Prior to joining Forge FC last April, English defender Malik Owolabi-Belewu wasn’t enjoying his football as much as he had been previously.

Owolabi-Belewu was looking for a new club after spending a year with the under-19 team at Italian Serie B side SPAL, only making the first team bench for a pair of cup matches, but not playing in either one. He previously had several of the top clubs in Europe interested in acquiring his services after moving back to his hometown of London, England, and spent two years in the Toronto FC Academy, following a trial with the Vancouver Whitecaps Academy after impressing for a youth affiliate club in London, Ontario.

With a lot of bouncing around and a lack of first-team football, Owolabi-Belewu signed for the two-time CPL champions in search of a fresh start, and a chance to prove himself. Prove himself he did, making 23 appearances in all competitions — including every minute against MLS side Toronto FC in the rescheduled 2020 Canadian Championship final, scoring the winner in an October edition of the 905 Derby to clinch a spot in the playoffs, and closing out the CPL Final off the bench.

🔨 @ForgeFCHamilton take the lead in the 905 Derby! @MalikBelewu heads the ball home from close range after a well-worked corner routine 💪#CanPL | 📺 @onesoccerpic.twitter.com/Lh733BfGZ2

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 1, 2022

Playing regularly and being in an environment that let him thrive, Owolabi-Belewu started enjoying being on the pitch again.

“I’ve grown up playing for the majority of my life, but there’s times where as a player you may go to a certain club and may not enjoy it as much as you do,” he said to CanPL.ca. “Here at Forge, even as a player that came in last year not expecting to play every game or not signed as a marquee signing — being around the quality of players that we had here, whether it was in training or playing alongside them in games, it’s always been fun because the brand of football played at Forge and the identity of Forge allows it to be a fun game.”

Owolabi-Belewu added that it’s always fun when you’re winning, and Forge did a lot of that a season ago, finishing second in the regular season table and winning the North Star Shield.

On a personal level, he says that he grew a lot as a player. He played alongside some of the best players in the league, including 2022 CPL Defender of the Year Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson, MLS and Canadian men’s national team veteran Ashtone Morgan, and longtime CPLer Dominic Samuel, among others — trying to soak in as much as he could from all of them.

“I’ve learned so much, guys like them, even guys like Kyle Bekker as well, the captain,” he said. “I’ve learned so much from every single one of them, and I’ve learned different aspects of the professional game from them, so I’m extremely blessed to be in a position where I get to play with them and train with them every day.

“I feel like having those guys around me has been very beneficial to the development of my career.”

One of the biggest things he learned was the importance of consistency. To be a difference-maker and play week-in and week-out at a team like Forge FC, you need the ability to regularly perform at a high level, and perform better than other good players gunning for the same playing time that you want.

That was a valuable lesson, and one that will likely be heightened in 2023 with the arrival of Canadian international centre-back Manjrekar James to the Forge backline.

“I learned quite a lot from playing as a pro for the first year, consistency was the biggest thing, especially if you want to be at a club like Forge that wins and plays good football,” he said. “You have to be consistent not only with how you play, but mentally you have to be ready to face challenges, whether it’s playing against MLS teams, or just defending the title and keeping the dynasty going.”

“Then also learning how to enjoy playing football,” he repeated. “It’s kind of easy to get caught up and not enjoy it as much when you’re playing so much, but here I’ve managed to enjoy playing football for the whole year, whilst also playing good football — so those were some of the highlights of last season.”

With a number of CPL standouts moving on to bigger and better things over the past couple of years, and the Canadian MLS teams sometimes opting to use the league as a place to send players on loan and let them develop, Owolabi-Belewu knows that there could be greater opportunities out there for him if he can stretch consistently strong performances over another full season.

With Forge FC going for a fourth title in five seasons, however, that isn’t his main goal for 2023.

“The CPL has shown a history of moving guys on, and every player wants to go and play at the highest level possible,” he said. “That’s in the back of my mind, but personally, it’s not in the forefront, the first thing for me is to just play as many games as possible, do well in as many games as possible, help the club to achieve what we want to achieve.

“Then if things line up, and I get the opportunity, then obviously I would like to move up to the next step. The first thing that I have to do before any of that can come into play is perform and perform well.”

After a strong preseason, and the club retaining the majority of its 2022 title-winning roster, Owolabi-Belewu believes that Forge might be able to have an even better year in 2023. The club went to Costa Rica for their preseason training, and challenged themselves against some of the stronger clubs in Concacaf.

He says that the squad is all healthy, and has prepared how a team with championship ambitions should.

“Preseason has been going well. The boys have been healthy, we’ve been challenged, we’ve worked hard, and I feel like we prepared the right way both physically and tactically,” he said. “The trip to Costa Rica, it was nice to go and visit a bit further down south, it was my first time in that area, so that was a new experience. From the football side, we prepared ourselves for the season well and we had a good time doing it. We’re ready.

“I think everyone is going to have a much better year than they had last year, everyone’s improved and made tremendous strides in the offseason.”

After the club dealt with some injuries last season, including one to centre-back Daniel Krutzen that kept him out for most of the season, Owolabi-Belewu says that coming into the new season fully healthy is a blessing for the Hammers.

“That’s so important, especially for what we want to do as a club, we want to win and come first, so we’re gonna need all players, and that squad depth is going to be very important in the long run of the season. Our first three games come thick and fast, three games in seven days, so with things like that, having a full roster is very important and very helpful.”

The 2023 season begins in exciting fashion for Forge FC, against bitter rivals Cavalry FC in what is one of the league’s fiercest rivalries. There are always fireworks when these two teams square off, and part of an exciting triple-header on the first Saturday of the new campaign. Both teams relish the occasion, wanting to get one up on their opponents — especially on the first day of a new journey.

“It’s a big rivalry that has gone on since the beginning of the first season of the league, so we all know about it, we all know it’s going to be a big game, we all know that they’re gonna want to beat us and we obviously want to beat them,” said Owolabi-Belewu. “It’s pretty exciting to have a game that big at home, and that energetic, to be played as a first game of the season.

“It can set a great base for the season as well, especially if we if we win and get the job done — it should be a fun game to be involved in.”