Canada U-20 Roster Drops For Concacaf U-20 Championship

While the fairytale journey of the senior team in Copa America is coming to an end on Saturday, there is still plenty of action to come for the U-20 side as they gear up for the Concacaf U-20 Championship later this month.

On Thursday, Andrew Olivieri released his 21-man roster for the competition, and it’s filled with MLS and CPL prospects.

“We’re heading into this tournament fully aware of the challenge it has been for Canada at this age group over the last couple of decades,” said Andrew Olivieri, Canada’s U-20 Head Coach and Men’s National Youth Director. “But there is a belief that the talent in this group will allow us to approach the moment with measured confidence. There has been some positive work being done within the organization to build greater opportunities for our youth system to move forward. This group is completely determined to achieve success and qualify for the World Cup.”

The majority of the names continue to be sourced from the MLS academies, as five of the players come from the Toronto FC program, including goalkeeper Nathaniel Abraham, defenders Theo Rigopoulous, Adam Pearlman, and Richard Chukwu, and midfielder Andrei Dumitru. Three players for the Whitecaps program get the nod, with Jeevan Badwal continuing to be an important feature for Canada at the youth level after his rise at the club level. CF Montreal, Colorado Rapids, and Portland Timbers each have on representative on the roster in Alessandro Biello, Kimani Stewart-Baynes, and Mataeo Bunbury, respectively.

Canadian Premier League fans will be familiar with a number of names in the roster as the CPL begins to spread its wings in the youth national landscape. Vancouver FC’s James Cameron gets his third call-up since his debut with the U-20 side back in February. Former Whitecap and current Pacific fullback Christian Greco-Taylor is involved after making appearances in all of the qualifying matches for the tournament in 2024. Forge FC midfielder Khadim Kane gets his second call-up to the U-20 program, while former Sheffield United academy prospect and current HFX Wanderers Exceptional Young Talent Tavio Ciccarelli gets the call after his heroics in the qualifiers, including a hat-trick against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Only four players on this list come from programs outside the country and MLS: Goalkeeper Gregoire Swiderski gets called up after playing in France for Girondins de Bordeaux B. Swiderski was previously a training player for the senior team when Jesse Marsch first came in over six weeks ago. Scottish-Canadian dual national Ethan Schilte-Brown comes in after featuring in Scotland for Kilmarnock FC B. Ethan Schilte-Brown was one of two players on the list that played for the Wanderers last season on development contracts, alongside Stewart-Baynes.

Toronto-native Oumar Diallo gets the nod after completing his move earlier this month to LASK Linz in Austria from Inter Milan’s academy, where he spent almost two years at. Lastly, Mexican-Canadian dual national Santiago Lopez gets called up after a season with Pumas UNAM where he made his professional debut in late January. Lopez also scored three goals in three games in this tournament’s qualifying tournament.

Canada will face Honduras in their opening match on July 20, before facing last edition’s runners-up Dominican Republic on July 23rd. They finish up the group-stage against El Salvador on July 26. This competition will be crucial for the program as it also serves as a qualifier for the 2025 U-20 World Cup in Chile. Semi-finalists will get the berth to that prestigious tournament, so Andrew Olivieri will certainly set that as the minimum target for his side.