The PDL features 65 teams within four conferences across North America.

Professional soccer has returned to Calgary for the first time in over a decade.

This Sunday, Calgary Foothills FC is hosting their Premier Development League season opener versus Puget Sound.

Head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr believes this is a big step for the sport in Calgary.

“A great sporting city needs a great soccer franchise to be called that,” he said. “It’s the number one sport played in the world. You look at the MLS now, it’s one of the top seven or eight leagues in the world. I think the MLS could come to Calgary, but it needs a starting point.”

The PDL features 65 teams within four conferences across North America. The season consists of 14 regular season matches for each team, seven home and seven away.

Wheeldon sees this as a great league to showcase soccer talent from Calgary.

“Predominately, it’s homegrown,” he said of his roster. “We’ve got a strong mission that we want to develop Canadian players and we want to change the landscape of Canadian soccer. We want to do that within Calgary. It’s a hotbed of talent and there are some great players coming out of here.”

Sunday’s kickoff is 1:30 p.m. at Hellard Field in Shouldice Athletic Park.

For ticket information, click here.