InglewoodJack Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 (edited) Just signed a three year deal with Vancouver FC. Born in Canada, has most recently represented Ireland at the U17 Euro qualifiers. Youngest player to ever sign a CPL deal, turns 16 in a month. Has also played for Ireland’s U16s and our U15s, so hoping that he comes back into the fold for us sooner than later. Apparently played very well with Ireland. Edited January 17 by InglewoodJack Corazon, canuckgbp, Aird25 and 9 others 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigandy Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 any details on position, style etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InglewoodJack Posted January 17 Author Share Posted January 17 1 minute ago, Bigandy said: any details on position, style etc. Someone else can definitely give a better description, but he’s a box to box CM, says he wants to mold his game after Jude Bellingham (which I assume 98% of players under 18 are trying to do right now) https://canpl.ca/article/hes-got-the-ambition-vancouver-fc-sign-15-year-old-top-talent-grady-mcdonnell Ottawafan, Canuckia, Corazon and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympique_de_Marseille Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 19 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said: represented Ireland at the U17 Euro qualifiers. nolando, RS, NVsoccer and 8 others 4 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaFan123 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 20 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said: Just signed a three year deal with Vancouver FC. Born in Canada, has most recently represented Ireland at the U17 Euro qualifiers. Youngest player to ever sign a CPL, turns 16 in a month. Has also played for Ireland’s U16s and our U15s, so hoping that he comes back into the fold for us sooner than later. Apparently played very well with Ireland. Hopefully just with Ireland as they offer better youth opportunities. Would be a sad story if one of the leagues first major exports turned out for another country. I did notice in his quote he referred to his (presumed) Irish coaches as “my coaches overseas” … I don’t know if I’m reading into that too much but odd he wouldn’t have said “with the national team/Ireland”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InglewoodJack Posted January 17 Author Share Posted January 17 6 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said: Hopefully just with Ireland as they offer better youth opportunities. Would be a sad story if one of the leagues first major exports turned out for another country. I did notice in his quote he referred to his (presumed) Irish coaches as “my coaches overseas” … I don’t know if I’m reading into that too much but odd he wouldn’t have said “with the national team/Ireland”. Hopefully he follows a proud tradition of Irish players playing their youth ball in Ireland and moving to another federation when they turn senior. The article mentions somewhere that he's close with Tahid and James Cameron (and that both are receiving "big inquiries" from MLS/Europe), so while we're several years too early to make that call, it would be cool if those guys were the foundation of our next generation of promising players, and go through the system together. He mentions that he admires Tahid's career path, so he obviously believes in the pathway of starting out in the CPL- hopefully he also follows Tahid in climbing through our youth ranks. Though Ireland is probably as close to a second national team for me, to the extent that I could cheer for another country. If he does go all the way with him, I can chalk up some of that to retribution for them losing so many of their most talented players, though I hope and expect that if he's good enough, he'll play for us. We complain about the lack of opps in Canada being a reason that we lose out on players- here's a young player bought in to our domestic league. If our concerns are well placed, here's a great opportunity to see if giving players more chances to develop at home will translate to keeping these guys in our set up. Borjans Sweatpants 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympique_de_Marseille Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 7 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said: Irish Should we edit his name in the thread title? "D" instead of "d" ? InglewoodJack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 (edited) 47 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said: represented Ireland at the U17 Euro qualifiers Edited January 17 by JamesF *deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Wonder what the Whitecaps think of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InglewoodJack Posted January 17 Author Share Posted January 17 11 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said: Should we edit his name in the thread title? "D" instead of "d" ? Yup- typo on my end. Should be fixed now. Olympique_de_Marseille 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnyb Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 What's this kids youth ball history? How did he get invited to Ireland U-17? