From Ukraine direct to Forge FC
Defender Majrekar James, a frequent Canadian men’s team player, brings more star power to Hamilton
What’s a brief bout of inclement weather, after you’ve spent the better part of a year in a war zone?
On Friday, as local roads clogged and the heavy snow flew horizontally, Forge FC announced the addition of centre fullback Majrekar James to its large group of returning Canadian Premier League champions.
Make absolutely no mistake here. This is a big signing. Literally and figuratively.
James is six-foot-three, agile and has been capped by the Canadian men’s national team 17 times, most recently in 2020. He has spent the past decade playing professionally in Denmark, Hungary and Ukraine, and has suited up in the European Champions League.
Until he returned to his North York home in December, James started at centre back for FC Chornomorets Odessa in the Ukrainian Premier League, which had resumed domestic play despite the Russian invasion.
“Basically, I came back home to be near family,” says James, who has a four-year-old son. “I really enjoyed playing in Ukraine, but being away from everybody else for eight or nine months and no one able to visit you, kind of takes a toll on you. You’re there in a war zone by yourself.
“Since I’m home, it was a great opportunity to come to Hamilton to play. I came to this team because I know coach Bobby (Smyrniotis) and a lot of the guys here, so it would be the most comfortable situation.”
James spent four years in the Smyrniotis brothers’ Sigma FC program, eventually earning a professional job in 2012 in Hungary. At Sigma, two of his teammates were fellow Forge defender Dom Samuel and captain Kyle Bekker, whom James will now feed the ball.
“He’s what I call a no-nonsense defender,” says Samuel, agreeing that description also applies to himself. “Everything’s away, everything’s cleared. He’s very organized.”
“I don’t (mess) around,” James confirms. “I’m a pretty hard tackler. I’m fast and like to play the same kind of football that Bobby does because I basically learned to play from him.”
Samuel says he’s not surprised that Forge FC was able to recruit such a dominant talent: “It’s the kind of thing this club does.”
James was born in Dominica and came with his family to Toronto when he was nine. He joins a Forge team that was already the best defensive unit in the CPL and will replace centre back Dan Krutzen, now with Phoenix of the USL.
At 29, he is probably still on the national team’s general radar, especially since depth on the back line is one area of concern.
“The national team is on every football player’s mind in Canada,” James concedes. “It’s something you always want to be part of, the place you want to be.”
James originally came to Chornomorets Odessa on loan from his Danish side, Vejle Boldklub, more than a year ago and, after his contract expired in Denmark, signed in the Ukrainian league last summer. That contract has now expired.
He says it was a different situation for the foreigners in the league than for Ukrainian players, who had family and friends to worry about and protect.
“Before going there, I didn’t know anything about war,” he said. “They did a great job of not letting me know too much about what’s going on. They would make sure that they didn’t scare the foreign players. They wanted us to focus on the football and said ‘If there’s something that you really need to know, then we’ll let you know.’
“It’s a terrible situation, but I actually didn’t see anything too horrible. Of course, you didn’t feel totally safe. Sometimes there were drone bombs flying around, going off not far from where you were. I was never scared … but it was always in the back of your mind.”
James said the most difficult part was the travel because civilian air traffic was forbidden and the train rides were sometimes 22 hours long.
Many of the games were in ravaged Kyiv, and there were even some at home in the Crimea. With no fans permitted, he says it was eerily reminiscent of playing in Denmark’s empty stadia during the height of the pandemic.
“Supporters weren’t allowed in because, if something happened, there’d be a large number of people injured,” he said.
His time in Ukraine has given James an appreciation for the country’s resilience: “I’ve seen the struggles they go through on a daily basis. The bravery. It’s very inspiring because there’s this massive country trying to defeat them and they’ll never give up. No matter what.”