Forge FC made a major addition to their squad on Wednesday, as the reigning CPL champions announced that they’ve signed Canadian international fullback Maxim Tissot.

Tissot, 28, has been a mainstay in North American soccer since 2013, playing at various clubs in MLS, the USL, and NASL. A native of Gatineau, Quebec, Tissot began in the Montreal Impact’s youth system in 2009.

After graduating from the club’s academy, Tissot’s start as a professional came with the Impact, for whom he made 44 MLS appearances between 2013 and 2016. He also won a pair of Canadian Championships with Montreal, lifting the Voyageurs Cup in 2013 and 2014.

More recently, Tissot played a key role for the Ottawa Fury, appearing in 15 games in 2019 (after joining in 2018, and previously playing 19 games for the Fury in 2016). Tissot featured against the CPL’s HFX Wanderers FC in the 2019 Canadian Championship, scoring the third goal in Ottawa’s 3-2 first-leg victory in the quarter-finals.

Tissot played with Forge captain Kyle Bekker in 2017 for the San Francisco Deltas, where the pair helped the NASL club win the Soccer Bowl title in its first and only season of existence. He also had a brief stint with D.C. United in 2017.

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“I feel really good about joining Forge. They won the CPL championship in 2019 and kept a lot of their core guys from last year, so they’ll be making a run at it again this year, and I hope to be part of that and help them as best I can,” Tissot told CanPL.ca.

Having been out of a contract since the Ottawa Fury folded in late 2019, Tissot was frequently discussed as a possible option for a CPL side in 2020. But a move to Forge seemed most likely, as he’s been training with the club for the past several weeks.

At the international level, Tissot has earned 13 caps (seven starts) and tallied two assists for the Canadian senior team, and played at the 2015 Concacaf Gold Cup. His most recent call-up came in a March 22, 2017 international friendly against Scotland under then-interim head coach Michael Findlay, who now serves as the CPL’s Director of Football Development.

“Max is a superb individual who brings experience at the highest level in the game at both club and international environments. He has a personality which provides a positive effect on those around him and demands the highest standards from himself and his teammates on the training ground and within the match at all times,” Findlay told CanPL.ca.

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The addition of Tissot will inject some more competition into Forge’s backline, with the Canadian international joining a fullback corps that includes Kwame Awuah, Giuliano Frano, and Jonathan Grant (all of whom also lined up at various other positions in 2019).

“We are very happy to have Maxim join our club,” Forge coach Bobby Smyrniotis said in a media release. “He brings considerable experience at all levels of the game in North America, and a versatile playing style and smart mentality to the game which makes him a great fit for our squad.”

Tissot is just the third new player to join Forge FC’s 2020 squad, joining Canadian goalkeeper David Monsalve and young Belgian attacker Paolo Sabak. The club now has 20 players under contract for this year, with four of their international slots filled.