Valour FC up to eight on roster with two more signings

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This article was published 10/01/2019 (2800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Valour FC manager and head coach Rob Gale continues to prepare for his Winnipeg soccer club’s inaugural season in the Canadian Premier League with the addition of midfielder Raphael Ohin and defender Raphael Garcia.

Both the 5-6 Ohin, who played three seasons with WSA Winnipeg of the Professional Development League, and the 5-11 Garcia, a member of the MLS’s Montreal Impact Academy since 2012, signed multi-year deals Thursday.

Ohin, a 23-year-old native of Ghana, was thrilled to sign with a team in his adopted hometown.

“What more can I ask for? Playing in front of my family, friends, beautiful stadium, wonderful people of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and I have a great coach like Robbie Gale, very passionate — he’s an awesome person,” said Ohin. “On the field and off the field, (he’s a) great personality and I’m ready to work with him to get to the next level.”

Gale thinks highly of Ohin.

“His football quality, if you’ve ever seen him play with the WSA and credit to those guys… who have supported him on his journey here,” said Gale at Thursday’s news conference to announce the signing of Ohin. “He’s a very good footballer. He sits in the middle of the park, scored a couple of absolute screamers in the last couple of years for WSA that made highlight reels.

“Above all, I like him as a person. He’s a great fit for us. He’s going to be a top, top character and I think in this environment, with great players around him, we have full trust in him to develop his game and push on to higher levels.”

Before settling in Canada, Ohin played for teams in Ghana (2008-10), Switzerland (2010-11), Thailand (2012) and Sweden (2013).

Ohin was asked to appraise his style.

“Honestly, I’ve trained under lots of coaches and every coach that I train under sees something different in me but if you ask me, I would say my intelligence, more technical, I can adapt to any system,” he said.

Garcia, a 19-year-old Ottawa native, debuted with the Canadian youth program in 2013 and will join Valour FC for pre-season training in March.

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“That’s a big pickup for us… Young Raph I’ve known back from his youth days with the national team,” said Gale. “He’s a slighter build but he’s got all the modern attributes for a young player as a fullback. He’s pacey, direct, there were a lot of clubs in for him actually.”

Valour FC now has eight players under contract for the 2019 season, including Garcia, Ohin, midfielders Glenn Muenkat and Dylan Sacramento, forward Stephen Hoyle, goaltender Tyson Farago, and defenders Jordan Murrell and Skylar Thomas.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Soccer Association announced Thursday that new CPL clubs, including Valour FC, will be involved in this year’s Canadian championship as part of a 24-match domestic competition. Valour FC has been awarded a bye into the second round of competition, which also includes Canada’s MLS squads.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14