This past Thursday, the Canadian Premier League held its fifth edition of the CPL-U SPORTS draft, which brought back plenty of memories for Canadian international defender Joel Waterman.
The 26-year-old has come a long way since being selected in the league’s inaugural draft in 2018, where he was picked 14th overall by Cavalry FC out of Trinity Western University. He has since moved on to CF Montréal in Major League Soccer, was recently part of the Canadian men’s national team at the 2022 Qatar World Cup and now is being linked with a move to Europe.
The week of the draft, CanPL.ca’s Kristian Jack caught up with Waterman for a special edition of the Beyond the Pitch series. Their wide-ranging discussion includes talking about his career trajectory, Europe, making a World Cup squad and the story behind how he almost didn’t get drafted in the CPL.
“To be honest, I don’t think a lot of people know this but I actually wasn’t even going to declare for the draft,” said Waterman. “At that time I heard rumours of the Canadian Premier League but I wasn’t sure how many teams, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go down, I was like ‘this is too new’.”
Instead, Waterman set his sights on potentially trying to go to Europe, or the United States. But two days before the deadline he decided he would take a chance on the newly founded league.
“I remember getting a call from Tommy Wheeldon Jr. on my buddy’s couch or something like that, saying ‘you’ve made it, we’ve chosen you 14th overall’,” said Waterman with a chuckle. “That for me was the start of my professional journey, they gave me an opportunity.”
He encourages players taken in this year’s draft to just embrace that opportunity, and make the most of the chance they now have to get their foot in the door of the professional game.
“I think these opportunities don’t come around, you look at me I’ve had to take every opportunity that has come my way, and it might only come around once so make sure you are ready for it, if you are serious about it, and serious about becoming a professional, it is definitely a solidified way now to get to the world stage. Hopefully my journey, and guys can look at that journey and say ‘this works, he did it’.”
The full interview is available in video form above, or in audio form below:
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