Forge FC set the standards in Canadian Premier League

In one of the most important periods in Canada’s football history, with the CONCACAF nation ending their 36-year wait for World Cup qualification in Qatar and co-hosting duties to come in 2026, the Canadian Premier League (CPL) represents a major step forward by providing the country with a professional league

- Danny Lewis

Having faced down challenges such as COVID and the dissolution of FC Edmonton, the CPL has evolved and developed since its inception in 2019. Amid all of this, one thing has always remained the same as the league enters its fifth campaign: Forge FC’s status as standard setters.

The format of the competition is an eight-team league, with the top four advancing to play-offs to compete for the North Star Shield trophy. Of the four seasons that have been played to date, Forge have been champions in three, and lost in the final of the other.

Head coach and technical director Bobby Smyrniotis has been at the heart of the club’s progress. Taking inspiration from the likes of Ajax, the co-founder and former head coach of Sigma FC – a development academy that boasts Canadian internationals Tajon Buchanan, Cyle Larin and Ritchie Laryea among its alumni – was keen to give Forge a strong structure from the start by bringing in players he knew from Sigma.

“It was a natural progression,” he tells World Soccer. “To have some players who were playing at Sigma at a semiprofessional level the year before, but also players who have graduated through the academy and were playing in MLS. To bring them back and build the backbone of the club off of these players with a shared idea, a shared vision, I think that allowed us to springboard forward quicker.”