Kwame Awuah has dreamed of being a professional soccer player for just about as long as he can remember.

Today, he’s part of the largest Canadian contingent ever invited to Major League Soccer’s combine in Los Angeles, leading up to Friday’s SuperDraft.

“It didn’t become clear that (going pro) was possible until I was about 13, after I participated in (local academy) Sigma FC’s annual Sigma Camps during the summer, where European coaches do a couple sessions with the team all week long,” Awuah, a Toronto-raised midfielder, said via email before the five-day prospects camp.

Local academy coaches and the sport’s national governing body say this year’s Canadian crop — also featuring Edmonton-born midfielder Shamit Shome, plus strikers Brian Wright (Ajax, Ont.), Adonijah Reid and Chris Nanco (both from Brampton) — is just the beginning, paving the way for more to reach the pro level.

Mock drafts regularly project Shome, Reid and Wright to go among the 22 first-round picks on Friday, which would be a Canadian high. This comes on the heels of strong showings by Canadians over the last two drafts:

In 2015, Brampton native — and fellow Sigma FC alum — Cyle Larin became the first Canadian to go No. 1 overall (to Orlando City), while Pickering defender Skylar Thomas went 11th to Toronto FC.

Last year, another Sigma product, Toronto’s Richie Laryea, was selected seventh by Orlando City.

Wright says he started to take a keener interest in MLS when players he had played with or against started popping up — Larin, Thomas and Toronto FC midfielder Jay Chapman.

“It’s just really cool to see those guys get the opportunity to go professional,” he said.

Another significant factor is Generation Adidas Canada, a program brought in this past year by MLS to develop Canadian talent. Shome and Reid became eligible through that route.

Bobby Smyrniotis, Sigma FC’s founder and technical director, echoes what Wright’s saying about success breeding success and the impact of seeing familiar faces reach the pros.

“It gives our players the ability to always dream and hope that they can be the next ones,” Smyrniotis says. “It’s an immediate thing. It’s something they can touch.”

Smyrniotis adds that for local players, going pro is a matter of having the right runway — which he defines as playing through the college system (Awuah starred at the University of Connecticut) and then top leagues.

Tom Croft, the manager at FC Durham Academy who coached Wright and Thomas in their youth days, also believes in the college route, though he also credits Canada’s MLS mainstays — Toronto FC, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps — with offering an alternative. He and Smyrniotis agree that the next step in improving the men’s side of the game in Canada is making sure players continue to develop after going pro.

“Now we’ve just got to make sure when they go on to the next level, they play,” Smyrniotis said. “That’s the main thing. Wherever you go, it’s making sure that you play — whether that’s in MLS, whether that’s (a notch below in the United Soccer League). The most important thing is that you play and you give yourself an opportunity to keep on getting better.”

Hopefully, Smyrniotis adds, that continued development will help the men’s national team — currently ranked 117th in the world. Half of the players at the most recent men’s camp were under the age of 24.

Tony Fonseca, the Canadian Soccer Association’s technical director, sees that happening. He says the increase in draft-worthy local talent comes from academies and the national body being more connected than ever before, working toward a shared vision: “If we want to be successful at the top end of the food chain, definitely we have to have a bigger pool of players. The more who start shining, the better it will be for our men’s national team.”

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It will take time, though.

“We are in a transition phase with players now leaving the Canadian men’s national team due to different goals moving forward,” says Fonseca, “but . . . I’m very, very encouraged to say the future is bright.”