York9 FC to face Forge FC to kick off Canadian Premier League

York Region team travels to Hamilton for first match in new Canadian professional soccer league's history

Yorkregion.com
January 30, 2019
Jay Gutteridge

A team representing York Region will have a big part to play in one of the most important events in Canadian soccer history.

York9 FC, the region's new professional team, will travel to Hamilton to face Forge FC in the first match in the Canadian Premier League.

The game kicks off the new professional league's inaugural season April 27 at 1 p.m. at Tim Hortons Field.

The league will represent the top tier of soccer in Canada.

The full schedule, including York9's home opener, has yet to be released.

York9 will play its matches at Alumni Field on York University's campus to start the season, with a plan to move to York Lions Stadium by season's end.

The team, owned by Carlo Baldassarra of Greenpark Group, has announced plans to build a stadium in York Region, with the location and timeline yet to be announced.

The league is placing an emphasis on developing Canadian players, and most of York9's first nine signings meet that criteria.

So far, the team, managed by York Region native and former Canadian international Jimmy Brennan, has signed Austin Ricci and Joseph Di Chiara of Richmond Hill, Kyle Porter of Mississauga, Steven Furlano of Barrie, Roger Thompson of Brampton, Manuel Aparicio and Cyrus Rollocks of Toronto, Simon Adjei of Sweden and Wataru Murofushi of Japan.

The team also had three picks in the league's first U Sports draft of Canadian university players, selecting Daniel Gogarty of Scarborough and Emmanuel Zambazis of Toronto (both from York University), and Daniel Pritchard of England (Cape Breton University).