deVos: CSA partners with pro clubs to develop next generation Canada's U15 men's national team has assembled a group of players from Canada's five professional club academies for a training stint. As TSN's Jason deVos writes, for the first time in its history, the CSA is a taking a structured, measured approach to qualifying for a future World Cup.

Jason deVos TSN Soccer Analyst Follow|Archive

The next generation of Canadian talent is getting its first taste of what it takes to play for Canada this week. The coaching staff of Canada's U15 men's national team has assembled a group of 27 players from Canada's five professional club academies for a three-day training stint in Toronto, with a view to identifying players who could one day go on to represent their country at the international level.

The intent behind the camp is a very simple one: to set the standard for these young players so that they know exactly what it takes to reach the highest level of the game.

Some will make it, while others will fade away. But head coach Ante Jazic and assistant coach Paul Stalteri are determined to leave no stone unturned in their search for talented youngsters.

"For us, it's a collaboration with the MLS (and NASL) clubs, identifying the talent that they possess," said Jazic. "Their Academy Directors recommend their best talent. Next year, we start our regional camps, so we hope that with the standard set at the MLS (and NASL) Academies, we'll be better prepared to see the talent that is available at those regional camps and hopefully be able to get some youngsters into some better environments and start their development at an earlier age."

Those regional camps – where Jazic and Stalteri will look at players outside of the professional club academies – will give the coaches a look at just what type of player is being produced by community clubs and private academies across the country. The goal is to stream the best of that talent into the professional club academies.

"It's critical because we are relying on the pro clubs; the majority of our players are coming from the pro clubs and they are working with the players on a daily basis," Jazic said on Wednesday.

"The impact that we can have on the players in a 10-day camp is limited, so the work that they are doing with them at the pro clubs is extremely important. It has to be a collaboration between the CSA and the pro clubs to see what they are doing, how the players are developing and that the environment is right for the player."

By taking a professional approach to player development at younger ages and partnering with the professional clubs across the country, Jazic hopes that the CSA will have a much bigger pool of players from which to choose future national teams.

"It's critical for us. We've just finished our cycle with the (19)99s; we took them to Costa Rica so they could experience the CONCACAF environment and be better equipped to move on to the U17s. If we can expose our kids to those environments, expose them to a higher level of training, a higher level of competition, (that will help them) down the road," said Jazic.

Helping players succeed in the future – rather than focusing on getting results at the U15 or U17 age levels – is the most important component of what the CSA is doing with its national youth team players. It is about preparing the players for what it takes to succeed at the men's level and to qualify for the World Cup – something that Canada has only done once in its history, in 1986. By introducing young players to international competition, it is hoped that they will be better equipped to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

"We had our first event with this cycle (the 99s) and the kids were just in awe after the first match. We lost 5-1, which wasn't indicative of the play, but they were shocked at the speed of play. We played the U16 team from Costa Rica - who had been together a few years - so they were even better than what the kids were expecting.

They realized that there is a whole other world out there to what they are used to where the top players realize that, guess what – they have to defend in transition, they can't just stay high and score three goals. It was very eye-opening, and it's better that they experience that at a younger age where there is no qualification at stake, where it is just about youth development and exposing them to that environment, so that they are better prepared for qualification for a youth World Cup, or for World Cups down the road," said Jazic.

That – qualifying for the World Cup – is the end goal. And for the first time in its history, the CSA is a taking a structured, measured approach to achieving that elusive dream.