Forge FC’s 2021 roster continued to take shape on Friday, with the club announcing that three more players from the 2020 squad will be back for the upcoming Canadian Premier League season.

Canadians Maxim Tissot, Monti Mohsen, and Baj Maan will all be returning for the reigning CPL Champions, remaining in Hamilton for at least this year.

Tissot, a 28-year-old fullback from Gatineau, Que., was one of Forge’s biggest signings before the 2020 campaign. The former Montreal Impact and Ottawa Fury player joined the club last July, and he went on to play 11 times for Forge (including appearances in every match of The Island Games). Tissot’s lone goal for Forge came in the 2020 CPL Final, sealing his side’s championship over HFX Wanderers FC in September. Having lined up at left-back and at defensive midfield, Tissot was a very valuable utility man for Forge in 2020.

Prior to signing in the CPL, he played at all levels of North American soccer, including 45 times in MLS. He was also part of the Montreal side that went to the Concacaf Champions League finals in 2015 (seeing action in both legs of the semifinals and final), and in 2017 he won the NASL Soccer Bowl championship with the San Francisco Deltas, alongside Forge skipper Kyle Bekker.

Tissot has 13 senior caps for the Canadian men’s team, having made his debut in 2015 against Iceland. He has represented his country twice in FIFA World Cup qualifying and once at the Concacaf Gold Cup, his most recent appearance coming in 2017.

RELATED READING: Forge sizing up TFC ahead of CanChamp final: ‘We’ve been the underdog many times’

Mohsen will be returning to Forge for his third year, having joined the club as a teenager in 2019. The Ottawa native has played 13 times for Forge, scoring once in a 2019 game against Pacific FC. The 20-year-old played previously under Bobby Smyrniotis at Sigma FC, although he began his career with the Ottawa Fury, for whom he appeared once in 2018. Mohsen filled a number of positions for Forge at The Island Games, slotting in as needed at left-back and left wing.

Maan, meanwhile, was another newcomer to the club as a professional in 2020, although he had trained with the side on a CPL developmental contract in 2019. The 20-year-old goalkeeper from Brampton, Ont., made his CPL debut for Forge in their final first-round match of The Island Games against Valour FC, helping secure a 2-2 draw.

The six-foot-three goalkeeper spent several years in the Sigma academy and represented the side in League1 Ontario, and he also played NCAA Division I soccer for Northern Kentucky University in 2019, recording three clean sheets.

With these three, Forge now has 11 players confirmed for their 2021 roster, with much of the previous championship-winning core returning, including captain Kyle Bekker and Goalkeeper of the Year Triston Henry. They’ll also be joined in training camp by CPL-U SPORTS Draft picks Garven-Michée Metusala and José da Cunha.