In February I met with Alphonso Davies in Liverpool. Despite just having been selected for his first ever UEFA Champions League match, I asked him if, with FC Edmonton being one of the inaugural Canadian Premier League clubs, he expected other Edmonton-based players to follow in his footsteps and eventually play for a top club like Bayern Munich.



“We’ll see,” said Davies, with a smile.



The question might have sounded strange to Davies, who isn’t far off from becoming the best male soccer player this country has ever produced. Nevertheless, he is now at a level Canadian players can aspire to, and many in Canadian soccer are on the hunt for the next Alphonso Davies. If he can progress to the top of world soccer and provide optimism in the men’s national team, surely there must be other players like him waiting in the weeds?



That’s the hope of the Canadian Premier League.



The emergence of Davies, and other Canadian...