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Montreal CF Academy: two new teams (U16 and U18) to be created

When he met the media last Friday, Gabriel Gervais made a point of mentioning that he would take his time before appointing a replacement for Olivier Renard (CF Montreal sporting director). In the meantime, the president will be adding D.S. to his list of duties on an interim basis.

Gervais took questions – some of them a little tough – from the journalists in the room, and said two things that resonated in my head all weekend.

1. The strategic decisions taken by the sporting director (Olivier Renard until recently) have always been submitted to the president (Gabriel Gervais), who in turn has always submitted them to the board (Saputo family). In short, the sporting director must sometimes accept being told “no” by his superiors. #BusinessAsUsual?

2. Gabriel Gervais intends to re-evaluate the organization’s structure, at both professional and amateur levels, before making any new appointments.

(Credit: X/Twitter (CF Montréal))

The option of restructuring the academy was therefore among those on the table on Friday.

I made a few phone calls over the weekend and learned that a major change will take place in the CF Montreal academy next year: the U15 and U17 teams will disappear, to be replaced by new U16 and U18 teams.

In short, young footballers returning to the CF Montreal academy will do so a year later in their development.

However, this is a decision that dates back several weeks and was not taken by the CF Montreal board; it was MLS Next that modified the mandatory age categories that every MLS team must have in its ranks.

It used to be U15 and U17; now it’s U16 and U18.

Note that a club may decide to have other teams in other age categories, but that this is at its discretion.

I don’t know if Montreal CF will decide to have other teams in MLS Next, but I doubt it; they’re likely to stick with U16 and U18.

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For the time being, CF Montreal also has two teams in its pre-academy(U13 and U14), both of which play upgraded in the Quebec national championship(U14 and U15 / PLSJQ). Will a new U16 team be created? We’ll see.

Back to the two new MLS Nextteams…

Why push back by a year the first year you’re obliged to have a team from your academy in MLS Next? Many kids in Secondary 3 have spent the year traveling and not being in school (often enough). I guess there’s part of the answer here…

Note that CF Montréal U15 has a 1-7-3 record this season. Only Sporting Kansas City (1-8-3) and St-Louis City SC (1-8-2) are doing worse among MLS academies. The team lost its first two forwards to bad behavior just a few weeks ago.

At U17 level, things are much better, with CF Montreal (6-5-0) in third place in the Eastern Division. Several of the organization’s brightest prospects are playing at U17 level. Sergei Kozlovskiy, Emrick Durand Fotsing and Sebastien Udell Joseph in particular…

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A team in MLS Next Pro?
Many people are wondering, as they read this article, whether MLS will also force all Garber Circuit teams to have their own MLS Next Pro team.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. I’ve asked questions, but they’ve gone unanswered.

Except that when you’re a club whose strategy is to develop young players and then sell them, it seems to me that allowing your young players to play in a professional circuit like MLS Next Pro would be more advantageous than having them play in League 1 (semi-pro), right? Although some of the teams in Ligue 1 – Hello St-Laurent – offer some damn good soccer…

Having a team in MLS Next Pro and paying young players to play there would probably give you a slightly larger pool of quality prospects. Except that spending a few million dollars a year to run such a team might not pay off in the end.

Why not a CPL club?

Extension

– After some discussion, I’ve been told that Vassili Cremanzidis is still with the Montreal CF. However, the next few days will be important. He could ensure the transition between now and the appointment of the next sporting director, become Olivier Renard’s replacement himself, follow Renard elsewhere or remain the new D.S.’s assistant. However, I think the chances of Vassili remaining with CF Montréal as someone else’s assistant are pretty slim. We’ll see.

– CF Montreal sells its cheapest tickets at about the same price as other MLS teams. It’s the $100-plus tickets that are rare in Montreal.

– Joel Waterman should therefore be at his post tomorrow against Wilfried Nancy’s Crew…

– Coccaro and Edwards could return to action soon according to Laurent Courtois.

– Joey Saputo contributed a few dollars to help pay Jesse Marsch’s salary. #Canada

– Impressive!