TORONTO, ON – The Canadian Premier League is looking for its next diamond in the rough. On Wednesday, the league announced the fourth annual CPL-U SPORTS Draft, giving U SPORTS student-athlete soccer players a chance to put their name forward to Canada’s top soccer clubs.
A record 165 players will be available for selection in the 2022 edition, a significant jump from past years. Rather than the league office or U SPORTS coaches selecting eligible players, U SPORTS student-athletes had the chance to register themselves for the draft.
While the larger number is a positive in terms of variance in the selection, it means that the potential to miss on draft picks is greater than in other years. With the CPL’s eight clubs each picking twice, there is no guarantee that the players come close to professional contracts.
Still, the likes of Thomas Gardner, Chris Lee, Stefan Karajovanovic and Garven Metusala have thrived in the CPL coming from U SPORTS, and the potential for the next U SPORTS star is still there in 2022.
In association with Canucks At Home, a service tracking and analyzing all Canadian-based soccer players in U SPORTS and beyond, 49 Sports have compiled a list of the Top-30 eligible players in this year’s CPL-U SPORTS Draft.
The CPL-U SPORTS Draft is scheduled for 8:00 pm ET on Jan. 20.
These are Top-30 rankings in terms of the quality of players. This is NOT a mock draft.
49 SPORTS/CANUCKS AT HOME TOP 30 PROSPECTS
| Svyatoslav | Artemenko | GUELPH |
| Chris | Campoli | ONTARIO TECH |
| Kairo | Coore | CAPE BRETON |
| Quentin | Paumier | MONTREAL |
| Raphal | Garcia | CARLETON |
| Dario | Conte | CARLETON |
| Gabriel | Bitar | CARLETON |
| Mohamed | El-Gandour | MOUNT ROYAL |
| Soji | Olatoye | YORK |
| Luca | Ricci | MONTREAL |
| Jose | da Cunha | CAPE BRETON |
| Emmanuel | Dolo | MEMORIAL |
| Dane | Domic | MOUNT ROYAL |
| Luke | Green | StFX |
| Eryk | Kobza | CALGARY |
| Kai | Martin | RYERSON |
| Omar | Marzouk | YORK |
| Cian | Lynch | CAPE BRETON |
| Tristan | Nkoghe | UBC |
| Caden | Rogozinski | MRU |
| Christian | Rossi | TWU |
| Victory | Shumbusho | UBC |
| Danial | Rafisamii | ONTARIO TECH |
| Mikkel | Rosenlund | TRU |
| Jeremy | Menard | LAVAL |
| Jadon | Vilfort | YORK |
| Ian | Whibly | VICTORIA |
| Gabriel | Balbinotti | UQTR |
| Grant | Takacs | UNB |
| Jamie | Watson | CAPE BRETON |
| Doryan | Soualem | LAVAL |
I’d be very interested in learning how the the Top 30 you selected were chosen, I’m obviously bias, not see any of my players cracking your list.