Rumour: Impact GK James Pantemis Will Be Loaned To Valour FC

TSN 690 radio host Tony Marinaro is reporting that Valour FC is poised to loan 22-year-old Montreal Impact goalkeeper James Pantemis.

With Valour FC conceding a league high 52 goals across its inaugural campaign, Gale is likely to make a series of defensive roster moves so that the club can keep more than six clean sheets throughout league action next season. Loaning an MLS-based youngster, it seems, would be a good start to that objective.

The six-foot-three goalkeeper is a graduate of the Montreal Impact Academy, and played a handful of games for their former USL affiliate FC Montreal back in 2016 before a knee injury saw his debut season meet an early end.

Following his recovery, Pantemis trained overseas with Serie A side Bologna and would go on to sign a first-team contract with the Montreal Impact in 2017 alongside Thomas Meilleur-Giguere. Unfortunately for Pantemis, a playing opportunity wouldn’t come to him until 2019.

It was actually the Canadian Premier League that allowed the young goalkeeper to make his competitive debut for Montreal: this year, he faced off against York9 FC in the Canadian Championship, and then played the full ninety in the club’s 2-1 win over Cavalry FC in the semi-finals.

If the loan move does come to fruition, it would allow Pantemis to get significant playing time in a professional environment for the first time in his career. It also means that a Thierry Henry-led Montreal Impact is happy with an Evan Bush and Clement Diop duo for its 2020 MLS season, barring any surprise signings.

For its part, Valour FC has yet to confirm which (if any) of its current goalkeepers are staying. The inaugural season saw Tyson Farago and Mathias Janssens split starting duties fairly evenly, with Farago making 16 league appearances to Janssens’ 12.

By the end of the season, the goalkeepers only collected two and four clean sheets respectively, with Valour FC conceding a league-high 52 goals in all. Farago missed a small chunk of the fall season though injury, with emergency goalkeeper Svyatik Artemenko riding the bench but never ultimately getting a chance to make his professional debut.

While the Montreal Impact previously had an affiliation with USL side Ottawa Fury that saw several Impact youngsters get development time in a professional environment, the closure of the Ottawa-based club now means that the MLS side must look elsewhere to give their youngsters first-team experiences.

Marinaro also reported that Louis Beland-Goyette would be not be returning to the Winnipeg-based side. The 24-year-old was a regular starter for Rob Gale, but missed the tail end of the season after picking up a knock in a birthday match against York9 FC in September.

Valour FC has been fairly quiet regarding its 2020 roster decisions so far, with the club’s only re-signed players so far being young defenders Yohan Le Bourhis and Raphael Garcia.

As of right now, the loan of James Pantemis to Valour FC is still just a rumour – but given that it’s coming from a source active within the Montreal sports scene, it’s certainly food for thought.

Source: Tony Marinaro (via Twitter)