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narduch Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 6 minutes ago, johnyb said: What's this kids youth ball history? How did he get invited to Ireland U-17? Only thing I can find is he spent the past 2 years at Vancouver Whitecaps academy johnyb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Footyeh Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 7 minutes ago, narduch said: Only thing I can find is he spent the past 2 years at Vancouver Whitecaps academy I believe he played in the SUPRA academy which is a private academy in the lower mainland. Same academy that put the Canadian boy's in Heerenveen and Utrecht. johnyb, narduch and Dominic94 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phresh Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 He also repped Canada at the Concacaf U15 tourney in August, was one of the best players alongside Kevin Khan and Andre Ali-Gayapersad NVsoccer, narduch, Kadenge and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigandy Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 40 minutes ago, Footyeh said: I believe he played in the SUPRA academy which is a private academy in the lower mainland. Same academy that put the Canadian boy's in Heerenveen and Utrecht. which boys are you talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic94 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 This will keep happening, and it needs to. These are the guys to develop, VWFC is going to notice this. This is the Habibullah effect, we will see more and more avoid signing with VWFC because of what happened there with all their youth players. We should also start to see more u-18 players pop up in the CPL. Watchmen, Ottawafan, El Hombre and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchmen Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 2 hours ago, nolando said: Wonder what the Whitecaps think of this? I'm never quite as negative on the Whitecaps as others, but it should still cause them to pause and review their system and discuss why it happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaFan123 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 6 minutes ago, Dominic94 said: This will keep happening, and it needs to. These are the guys to develop, VWFC is going to notice this. This is the Habibullah effect, we will see more and more avoid signing with VWFC because of what happened there with all their youth players. We should also start to see more u-18 players pop up in the CPL. Absolutely and it will probably happen more stateside as well. Dominic94 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 3 minutes ago, Watchmen said: I'm never quite as negative on the Whitecaps as others, but it should still cause them to pause and review their system and discuss why it happened. I think this is similar to losing Ben Fisk or Simon Colyn at the same age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 8 minutes ago, Dominic94 said: This will keep happening, and it needs to. These are the guys to develop, VWFC is going to notice this. This is the Habibullah effect, we will see more and more avoid signing with VWFC because of what happened there with all their youth players. We should also start to see more u-18 players pop up in the CPL. The TJ effect is perhaps an even better way of saying it. Kadenge and Dominic94 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchmen Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 If VFC later sells him, I look forward to the solidarity payment to the Whitecaps. Footyeh and CanadaFan123 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchmen Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 1 minute ago, nolando said: I think this is similar to losing Ben Fisk or Simon Colyn at the same age. Maybe? But Colyn they were more active in his loan abroad. This is a player actively choosing to leave their program and go pro, at a much earlier age than they were likely prepared to offer him. Will be interesting to see how he develops now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bison44 Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 How many 15 year olds do VWC sign?? Where would he play if he did..... NextPro?? CPL teams can offer a kid like this something MLS squads cant, nothing wrong with that, no hate for Whitecaps from me. Better for everyone if more of our kids get pro experience before they turn 18..if they are good enough. And playing here might get him to commit to Canada down the road, nice story all around. Hope the kid makes the team and plays well. Kadenge, Corazon, Stoppage Time and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narduch Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 12 minutes ago, Bison44 said: How many 15 year olds do VWC sign?? Where would he play if he did..... NextPro?? CPL teams can offer a kid like this something MLS squads cant, nothing wrong with that, no hate for Whitecaps from me. Better for everyone if more of our kids get pro experience before they turn 18..if they are good enough. And playing here might get him to commit to Canada down the road, nice story all around. Hope the kid makes the team and plays well. Sacramento in USL recently signed a 13 year old. And I think New England had a 15 year old on their Next Pro team last year. I don't follow US youth soccer enough to tell you if there are more examples Dominic94 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchmen Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 19 minutes ago, Bison44 said: How many 15 year olds do VWC sign?? Where would he play if he did..... NextPro?? CPL teams can offer a kid like this something MLS squads cant, nothing wrong with that, no hate for Whitecaps from me. Better for everyone if more of our kids get pro experience before they turn 18..if they are good enough. And playing here might get him to commit to Canada down the road, nice story all around. Hope the kid makes the team and plays well. Yeah, that's why I'm not that upset. Higher level leagues (and I'm not trying to debate how high a level MLS is, simply that it's higher than CPL) don't play as many younger players. It's a different level of development. So now we'll see if going pro in the CPL is a better developer path for these players than through an MLS academy/slower pro progression. Honestly, best of luck to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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