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There’s taking the road less travelling and then there’s taking the road virtually no one travels.

London-raised Alexander Irwin has opted to take the latter.

Irwin, who turns 18 in a week, has spent the summers playing for FC London U21 with the occasional call-up to the men’s team.

As a 16-year-old, Irwin was a member of Canada Soccer’s national development program. He then opted to improve his game by heading to the west coast to immerse himself with the Pacific Soccer Institute. Now that the two-year program is done, Irwin has opted to forgo playing in Canada and has signed with SB Chiemgau Traunstein, a team on the Germany-Austria border that was just relegated to the Landesliga, the sixth division of German football.

He leaves in July to take part in the team’s 10-month season.

The immediate reaction is to wonder why Irwin would choose to travel so far to play at a sixth division level.

But one of his former coaches, Martin Painter, who has coached at many levels and is now the head of soccer at Western University, says what’s most important is getting a chance to play.