Canada Again In The Headlines As Talent Secures European Soccer Move
For Canadian Soccer League fans, the new campaigns across the domestic levels of the sport are now mostly in full flow, and the includes the varying Major League Soccer involvement some fans have with their favoured franchise.
As the game in Canada continues to grow directly, we have long garnered interest from the European leagues when they spotted talents that they believed would flourish in their game, and whilst Alfonso Davies is probably the more modern standout given his own switch to German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich, he is far from alone and with the summer transfer window open, English Championship side West Bromwich Albion have become the latest to dip into the Canadian market with a reported £1.5 million deal now struck for CF Montreal’s versatile defender George Campbell.
The 24 year old would have been on some radars for a more high profile move given his growth and development in recent years, and although he is still to gain his international clearance, it is not believed that there will be any issues on that front. He has now agreed a four year deal with The Hawthorns outfit who will again be hoping to return to the Premier League but this time under the charge of new manager Ryan Mason. Many will know 34 year old Mason best from his spell with Tottenham Hotspur.
With 16 appearances for Montreal in the ongoing 2025 MLS season, he earned his maiden United States international cap following his call up back in January for their victory over Venezuela and he played all but two minutes of his debut game. Having impressed for Atlanta United as he came into the game through their youth set up, arriving at Montreal in December 2023 has seen him pick up pretty good game time and experience for his age, making 30 MLS appearances in total last season as well.
There will certainly be an adjustment period required as he settles into life in a new country, and with maybe an arguable more physical style of play, his pre season involvement as they gear up for August’s kick off will now be invaluable in seeing how he does in his maiden year with them, but he has still joined them a little bit late in the day here so for those Canadian fans who now follow his progress over in England, they may have to wait a little bit for his full debut to come and for him to start racking up the statistics.
Given Campbell certainly has the physical attributes with his frame and strength, he turn to improved man marking in recent seasons will stand him in good stead for the English second tier given their game is generally more based around physical centre forwards and lots of crosses into the penalty box, but he will certainly have to improve his in game consistency again now but at 24 years old, he is still on a development curve and time is more than on his side before he even gets close to being considered a finished product.
Mason will undoubtedly like the fact that he stepped up to take the captain’s armband last year when needed as well, as that is always a good sign of maturity.
For now though, he will need some time to settle but then it will be interesting to see how he progresses.