Historic First for Canadian Soccer: Tryouts for U23 team to play in Holland league this winter
HAMILTON: Two Hamilton organizations, FC Schalke 1304 and the Fairbanks International Football Agency today announced a partnership with a storied Dutch team to offer Canadian players the chance to play a full season in Holland.
“This is an unprecedented opportunity for Canadian players to have a meaningful chance to become professional soccer players, either in Europe, or here as part of the new Canadian Premier League,” says Lee Fairbanks, president of the agency.
“We are not talking about a trial, or a two-week camp,” he explained, “we are talking about an entire season playing against some of the top under-23 players in Holland. This has never been done before in the history of Canadian soccer.”
Fairbanks says the plan was suggested by Dutch team officials. The name of the club will be released at a later date, for Dutch publicity purposes.
“Canadians have a very special place in the hearts of the Dutch people, because of the role our troops played in the liberation of Holland at the end of the Second World War. The technical director of the Dutch club wanted to open their system to international players, and Canada was an obvious choice.”
Fairbanks said the challenge will be in finding 16 players from Canada who are good enough to play at that level. The team will play in the highest division, against U23 players and some professional First Team players from the premier Eredivisie clubs, including such giants as Ajax.
“This is one of the top development academies in Holland. Last year 13 of their players signed professional contracts. The games will be scouted by the top clubs from Holland, Belgium and Germany on a weekly basis. The club is also asking us for a few players for their younger teams, as well as their 1st team, a professional club that has played as high as Second Division (Eertse Division) in 2016,” he said.
Prior to becoming professional, the club had won the Dutch National Amateur Championship on five different occasions.
Schalke FC 1304 is run by legendary Hamilton head coach Leo Charalampis. Charalampis played professionally in Greece, Albania and Germany before an injury ended his career. He went on to coach youth teams with FC Schalke 04 FC in Germany before immigrating to Canada in 1999. He was involved in the development of many clubs, academies and college/university programs before founding his own academy in Hamilton in 2006.
Players from Schalke have gone on to clubs in Poland, Portugal, the UK and the US.
For more information about tryouts, contact Lee Fairbanks at info@fairbanksagency.com
Founder Della Mora Football Academy
6yAmazing! Truly a first! Great to know that our players will have the opportunity to see what “Real” football looks like. Any support needed please feel free and reach out to me, I would love the opportunity to be involved!
Owner of Ian McClurg Learn Perform Coaching - Talent ID & Development for the Individual Player
6yLee it is great to see more opportunities for young Canadian players overseas. I do feel that there is talent here and we have just helped place two local players at Wolves and Mansfield Town. There are now several season long opportunities like this in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Greece and Cyprus. With the CPL launching in 2019 this is an exciting time to be a young Canadian player.