‘An opportunity to come back stronger’
After missing two seasons in Norway with knee injury, Julian Dunn restarts career with Wanderers
After a devastating knee injury stripped nearly two seasons of his promising soccer career overseas, Julian Dunn gets a restart on home soil with the Halifax Wanderers.
The six-foot-three defender from Toronto was just five games into his first season in the Eliteserien, Norway’s top football league. While playing for Hamarkameratene (Hamkam) in a 2022 match against Viking FK, Dunn jumped for a header and as he landed his knee gave out.
“As an athlete, that’s the worst thing that can happen,” the 23-year-old Dunn recalled in a recent interview. “No one wants to get injured. I wanted to be on the field contributing. There were days during rehab where I didn’t feel great. If you ask anyone who goes through these kinds of injuries, it’s not easy to come back. But with a lot of perseverance and dedication and a good support group, I fought my way back.
“I looked at it as an opportunity to come back stronger.”
The injury sidelined Dunn for nearly two years. Toward the end of last season, Dunn returned to training but with Hamkam in a battle to avoid relegation, the club kept him out of the lineup to save any wear and tear on the knee.
He was at full health when Hamkam returned this winter for their 2024 pre-season. He appeared in four exhibition matches against Norweigan and Danish opponents before the Wanderers came calling in February.
“I was slowly building confidence, started to feel pretty good and push the knee a lot more,” Dunn said. “Then Pat came with his pitch, and he was persistent.”
The persistent Pat is second-year Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar, who crossed paths with Dunn when he coached League1 Ontario senior side Vaughan Azzurri and Dunn played for the Vaughan Soccer Club.
The persistence paid off as the Wanderers signed Dunn to a one-year Canadian Premier League contract with a club option for 2025.
“Just to get back onto the pitch and play is big for me, big for my family,” said Dunn, who began his pro career with Toronto FC, signing a homegrown player contract with the Major League Soccer club in 2018.
“I’m telling people that this a comeback season for me. I saw this as a great opportunity for me to get back on my feet after such a significant injury.
“Now that I’m here with this group, I’m feeling a lot better. I have a lot of confidence in the knee.”
FORMIDABLE BACK LINE
In Halifax, Dunn has been reunited with two former TFC teammates, forward Ryan Telfer and midfielder Aidan Daniels. He also joins a formidable back line which features Zachary Fernandez, Riley Ferrazzo, Cale Loughrey, 2023 CPL defender of the year nominee Daniel Nimick, Kareem Sow and Wesley Timoteo.
Last season, the Wanderers allowed the second-fewest goals (32 in 28 matches, tied with Forge FC) in the league. The defensive play was key to the team’s turnaround in Gheisar’s maiden season in Halifax, finishing in a tie for second with Forge and hosting a playoff match for the first time in club history.
“The team had a really solid back line last year,” Dunn said. “For me, to add to that is exciting. They are a really good group, some solid players.
“Coming back from injury, I had to find the best fit for me. I needed a lot of minutes and I liked the direction the team was going. They play some exciting football. You saw that in their run to the playoffs last year. I’m trying to establish myself on the back line and I wanted to be a part of that.”
CPL EXPERIENCE
This won’t be Dunn’s first foray in the CPL. During the Covid-shortened 2020 season, Dunn was loaned by TFC to Valour FC for the Island Games, the league’s five-week bubble tournament held in Charlottetown.
Dunn played every minute for the Winnipeg side, leading all defenders in clearances and headed and aerial duels. His play earned him a nomination for the CPL’S Canadian under-21 player of the year award.
“It was a unique experience,” Dunn said of the Island Games. “It was during COVID and you couldn’t really go around and do too much. But it gave me a little snippet of what the CPL was all about.
“It’s great to see where the league has gone, with so much growth. And it was a great experience for me, allowing me to showcase myself. Some great memories.”
With the hometown TFC, Dunn – who progressed through the club’s academy system – made numerous appearances for the first team, TFC II and TFC III over the course of five seasons. He appeared in three MLS matches and 21 with TFC II of MLS Next Pro before he was released in 2021.
In December of that year, Dunn signed a two-year contract with Hamkam. As the calendar turned to 2022, Dunn found himself in Hamar, a city of about 29,000 residents that’s a 90-minute drive north from Oslo.
Hamar, which hosted the figure skating, short track and speed skating events during the 1994 Winter Olympics, has comfortable, warm summers.
But Dunn said the winters there are brutally cold.
“I have no complaints,” Dunn said of his experience in Norway, “except it can get really, really cold. When you get to the winter months and you’re playing outside, you really feel it on the pitch. As a Canadian, I should’ve been used to it. But the cold over there is terrible.
“But I knew what to expect. I had been to Scandinavia before for training. In Denmark, Sweden and Norway, the leagues are very similar. I like the style of football they play there. Toward the end of my contract with TFC, I had a buddy who was playing at Hamkam so I wanted to take that step to play in Europe and explore European football. I knew it would be a great stepping stone.
“Coming from Toronto and a big city, it was different. I had to get used to living in a smaller town. But, for me, I had everything I needed. The city revolved around football. It was exciting and the people were great. I was happy with my decision. The league is great for players to develop in. More and more North Americans are making the move overseas. There’s a lot of talent over there.”
Dunn will begin his second stint in the CPL this weekend. The Wanderers, who have been training in B.C. for the past week, will open their 2024 campaign on Saturday when they face Pacific FC at Starlight Stadium in Langford.
The Wanderers will remain on the west coast and visit Vancouver FC five days later on April 18.
“I found the team has really begun to mesh out here,” Dunn said in the phone interview from B.C. “We’re still grasping the concepts but it’s good to see them put into action. It’s exciting.
“We have a good group and when everything starts to click, people will see some good football.”