Toronto FC will be entering an Academy team into the Ontario Soccer Association’s ground-breaking Ontario Player Development League, which will begin play with 18 clubs at the under-13 level in the spring of 2014. The OPDL then plans to add the U14 age group in 2015, and a successive age group each year after that.
This high-performance, standards-based league is growing out of the OSA’s commitment to adopt Long-Term Player Development principles, and to create an elite environment in regards to training, support, competition and organization. KIA Toronto FC Academy Director Thomas Rongen sees the new venture and TFC Academy’s participation as a perfect marriage. “This aligns with what we’re doing and our goals, and the vertical integration of our coaching methodology and our curriculum, which is all based on player-centred Long-Term Player Development.”
“The OPDL is another important step in the ongoing implementation of Long Term Player Development,” OSA Chief Technical Officer Alex Chiet said. “By creating a standards based league, we are able to focus on the holistic needs of the high performance player. The members of this league share that aligned vision and commitment. The OSA is here to support these organizations in delivering the best opportunities possible to our top provincial players in the hopes that many players will progress to represent Canada on the world stage.”
Participation in the OPDL reinforces the desire and commitment to be a catalyst for growing the game of soccer in Canada that Toronto FC has had since day one. The Academy seeks to develop players with the goal of them rising through the ranks to eventually join the first team. The new OPDL not only represents a great opportunity for more meaningful games at all levels for players on that path, but it is also an important part of a broader culture shift. The move away from fragmented results-oriented youth systems to a model of player-centred skills development curriculum, is to Rongen, “a much-needed change; it’s a step in the right direction” for the future of soccer in this province.
