Santiago Slams Yesli Nomination: ‘I’ve Seen Better Hands On A Snake’

When Rayane Yesli was nominated for the golden glove this year, former Cavalry goalkeeper coach Jordan Santiago chose violence.

Not only did the former CPL coach go out to strongly criticize Yesli’s nomination, he went and clipped together an entire compilation of Yesli errors to accompany his assertation that the goalkeeper was ‘bottom three in the league’, even going on to say he’d seen better hands on a snake.

Despite Santiago’s evident disdain for the six-foot-seven shotstopper, Yesli led his golden glove competitors in terms of saves with an incredible 81, second only behind Vancouver’s Callum Irving. He earned three team of the week honours while finishing with a save percentage of 70% following a season which saw the Valour defensive line face plenty of shots.

The 24-year-old goalkeeper joined Valour FC in 2022, one year after being selected by Rob Gale in the CPL-U SPORTS Draft. After training with French Ligue 2 side AJ Ajaccio in the offseason, he jumped into a starting role following the departure of Jonathan Sirois and finished the campaign as an award nominee – much to the evident chagrin of at least one former CPL coach.

Jordan Santiago had been Cavalry’s first-ever goalkeeper coach, helping Marco Carducci collect two Golden Glove awards and even once even riding the bench for Cavalry as an emergency selection himself. He left the club this summer, with Jake Davis coming in to replace him.

The 2023 CPL Awards show will take place on Thursday, October 26, so we’ll find out in less than a week if Yesli will win the award. If he does, it’s probably worth taking a look at Jordan Santiago’s Twitter account.