Newest Valour FC players connected to Winnipeg

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2019 (2734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Valour FC’s Calum Ferguson and Federico Peña have several things in common.

Both were brought into training camp with nothing guaranteed, both impressed head coach and GM Rob Gale enough over the past few weeks to officially earn a spot on the team and both have ties to Winnipeg, despite neither one being born here.

Ferguson, a 24-year-old forward from Scotland, and Peña, a 20-year-old midfielder who was born in Trinidad but moved to Winnipeg with his family when he was 10, made the most of their training-camp invitations as the club announced Wednesday the pair had been signed to multi-year contracts.

Ferguson spent this past season with Elgin City (Scottish League Two), where he made 10 appearances. He’s also made several appearances for Canada at the under-18 and U20 levels, even though this past month was his first time in the country. Ferguson is eligible to play for Scotland and Canada because his mom was born and raised in Toronto. He also just recently learned he has a connection to Winnipeg, as his mom’s grandparents were born in the city and were married here. Ferguson said even though he had to work for a contract, the chance to play in a new league in a different country and learn about his family history was too good to pass up.

“For me, having played in Scotland, it’s not going anywhere. The league is always going to be there,” Ferguson said prior the team’s training session at Investors Group Field on Thursday.

“And for me, I’m young and was obviously keeping an eye on what was happening in Canada. Obviously, I knew Galey from my time with the youth national team, as well. Keeping an eye on the Canadian Premier League and exciting new opportunity, new league, new teams. It’s a chance to be part of history and do something totally different. In your career, when you look back at it, you want to say you’ve done different things, you’ve achieved different things.”

Continuing his entertaining trend of using pop-culture references to describe his players — Gale referred to midfielder Diego Gutiérrez as the “Roadrunner” earlier in the week — the coach compared Ferguson to Mel Gibson’s portrayal of famous Scottish patriot William Wallace in the 1995 film Braveheart.

“You always know what you’re going to get with Calum, classic Braveheart. I won’t do the full-on freedom yell right now, but he wears his heart on his sleeve and he’ll be a fan favourite because you know he’ll always give 100 per cent no matter what,” Gale said.

Peña spent the past two years in Belgium, including this past season with Royal Standard de Liège of the Belgian First Division. The Glenlawn Collegiate alum is ecstatic to be playing professionally at home.

“Honestly, it’s a great feeling having that opportunity to play in front of your family and your friends,” Peña said. “I was raised here, I went to school here, so I built a lot of connections. It’s an amazing opportunity and I’m thankful Rob considered me as an option. I’m excited to pour my heart out for this city.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

The CPL has a rule where teams must have a minimum of three domestic players aged 21 or under on the roster and they must play at least a thousand minutes collectively during the season. It’s a rule intended to develop the young Canadian talent and provide them with opportunities. Gale said he followed Peña’s progress in Belgium and he’s excited to have another under-21 talent on the roster. Valour FC has four Canadian players that meet the under-21 age requirement, as Peña joins midfielders Glenn Muenkat (20) and Nicolás Galvis (21) and defender Raphael Garcia (19) on the team.

“We’ve now got four competing for the minutes that we need to give them, which is excellent,” Gale said on the Peña signing. “It puts more pressure on the other three youngsters. And he’s a Manitoba product.”

Valour FC will fly to the Dominican Republic on Saturday for a weeklong trip to train and play two exhibition games. The team opens the season May 1 in Victoria against Pacific FC.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.