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Impact hope dropping reserve team, deal with Ottawa, will add homegrown talent

Dec 9, 2016 | 4:00 PM

MONTREAL — The Montreal Impact squad that reached the MLS Eastern Conference final should look much the same next season — a veteran unit with only two North American players in the starting 11.

And the club will add to the international flavour when Swiss international midfielder Blerim Dzemaili joins from Bologna FC in the summer.

That makes the club’s decision announced this week to drop its reserve team FC Montreal and have some prospects assigned to the Ottawa Fury of the USL all the more curious, although club president Joey Saputo said the team’s long-term goal is to have more home grown talent on the squad.

The starting 11 that brought the team to its first conference final since joining MLS in 2012 is made up of Europeans, Africans and Latin Americans except for American goalkeeper Evan Bush and 37-year-old midfielder Patrice Bernier of Brossard, Que.

Nine of them are signed for next season and the team is in discussions to ink new deals with Bernier and forward Dominic Oduro. Bush, defenders Laurent Ciman, Victor Cabrera, Hassoun Camara and Ambroise Oyongo, midfielders Marco Donadel, Hernan Bernardello and Ignacio Piatti and forward Matteo Mancosu will all return.

That doesn’t leave much room for young prospects to get playing time.  

“We’re always stuck between what the fans want to see and what the organization needs to do,” said Saputo. “As an organization, it’s important for us to develop players and it’s important for the young players to come up and have the opportunity to break into the team.

“I’d love to see the club one day be made of more home grown players.”

The club hopes player development will be more efficient but no less productive without the reserve team. They will sign only the best prospects from the academy and put them on a stronger Ottawa team to continue their development. The young players may also be sent for high-level training stints at Bologna FC, where Saputo is also president and part-owner.

“The objective is to have our young players become starters on the team and play significant minutes,” said technical director Adam Braz. “We’ll see if we can get there.

“First they have to be at the level to take their spot and keep it.”

Saputo said half the teams in MLS, including FC Dallas which is a model of home grown player development, do not have their own reserve squads.

“Our academy is still young,” he said. “In the next five years, we want to integrate players into our system.

“We want impact players in our academy who can play in the first 11. To do that, we need to enlarge our pool of young players. Our synergy with Bologna can play a key role.”

The Impact have already had some young players, including top midfield prospect Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla, spent time with the Italian Serie A squad. Mancosu joined the Impact in July on loan from Bologna and is in talks to make it permanent.

Saputo joked that: “I know the president of Bologna. He’s a great guy. He’s easy to talk to and, for some reason, we always come to some sort of an agreement.”

He gave a glowing assessment of the Impact’s 2016 season and of its first five seasons in MLS, which included three trips to the playoffs as well as a run to the CONCACAF Champions League final in 2015. The goal is to win an MLS Cup in the next five years.

Saputo also said the team has forged an identity as an international team, with a special emphasis on French-speaking players, with an all-local management team that includes technical director Adam Braz as well as head coach Mauro Biello and his assistants.

“We believe in the spine of our club and that it has to be comprised of established players who have international experience,” he said.

He said the team has also grown its international profile through the Champions League and by having top clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid hold summer workouts at its training centre.

The Impact signed three home-grown players this season, including Ballou, but another, Jeremy Gagnon-Lapare who is pursuing an opportunity in Europe, is among four players who will not be back along with striker Didier Drogba, midfield designated player Lucas Ontivero and Canadian midfielder Kyle Bekker.

Braz said Dzemaili’s arrival would leave little playing time for Bekker.

The Impact exercised contract options on Bush, fullback Donny Toia and midfielders Harry Shipp, Michael Salazar and Johan Venegas as well as home-grown players David Choiniere and Anthony Jackson-Hamel. They did not pick up the option for defender Amadou Dia, but he will be invited to camp.

Others already signed for next year include home-grown goalie Maxime Crepeau, midfielder Calum Mallace, defender Kyle Fisher and midfielder Andres Romero, who missed all of the 2016 season with an injury.

 

Bill Beacon, The Canadian Press