As a club, the Halifax Wanderers have a goal.

By 2030 they want to have six players from Atlantic Canada who are regularly in their first-team squad.

But in order to make that happen, they know that the region’s players need more opportunities to play against elite-level players. With no League1 structure currently in place, finding local opponents for their Development Team can prove tricky.

So, instead, they decided to bring world-class competition to them. That was a significant reason behind the creation of the Halifax Wanderers International Summer Series, a multi-week exhibition series played during July across the Atlantic provinces.

The Wanderers debuted the series last year, taking on German side Holstein Kiel. But this year, they expanded it further, with more locations and opponents, including the U-21 sides of Premier League club Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough, as well as a team of New Brunswick’s top players.

“The reality is that in the short term, while we continue to identify and work with more players that are in this region that we’re hoping can make the step [to the first team], we need to create these environments in which they can compete,” said Halifax Wanderers’ Sporting Director Matt Fegan. “And compete they did.”

In five matches played between July 14 and 27, the Wanderers Development Team defeated Ipswich Town 2-1 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and did so again on penalty kicks days later. They also beat NB Selects 2-0, before 3-0 and 2-1 losses to a strong Middlesbrough team.

Providing high-quality competition for the region’s top players was just a small part of what made the 2024 Halifax Wanderers International Summer Series such a success. Over the past few weeks, the series provided an opportunity for all four Atlantic provinces to be exposed to high-quality soccer, and created important connections for both the club and its players, giving them an experience they will never forget.

The Summer Series drew tremendous crowds wherever it went, including over 4,500 at King George V Park in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the site of the Canadian men’s national team’s qualification for the 1986 World Cup. They also played at Cape Breton University, in Moncton, NB, the Wanderers Grounds and UPEI Turf Field in Charlottetown, PEI — where the 2020 CPL Island Games were played and the Wanderers’ lone CPL Final appearance.

“We do see ourselves as more than just Halifax, but Atlantic Canada,” said Fegan. “So the opportunity to not just have a phone call and you know, quick meetings with these provincial soccer associations and local clubs, genuinely actually go and take the game there and show these markets that if you back this, you know, maybe there’s opportunities for expansion, for even the Canadian Premier League. Or in the short term just for us to build relationships up.”

With that in mind, the squad, led by coach Jed Davies, featured players from all four Atlantic provinces, including Newfoundland’s Owen Sheppard who was taken first overall by Valour in the 2024 CPL – U SPORTS Draft. It was also an opportunity for several young first-team players to get important minutes, such as goalkeeper Aiden Rushenas, Kareem Sow, Jefferson Alphonse and Camilo Vasconcelos.

The series also brought elite football across the provinces, giving local youth players and fans an opportunity to see high-level football played in their backyard.

“Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, don’t kind of get to see high-quality football like we played,” said Development Team goalkeeper Daniel Clarke. “So it was cool to be part of introducing that aspect towards their communities, and the amount of little kids that are aspiring to be footballers when they’re older, it’s just amazing to be able to inspire the like up and coming youth.”

For Clarke, who was drafted fifth overall by the Wanderers this year out of Cape Breton, a particular highlight was getting to captain the Wanderers U-21 team against Ipswich Town at the field of his University side. Having won a national championship with the Cape Breton Capers on that very pitch back in November, Clarke helped the Wanderers to a dramatic 10-9 penalty shootout victory on the day.

“I ended up taking a penalty as well, which was a first for me. I ended up scoring, and then ended up saving one,” said Clarke. “And the place kind of erupted after that.”

Having those fan experiences was another special aspect of this summer series. The Wanderers drew well wherever they went, giving these young players a taste of what it is like to play in front of crowds at the professional level.

“Some of the players had never played in front of more than 100 people, so to have 4,500 and win games and deal with travel and learn what it takes…they’re always going to feel that they’ve become a better player for it,” said Fegan.

The true mark of a successful development program, he says, isn’t just about how many players they can get into the first team. It is also how many players they can help become the best they can be, whether that is with the Wanderers or elsewhere.

In recent years, players like Colorado Rapids’ attacker Kimani Stewart-Baynes, defender Ethan Schilte-Brown, who is now with Kilmarnock, or Remi Agunbiade who is headed to Akron University, have all been with the team on development contracts. These players get to experience professional environments at a much younger age than they normally would and will reap the benefits of that for years to come.

“The Canadian U-20 team started the other night with three of the starting 11 having been in our Wanderers environment in the last 18 months,” said Fegan. “Like, I think that’s a testament to the different ways that if you create these environments beyond just the first team, you can help these players reach their highest potential.”

Playing in matches like this, and against top opponents only increases the belief of those on the Wanderers’ Development Team that they can compete at the highest level.

“They’re playing against some players, like, there were players for Middlesbrough who were on first-team contracts,” said Fegan.

“You can only tell them so much that, if you went up against a player of that level, I believe that you can hold your own, but you show them, and you put that opportunity in front of them, and they rise to the level.”

That was certainly the case for Yorgos Gavas, a 17-year-old from Halifax who has been with the Wanderers for the past two seasons on a development contract. He remembers being nervous before the Middlesbrough game at the Wanderers Grounds, knowing the calibre of opposition he was about to face. But once the game started, the team quickly proved they could hold their own.

“The guy on my wing, he was on like a 750k contract, which was the crazy thing and I felt like I did a really good job defending him,” said Gavas.

For Gavas, the past few years have been incredibly special, getting to be one of the first local boys to have the honour of pulling on the Halifax Wanderers shirt.

“Honestly, it’s been an absolute honour to play for my hometown,” he said. “I think that not every kid gets to experience that and that’s why I’m grateful for it.”

Getting to train and compete in a first-team environment has been essential for Gavas’s growth, he says.

“I think they’ve helped me develop and give me that environment of older players, and stronger players, and faster players, you know technically smart players like Lorenzo [Callegari], who has played in the PSG academy, who are very smart,” he said.

Gavas recently committed to Drexel University, where he will play Division 1 NCAA football, with the hopes of following Stewart-Baynes in the MLS draft.

Other players who suited up for the Wanderers might now have opportunities to go abroad after performing well in this series. Be that preseason training or trials, Fegan says several caught the eyes of both Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough representatives.

The club’s partnership with REBIRTH Soccer helped to make these relationships and connections with Ipswich and Middlesbrough possible. REBIRTH is a program which allows talented UK-based players who have been released by top academy programs an opportunity to continue in the game with Canadian universities.

Seeing Canada as a great landing spot for many such players, the Wanderers also see an opportunity to potentially bring a few of these players into their first-team environment as well over the years — whether that be on loan or as signings.

In the coming years, the hope is that the International Summer Series will only continue to grow. Fegan says he would love to see more teams involved, both in Canada and abroad, potentially with a co-host included as a series like this requires significant investment to bring teams over from Europe.

“I’d like to see some expansion to maybe make it a series that’s a cup every year that has some nostalgia to it,” he says.

But at the end of the day, this year’s International Summer Series was an example of why, as the game continues to grow in this country, investment in local football is worth it and the gains made from putting on an event like this will be felt in the region for years to come.

“They’re a huge investment,” said Fegan of the Summer Series, “but the spin-offs from them are massive as we continue to establish ourselves as a club.”