CALGARY—Two, maybe three.

That’s how many Calgary-born soccer players Leon Hapgood wants to put on Canada’s national men’s team when the country co-hosts the World Cup in 2026.

“I’m absolutely adamant we can do it,” he said.

The Foothills FC technical director is 10 years into his work with the Calgary soccer club. The city’s soccer scene has come a long way since his friend Tommy Wheeldon Jr. invited him to join the club as academy director in 2008.

“It was very different. We had coaches wearing jeans, we had no grassroots program, we were top-heavy in terms of a pyramid … we were still playing in school gyms, using fuzzy balls, so to speak,” Hapgood explained.

At the time, Foothills sported a tight player membership of just 300; now it has 3,500 spread across all age groups, up to U23.

“We were quite behind as a country, in terms of world football,” Hapgood said. “But I agreed to the job and said to him ‘I’ll give it a year and see how it goes.’”

Keeper Marco Carducci joined Foothills for similar reasons. At 21 years old, the Calgarian is in his first season with the Premier Development League (PDL) team.

He was born and raised in Calgary but chose to move to Vancouver to pursue professional soccer full-time, where he ended up signing a pro contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps first team. The goalkeeper has also landed stints on team Canada’s U17, U20 and U23 squads.

The recent move back to his hometown was an enticing one, he said.

“In terms of the soccer, the plan that was laid out, the professionalism of the club, you see it right now — we’re taken care of almost like a pro team,” he said. “The opportunity to play a lot of games, and of course the CPL (Canadian Premier League) on the horizon and the chance to be close to that and be involved next season.”

The CPL is a tier 1 professional soccer league with five confirmed teams across the country in Halifax, Winnipeg, Toronto and Edmonton. Calgary’s squad, Cavalry FC, will start its inaugural season in 2019.

Carducci said the chance to be involved with Cavalry, should he make the squad, is enticing. “To be able to come back home, to be a part of something that’s growing and to be with family and friends was a plus.”

Hapgood also touts the new CPL team — along with Foothills — as emergent “pathways” for young soccer players in the city.

Prior to his and Wheeldon’s arrival at Foothills, Hapgood said 16- and 17-year-old soccer players had nowhere to go in Calgary to transition to senior, professional-level teams like the MLS’s Whitecaps.

Foothills and Cavalry fill that university-time period of a player’s life, to give her or him a chance to be recognized and called up by pro-level clubs.

Wheeldon’s been tapped for the new head coach and general manager role with Cavalry FC. He immigrated to Calgary 16 years ago from England to join the Calgary Storm — a now-defunct club — in the United Soccer League.

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Eventually he made his way to Foothills FC, where he took on the technical director role in 2008. Hapgood will fill Wheeldon’s spot once he transitions to Cavalry full time in September.

“(Calgary) has had quite a few professional teams – Boomers, Kickers – so now being able to bring the Cavalry in the Canadian Premier League, I think the city’s ready for it,” Wheeldon said.

But in terms of the city’s hockey history — Fleury, McDonald, Gilmour, the 1989 Stanley Cup, the Red Mile, the 2004 Stanley Cup loss — where does soccer fit?

Is Calgary a soccer city, despite its hockey-town roots?

“Yes. I think it wasn’t, it’s definitely come out of the closet now,” he said. “It’s got more opportunities, more players. World Cup watch parties are a testament to that.

“We’re getting good fans out to our PDL (Foothills) games, so absolutely it is … the accessibility to the game has helped grow it.”

Foothills FC — which was founded in 1972 — boasts alumni such as Owen Hargreaves and Kevin McKenna from the 1980s. They both played in the German Bundesliga. Current Whitecaps regular Sam Adekugbe graduated from the Foothills program in 1995.

Looking ahead to 2026, Hapgood said he didn’t want to give away names of which Calgary youth players he thinks have a shot at Canada’s national team, in part because players change over the course of their development.

But he confirmed, “we’ve got two to three boys that we idolize in the U15, U14, U13 youth programs. We’ll be watching them.”

One of those national team members could be Carducci. The chance to represent his home country on home soil is motivation enough, he said.

“That’s eight years down the line, so I’ll be 29 or so, which suits a goalkeeper,” he said with a smile.

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