Soccer Masculin Nouvelles

Soccer Masculin

CBC Sports | U SPORTS student-athletes proving themselves in Canadian Premier League

Emily Wilson, CBC Sports

Draft agreement a 'dream come true' for students aspiring to play pro soccer

With a lack of opportunities to turn their amateur career professional, many male soccer players coming out of U SPORTS would have decided to hang up their boots.

Christian Oxner, a goalkeeper with HFX Wanderers FC, was one of the many players preparing for such an outcome before joining the Canadian Premier League (CPL).

"I was almost ready to give up on soccer and just start focusing primarily on school because going into my fifth year [at Saint Mary's University], there really was nothing around to do," said Oxner.

Thanks to the CPL-U Sports draft introduced during the inaugural season in 2018, players emerging from Canadian university programs have an outlined path to a professional career. And the ones who make it are proving they belong.

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