Coquitlam midfielder Matteo Polisi has turned pro with Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League.
Pa-Mondou Kah, head coach of the Victoria-based team, said Polisi, 22, is “highly motivated to make it as a professional. He’s technically good and has a nose for the goal.”
Indeed, Polisi scored 36 goals and 18 assists in 52 games at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. He was also selected to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference first all-star team three times and he was a two-time NCAA Division II All-American. In 2018 he was named the Div. II west region player of the year.
“Matteo has been a big part of our success the last years and has been an outstanding teammate and someone who lived and breathed what our program is about,” said SFU head coach Clint Schneider in a press release. “We are excited to watch his journey unfold in the CPL.”
Polisi, along with his older brother, Marcello, was eligible for Major League Soccer’s SuperDraft of graduating U.S. college players and free agents in January, but neither was selected.
Both brothers played minor soccer for Coquitlam Metro-Ford. Matteo then graduated to the Whitecaps FC and Portland Timbers residency programs while Marcello led the Dr. Charles Best Blue Devils to the AAA provincial soccer championship in 2015. They were reunited at SFU in 2017.
The CPL, with eight teams from Victoria to Halifax, is targeting to begin playing its 2021 season on May 22, as local public health regulations permit because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“To that end, we will remain flexible but also adaptable in our planning,” said CPL commissioner David Clanachan in an open letter to supporters in January.
The league was able to play a truncated schedule last season with all matches played in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
