HAMILTON — Goal scorers reap a lot of attention, and on Saturday a pair of players shared in the glory of finding the back of the net in the inaugural Canadian Premier League match.
Ryan Telfer and Kadell Thomas each struck for their respective teams as Forge FC drew visiting York 9 FC 1-1 to kick-off the maiden campaign of the CPL. Telfer and Thomas will forever be linked through their exploits in Saturday's match, but the players took very different routes to write their names in the history books.
Telfer is the better known of the two, so it's fitting that he was the first one to score. On loan to York 9 from Major League Soccer's Toronto FC, Telfer was one of the bigger names to take the field in Hamilton, and it took him just three minutes to become the CPL's first-ever goal scorer.
For all you trivia buffs: @York9FC’s Ryan Telfer has scored the first goal in @CPLsoccer history. 🇨🇦⚽️pic.twitter.com/1fCoHnYgaU
— Sporting News Canada (@sportingnewsca) April 27, 2019
Thomas' path to the CPL was much different, with the 22-year-old suiting up for his first fully professional match on Saturday. Where both Telfer and Thomas were beneficiaries of a bit of luck in the lead-up to their respective strikes, Thomas would never be considered among the top choices to tally for his team.
And yet, he did just that, securing a draw for the hometown team and giving the 17,611 in attendance something to cheer about.
Forge FC's Kadell Thomas scores the equalizer against York9 ⚽️
— CanPL (@CPLsoccer) April 27, 2019
We've got a game. 1-1 at the 78-minute mark | #CanPL @OneSoccer | https://t.co/xrDBlJCgGX pic.twitter.com/YtKwzVgXpj
"I think the great story that comes out of that [is] he's one of those players that we don't know about without the Canadian Premier League," Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said of Thomas. "He's one of those players that I think will surprise a lot of people this year in a positive way."
The CPL's stated goal is to help keep Canadian players from falling through the cracks by providing opportunities at home where there never used to be prior to the league's inception. For Telfer, it's a chance to keep playing at a good level while still under contract at TFC, while Thomas has earned his first opportunity to shine in a pro environment.
And for each, the memory of Saturday's match was well worth the journey that it took to get there.
"It's a special feeling. Just to be known as the first goal scorer in this new league is something special to me and honestly it didn't hit until after the game when I realized that this one is going in the history books," Telfer said after the match. "Picking up your phone and seeing messages from your family saying how proud they are of you and just seeing all the comments from fans, it honestly hits inside and there's no better feeling."
With seven teams and 140 playing jobs filled mostly by Canadians, the CPL will continue to provide opportunity for familiar pros like Telfer and unknowns like Thomas. That both scored in the inaugural game demonstrates the value the league has to players from across the country, especially to those who never had a chance to shine until this year.
"If there's a pro league [in Canada] he's playing two years ago, he's playing three years ago," Smyrniotis said of Thomas. "I think there will many Kadell Thomases [and] other players on Forge, but most importantly all across the league."