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The knock at the door of Mason Trafford’s hotel room in Guiyang, China came at 2 a.m. His Chinese agent was standing there and it was time to negotiate with the President of Guizhou Zhicheng FC.

That, it transpires, is the soccer business in China.

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How the American-born Canadian, who now anchors the Ottawa Fury’s defence, was there at all is a story worth telling.

It started at a Christmas party where acquaintance said Trafford should send videos, his soccer resume and his news clips to an agent in China, which he did and promptly put it out of his mind.

It was a surprise when the call came inviting him to tryouts with Guizhou, a Division One club allowed three international players on its roster. The club had called in more than 50 for tryouts, Trafford among them.

“I had to give this a go,” he said. And away from Canada he went to a training centre in the snowy mountains about an hour outside Guiyang, which is located in central China, to trials where no one spoke English. Still Trafford survived the trials.