Young Canadian footballer shines in professional debut in Europe
TORONTO, Nov. 30, 2020 /CNW/ - Ontarian soccer talent Fadi Salback became the first player from Canada to sign a professional contract in soccer-crazed Ukraine. Salback made an immediate splash as the fall season began in October, scoring five goals in his first six games for FC Podillya Khmelnytskyi in the European professional league.
Now, when he walks through Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, the town's residents recognize the young soccer striker as a celebrity. "When they find out you are from Canada, people look at you a little strange," Fadi Salback said in a phone interview last week with a smile, knowing he's playing a part in changing the reputation of Canada as more than just a hockey and basketball nation.
Salback pursued his soccer passion by playing at various Ontario junior teams before he was scouted by Toronto's Vorkuta FC (football club) in 2019. "It was always my dream to go to Europe and play professionally. My success is thanks to Vorkuta FC's coaches and its team," Salback remarked.
The club is the vision of Igor Demitchev, a Toronto-based lawyer who grew up in Vorkuta, a city in Russia's Arctic circle that is known for its association with the Gulag, a network of Soviet forced labour camps under Joseph Stalin. So Demitchev decided to feature barbed wire on the team's jerseys to pay tribute to the victims who suffered in the Gulag in his hometown.
"We are beyond thrilled with the fact that our player, whom we trained in Ontario, was picked by a European club. It is a perfect example of how Vorkuta FC helps to develop soccer in Canada. We hope that soon Canadian soccer players will become as famous as its hockey stars," said Vorkuta FC's president Igor Demitchev about the success of Fadi Salback, currently the only Canadian player in the entire Ukrainian Football League.
SOURCE Vorkuta FC (Toronto)
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