Valour FC phenom off to Chile

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This article was published 21/02/2020 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VALOUR FC’s roster is going to look a whole lot different in 2020.

The latest big name from last year’s team to move on is 18-year-old forward Tyler Attardo. Valour announced Thursday the Winnipeg product has been transferred to Chilean club Fernández Vial S.A.D.P. (Segunda División) for an undisclosed fee.

Attardo is the youngest Canadian Premier League player to transfer to another league.

It’s a remarkable feat for Attardo, who was scoring goals for his hometown’s pro soccer squad before he even graduated from River East Collegiate. He ended up being one of the Winnipeg-based team’s biggest surprises, scoring six goals in 22 games.

Attardo came out of nowhere, when he attended a CPL open trial at IG Field over a year ago. The tryout saw over 200 players hoping to land a CPL deal. Attardo was the only player to make it.

“Of course, you kind of wonder how serious it is. Are they really picking players from this? But the way I saw it was if I go in there and I do good enough, and everybody there watching sees me do good enough, can they really not take me? So, I went in there and thought if I worked hard enough, showed enough and did as much as I could, maybe they’d see me and want to give me an opportunity and that’s how it worked out,” Attardo told the Free Press.

Attardo made the most of his opportunity with Valour and once the season was over, he had several teams show interest. He believes Fernández Vial, a team that’s been around for more than 100 years, is an ideal fit.

“I think they want to help me go further as a player,” he said. “Coming from Valour and coming from Chile are two different things. This Chilean team, they’ve established themselves as a club already. I think it makes for a big improvement.”

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.

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