Latest Valour FC recruit eager to make impact

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This article was published 11/04/2019 (2657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not many players can say they’ve played for their hometown’s Major League Soccer club, but Louis Béland-Goyette can.

Unfortunately for the 23-year-old midfielder from Pointe-Claire, Que., his time with the Montreal Impact didn’t go the way he had hoped.

Béland-Goyette, who officially signed a one-year deal with Valour FC on Tuesday after spending a couple weeks at the team’s training camp, didn’t have much luck in his final year in the MLS.

He entered 2018 with expectations of having a bigger role, as he was coming off a year where had made six appearances for the Impact. But he didn’t get much of a chance to build off of that, as he fought injuries all year. A day after returning from a fractured foot, Béland-Goyette tore a quad in a training session. He only made four appearances for the Impact in 2018 and wasn’t able to show the team’s new coach, Rémi Garde, what he was capable of. Montreal released Béland-Goyette at the end of the season.

“It was my worst year of my career. That was really hard,” Béland-Goyette told the Free Press in a phone interview from the Dominican Republic, where Valour FC and the other six Canadian Premier League teams are training and playing exhibition games before the inaugural season kicks off.

“It was really hard mentally, because you feel like you’re in a hole and you’ll never get out. Especially when you get back-to-back injuries. You think, ‘When is it going to end? Am I ever going to play again?’ Even if it’s not a career-ending injury, you still wonder if you’re going to play again. That was really hard mentally. It was hard for me because I couldn’t prove myself. I didn’t have a chance to play. I had my two injuries and that was it. It was over.”

Béland-Goyette shares a similar story to his former Impact teammate whom he has reunited with on Valour FC — Michael Petrasso. The Toronto-born midfielder, who made 14 appearances for the Impact this past season, also had his MLS career cut short due to injury and needed to find an opportunity elsewhere to prove himself again. Both players were also familiar with Valour FC head coach and general manager Rob Gale. They played for him for the Canadian national team at the under-20 level. Gale said the two former MLS players are leaders in their own ways, but when they speak to the team, “it carries a lot of weight and you need those players in the dressing room.”

“They played in the MLS, and they’re every bit an MLS-level player and a potential national team player,” Gale said. “(Béland-Goyette’s) been a great pickup for us. He’s a terrific lad. He focuses on his football. He’s not overly brash. He doesn’t particularly say much off the field, but he puts his head down and does the job of a proper professional. We’re delighted to have him at Valour Football Club.”

Béland-Goyette said it’s a coincidence that he and Petrasso wound up in Winnipeg together, but they’re thrilled to be teammates again. However, it’s no coincidence that he’ll be back playing for Gale again, as Béland-Goyette said his familiarity with the manager played a big role in his signing.

“It was very difficult at first. It was my first time being a free agent and all that. I had a lot of discussions with my agent. The most important thing for me was to play, but to play with a good team, in a good system with a coach, obviously, I respect and trusts me that I know how to play,” said Béland-Goyette, who made 11 appearances for the Impact and picked up an assist in a 2-0 win versus Real Salt Lake in 2017. “Winnipeg was a really good option, and I’m really happy it worked out because I think it will be great for me and it will be great for the club. It was an easy choice.”

Béland-Goyette is only signed to a one-year deal with Valour FC, but he said he’s not focused on using this season as a step to get back to playing in the MLS.

“I could think of playing a lot of minutes, getting the games back and getting my flow of playing games and all that. Yeah, it’s a one-year deal. But for me, the most important is to win the cup,” Béland-Goyette said.

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“To win the first part of the season and then to win the second part of the season.

“That’s my only goal here. That’s what I came for. And, honestly, I can’t think of going back to MLS or to Europe or wherever if I don’t do that. For me, what’s important is to win every game and to win the season.”

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.