Article content

Having come up through the FC Edmonton academy, Marcus Velado-Tsegaye was excited for his professional debut, although the environment was not completely foreign to him.

The 17-year-old, Archbishop O’Leary High School student knew what was expected of him from head coach Jeff Paulus when stepping on the field in a 1-0 loss in Calgary against Cavalry FC this past Saturday.

“When you sign with a club, you don’t always know what the coach’s style is going to be,” Velado-Tsegaye said. “But for me, being here with him at the academy for the past three years, I’ve gotten to adapt to his coaching style and it helps benefit my game.”

Prior to being named head coach of FC Edmonton in their inaugural Canadian Premier League season, Paulus ran the club’s academy. As academy coach, Paulus was able to introduce players into his system and groom them to move up to the professional level.

“His attitude is key, because this is a kid that truly wants to get to the highest levels of the game, so nothing will get in his way,” Paulus said. “He’s brave. At times it looks like we’re tentative to get forward to be the aggressor to be the attacking team, which is what we want here, and then you see when the kid comes in and he wants the ball and is going to go right at the player in front of him. We love it, that’s the attitude and mentality we want at the club from everybody. So to see as 17-year-old come in here and do that and want to grab the game and run with it, was just brilliant to see.”

Email: dvandiest@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @DerekVanDiest