won the 2022 regular season and were runners-up in the play-offs but endured a frustrating campaign last term, finishing sixth and missing out on a play-off place by two points. They have responded with an exciting transfer window. In addition to signing Sissoko from Forge, they have brought in two of last season’s standout performers from Valour, Golden Glove nominee Rayane Yesli and Best Canadian Under-21 Player Matteo de Brienne, plus one-cap Canada winger Kris Twardek from Irish side Bohemians.
Vancouver FC finished seventh in their first-ever campaign and will hope to push higher with the help of some eye-catching signings. They made 16-year-old Grady McDonnell the youngest-ever player to sign a CPL contract after bringing in the Republic of Ireland Under-17 midfielder from Vancouver Whitecaps’ academy.
Cavalry won their first silverware last season, topping the league table by 13 points, and now want to add more
In addition, centre-back David Norman Jr. returns to the league having helped Northampton Town to promotion and St Patrick’s Athletic to FAI Cup glory in the space of a year.
Valour have witnessed plenty of squad changes in the transfer window ahead of the 2024 season as they aim to make a maiden foray into the playoffs. Noah Verhoeven has joined on loan from Atletico Ottawa while German defender Charalampos Chantzopoulos and Australian forward Jordan Swibel have arrived from abroad to replace the departing Diego Gutierrez (Cavalry), De Brienne and Yesli.