The best way forward

The CanPL vs MLS NextPro

If you were in the east stand at BMO Field during the Reds Home Opener versus Columbus you couldn’t miss them.

A group of about 10 young men were seated in some seriously good seats, about 20 rows up from the centre of the pitch. They were standing and cheering for most of the game, amongst the more sedate TFC prawn-crowd.

Interestingly, one of the men was holding a CanPL strip up throughout the game. That jersey? A 2020 Cavalry strip, with Mo Farsi’s name on the back. Clearly, Farsi had hooked up some of his boys who had made the drive down from Quebec for the occasion to cheer him on.

A year earlier, they would have been watching Farsi play in much smaller settings. Even smaller than CanPL, actually. That’s because he had signed with Crew 2 in MLS NextPro, rather than remaining in the Canadian league. You see, Farsi made the decision to take what was perceived to be a step back in quality so that, in his estimation, he could more quickly jump forward to MLS.

I wrote about the move at the time. As I outlined, there are certain advantages that MLS NextPro has that the CanPL can’t match when it comes to attracting MLS attention. Most obviously, they are affiliated with MLS clubs.

In talking to people last year, it was confirmed to me that players were looking at NextPro as essentially an extended trial opportunity. Sure, it is less glamourous competing in front of 12 people for a team with the number 2 in its name, but ultimately the goal is to advance your career.

It worked for Farsi and it has shown a way forward for other Canadian players. Just this week we have seen two similar moves with Matthew Catavolo choosing TFC2 over a return to Valour and former York midfielder Jordan Faria signing with the Young Reds after a stint in Finland.

Neither player has said why they chose NextPro over CanPL this week, but you’d have to imagine the proximity to Bob Bradley’s first team played a significant role.

This speaks to a larger question about the CanPL — is it doing what it was designed to do on the development side?

It’s fair to say that it’s a bit of a mixed bag so far. Outside of a couple moves to MLS, there haven’t been a lot of success stories. Considering that the sale of players was one of the stated goals of the league, you’d like to see more return by now. Having young players choosing NextPro over the league makes that more difficult.

Unless the league doesn’t care about being a development league. There are voices out there starting to suggest that development should be more of a natural outcome of having a league, rather than a stated goal. To that end, an elimination of the u21 rule would be welcomed by those voices.

Of course, there are also people that would like to see the u21 rule strengthened and perhaps turned into a u20 (or even u19 rule). So, opinions are divided.

On a more positive note, the league has likely overachieved when it comes to the level it plays at. It is undoubtably a higher quality than NextPro. It’s also highly entertaining. So, there is an argument that they should lean into that. As said, if you provide a opportunity then some players will be found regardless of the rules that are in place.

As for my position…I do host a weekly podcast on development so I tend to lean towards the Play The Kids side of the debate.

If you’d like to hear more debate like this, subscribe to the NextPod soccer podcast with myself and James Grossi. New episodes each Monday.

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