Winnipeggers reunited on Vancouver FC

It was the week of the Canadian Premier League’s U Sports Draft and Joseph Green was imagining how cool it would be if he and fellow Winnipegger Nico Nadeau ended up on the same club.

There’s no need to imagine now.

Vancouver FC made it a reality Nov. 28 when they selected Green third overall before choosing Nadeau at the start of Round 2 with the No. 10 pick.

“I kid you not, I think I was more excited when he got drafted than when I got drafted,” said Green, an 18-year-old defender who plays at Mount Royal University.

“I jumped up, I was so happy. To have a guy that I grew up with be on the same team as me, I was like ‘Wow.’”

The duo played together for A.K. Soccer Academy in Grade 9 and again last year at the senior men’s level for the FC Winnipeg Lions of the Manitoba Major Soccer League.

“There’s not many soccer players coming out of Winnipeg,” said Nadeau, an 18-year-old midfielder at the University of British Columbia.

“There’s a few, but very few, you can count them on one hand. So, it’s pretty cool that me and Jo have both done it.”

The sad reality is it’ll become that much harder for the next generation now that Valour FC is no more. They both spent time training with Winnipeg’s old CPL club, and Nadeau made history this summer by becoming the first player to sign a developmental contract with Valour.

“I’m very sad. I was hoping one day to play for my hometown team. It’s already so hard for a Winnipegger to come out of Winnipeg and play soccer because the level in youth and the programs aren’t amazing,” said Nadeau.

“Training with Valour is really what got me that much better… Now, literally the Lions, like men’s, is now the highest level you can go in Manitoba which is crazy… It’s not great right now. I feel bad for the guys that are three or four years younger than me and Jo.”

Green shared a similar sentiment.

“I feel like when we got the opportunity to train with Valour, it really benefited the both of us,” said Green.

“Not to have that for the next generation, like what are they gonna do? If you’re training with the same level of people that you play with all your life, or even if you go into the men’s league, it’s not the same. So, when you leave the province to play, you might not be used to it because it’s usually a faster level, more physical, more demanding. So, I don’t know what we’re gonna do with the up-and-coming generation.”

Green’s love for the game came from his father who was a goalkeeper growing up in Jamaica. Green starting kicking a ball around when he was two years old, and when he was a student at Garden City Collegiate, he’d often wake up at 5 a.m. to travel across the city to the Winnipeg Soccer Federation South Complex to train from 6:30-8:30 a.m.

His strong work ethic took him to Mount Royal, where he started every game as a freshman and helped the Cougars reach last month’s national championship game — a 1-0 loss to the York Lions on a pitch blanketed in snow in Toronto — for the first time in program history.

“It was one of the craziest games I’ve ever played in my life. It was cold, snowy, and really hard to kick the ball,” said Green.

“I remember mid-game I had a crazy memory of me playing back in elementary (at James Nisbet Community School) in the wintertime. And I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really playing a real national title game right now and it feels like elementary.’ Even though it didn’t go how we wanted it to go, after we got our medals and stuff, I was super proud of the team for how far we got. I felt so grateful.”

Nadeau, a Glenlawn Collegiate product, left the youth ranks early to start playing senior men’s when he was 15. He also had offers on the table to play volleyball at the post-secondary level. He went the soccer route, and UBC is glad he did as he contributed two goals and three assists in his first season.

“In the summer, I was training with Valour and then on the weekends, when the team would travel, I would go play a beach volleyball tournament. I love it,” said Nadeau.

“I think it’s good for people to play more than one sport and not just focus on one because everything helps, like moving your body in different ways and stuff. You may not think it helps, but it does.”

The Winnipeggers will attend Vancouver’s preseason training with a chance to compete for a roster spot for the 2026 campaign which kicks off in April. Players signed to a CPL-U Sports contract keep their university eligibility while earning pro experience.

“All the stuff that I did when no one was watching is finally paying off and it feels great,” said Green.

“My goal is to get that contract.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca