This is the kind of scenario that usually only exists in hypothetical form. Find a discussion about football in any pub, and it won’t be long before the subject of what it would be like if the best player, or manager, in one league moved to another, and whether his success would be translated, appears.
Last season, fans of the Canadian Premier League were able to see that this typically theoretical situation is actually playing out on the field. On November 30, 2022, the Halifax Wanderers announced 2022 Ontario League 1 Coach of the Year, Patrice Gheisar, as their new manager. Less than a month later, Halifax confirmed they had also signed striker Massimo Ferrin, who played under Gheisar with Vaughan Azzurri in Ligue 1, and was the reigning league MVP and Golden Boot winner . Together, the two men also won the Ontario League 1 title in 2022.
In Halifax, they were accompanied by Vaughan assistant coach Jorden Feliciano, as well as players Kosi Nwafornso and Riley Ferrazzo. With these decisions came the nickname “Halifax Vaughanderers” and the clear question of whether they could topple a Halifax team that had missed the playoffs by 17 points in 2023. During the 2023 CPL season, Gheisar and Ferrin, in particular, provided a categorical response. The Wanderers finished third in the table, only behind second-place Forge in the fourth tiebreaker, Gheisar was nominated for the league’s Coach of the Year award and Ferrin finished tenth in voting for the player of the year.
Halifax also announced Thursday – the one-year anniversary of Gheisar’s hiring – that they were extending Gheisar’s contract through the 2025 season.
Experiencing early success, Gheisar and Ferrin have made the case to Canadian Premier League teams, especially given the number of clubs expected to grow in the coming years, that there are talented players and coaches within of League 1 Ontario who are ready to take over. The next step. This is a continuing example of the formation of a Canadian football journey that will benefit the sport in this country for years to come.
“Hopefully my progress will show that there are a lot more players and coaches in this country that are just ready and eager to have an opportunity,” Gheisar told CanPL.ca, later adding: “We need more players, we need more players. more officials, we need more coaches in this country, so I hope this will lead to further progress.
Admittedly, things didn’t exactly get off to the best start for Gheisar in Halifax from a results standpoint. When Wanderers went winless in their first nine matches of the year in all competitions, many wondered if things had really changed on the East Coast. Learning to deal with those losses, while maintaining confidence in what he and the group were building, was one of the hardest lessons for Gheisar during the first months of the season, as doubts naturally began to set in. .
“It sounds a little cheesy, (but) you shouldn’t let the losses kill you,” he said. “I think that in Ligue 1, I haven’t lost for two and a half years. Also with Seneca College we went undefeated, we had one loss in two years. But it’s a very competitive league, you’re going to lose and play and you have to say ‘It’s okay, you lost, learn and move on’.
Halifax has progressed, as after their first win of the season on June 10, 2-0 against Valor, they have lost only six of their last 19 matches. The Wanderers finished with a club record 42 points, the same amount as eventual CPL final winner and league heavyweight Forge FC – earning the club their first ever playoff match at home at the Wanderers Grounds.
A few of the players who joined Gheisar from Vaughan helped lead this charge to the top of the rankings: Ferrin and Ferrazzo. Seeing these players show they could progress to the CPL level and still be reliable was extremely rewarding for the Halifax head coach.
“Honestly, it was amazing,” Gheisar said. “I don’t want to say I’m surprised at how they ended up progressing, obviously I wouldn’t have ended up signing them if I felt differently. But seeing it come to life was something different. was special because I know they deserved to be there. God knows how many times I recommended them to different teams in North America, so to see that happen, one, I was proud and two, it makes you also good to know that you are evaluating not only based on emotional attachment, but also on your talented eye.
Before last season, Ferrin was in talks with several CPL clubs when he received a call from Gheisar to discuss his future. Gheisar patiently listened as Ferrin pondered his opinions, before telling him the big news: he would be Halifax’s head coach for the upcoming season. From there, Ferrin made a pretty easy decision. What came next was trying to prove that the 23 goals he scored in 15 Ontario League 1 games in 2022 would translate to the next level.
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Like the team, it took Ferrin a little time to adjust to the CPL, scoring just one goal in the first eleven matches of the season. But he ended the year on a tear, as one of the most dynamic and dangerous forwards in the CPL, finishing with a team-leading eight goals and adding three assists.
Ferrin’s adaptation to the league will certainly give hope to many other players in Ontario League 1, or the many other provincial leagues under the League 1 umbrella, who now have a clear path forward and feasible in their development.
“I think in any semi-professional league in the world, it’s difficult to go from a semi-professional league to a professional league in another country,” Ferrin said. “There’s just this obvious lack, I guess you could say, of confidence that the league is at the level it needs to be to respect what a player has done in this league. So I think that The gap that the CPL has filled by giving Canadian players a real opportunity to make a jump has also allowed Ligue 1 to thrive, as players know there is an advantage to playing in a league like that where, if you do well, there is an opportunity to move on to the next stage.
That same motivation to get to the next level also exists for coaches, and Ferrin has witnessed all the tireless work Gheisar has put in to be the best at what he does, whether the team wins or loses. The fact that Gheisar was able to turn around one of the league’s most disappointing teams in 2022 demonstrates almost immediately how much of this work is paying off.
“On the contrary, he was faced with it this year with the simple fact of having such a new team; it’s not easy, no matter who you are as a coach, to come in and have to deal with 16-17 new guys and a preseason that only gives you a few months to try to completely rebrand this what you’re doing,” he said.
It was also special for Ferrin to be able to continue working with assistant coach Feliciano, who he said has incredible knowledge of the sport that is now gaining more exposure at the professional level.
“It’s great to show that the course is not just for players, but that there are also coaches in this country who have been part of football for a long time, understand the game very well and deserve to have the opportunity to coach at the professional level,” Ferrin said.
While the first year was a huge success for Ferrin and Gheisar, attention now turns to raising the bar even higher in 2024. After what they did in their first season in the CPL, however , few people will doubt their ability to continue to progress.
“I couldn’t have expected anything better,” Gheisar said of his first season in the league. “I was proud of my own work and just like I said about Mass Ferrin, it made me believe that Mass Ferrin – when he came to life and Riley did too – it gave me a extra reassurance that they are who they are and I’m glad they delivered. But even for me, I believed in myself, but seeing it come to life gave me and all these new owners who are looking for trainers confidence that there are a lot of good trainers in Canada.
Highlights courtesy of OneSoccer
