Canada's newest professional soccer team emulates Athletic Bilbao with unique transfer strategy

Tom Weber

• 11 Feb 2026 11:00 CST
• 5 min read

News

The Canadian Premier League's newest member, FC Supra du Quebec, is looking to emulate Athletic Bilbao's unique transfer strategy of only signing players with ties to the local region.

With the World Cup partially taking place in Canada, 2026 was supposed to be a big year of expansion for the Canadian Premier League. However, things have not turned out as expected.

The original plan was to have 14-16 teams by this point, but the league has been stuck at eight since its inaugural season in 2019. In 2023, when Vancouver FC joined, FC Edmonton folded.

This year, FC Supra du Quebec will take the place of Valour FC, which suspended operations in November. The new team from Montreal's Laval suburb wants to do things differently in a bid to generate interest in an area that already boasts a Major League Soccer franchise.

To foster a connection with the local community, the CPL's first Quebecois side have taken a leaf out of the book of LaLiga giants Athletic Club: Supra plan to exclusively sign players with ties to Quebec.

Supra's unique transfer strategy

Athletic Club famously only sign players with Basque roots. Despite the limited player pool, the Bilbao side are one of just three LaLiga teams - along with Barcelona and Real Madrid - to have never been relegated in almost 100 years of the league's existence.

The Basque region is a hotbed of football and has produced numerous superstars, as well as brilliant managers. Current Premier League coaches Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery and Andoni Iraola all hail from the tiny Basque province of Gizpukoa, as does former Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui and ex-Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso.

Supra co-founder Rocco Placentino believes that Quebec can have a similarly transformative effect on Canadian soccer. "I look at countries like Belgium and Iceland," he explained to the BBC. "If they're able to build players and sell them worldwide to become phenom footballers, why can't we do it in Quebec?"

Canada's largest province by area has an estimated population of around 9 million, which is roughly the same as Austria, Belarus and Switzerland in Europe. Despite this size, MLS side CF Montreal was the state's only professional soccer team - until now.

"A lot of players would fall through the cracks here and miss out on opportunities to shine and to be exposed at a higher level," Placentino said. "All we need to do is take these ballers, put them in an environment that is very professional but also keeping that DNA of being street ballers."

To play for Supra, all you need is to have close ties to Quebec. "What makes us so proud exactly at this club is that here is more proof of why this province is so spectacular," the owner added.

"We are a complete mix of French, Italian, British, Moroccan, Persian and Asian. It doesn't matter what ethnicity. We've formed together around Supra first, and that's our melting pot of what Quebec is."

Placentino grew up watching the original FC Supra de Montreal in the short-lived Canadian Soccer League, which only operated for six seasons after the collapse of the North American Soccer League.

"I remember going to games with my father and watching players that were mainly local players playing for Supra Montreal," he said. "I loved the colours. I loved the blue, white, and red.

"And I said, 'You know what? I want to relive that experience as now a founder of this club and bring back that local pride and that Quebec feeling'. We wanted to relive it and modernise it the best way we could."

Among the players to have joined the newly-formed side is Alessandro Biello, the son of former Supra and Montreal Impact player Mauro. The Canadian national team assistant was Montreal's long-time captain and played alongside Placentino.

The signing of Biello "checked every box," according to the 43-year-old. "The work ethic, bleeding for the colours, bleeding for the city, playing in front of his family and friends, having that drive to do well with the Supra, so that maybe one day he could be sold to a team in Europe."

Despite the proximity, Placentino is not looking to rival CF Montreal. On the contrary, speaking to Dose last year, he insisted that there needs to be a close collaboration between the clubs "for the good of the sport in Quebec."

Placentino claims that he has had to reject applications from more than 150 players because they did not have any connection to Quebec. Supra currently have 16 players on their roster.

Perhaps the most notable name at Supra is David Choiniere, a Montreal academy graduate, serial CPL winner with Forge FC and the brother of LAFC star Mathieu.

The new CPL season is slated to kick off on 4 April. Atletico Ottawa, a sister club of Atletico Madrid, are the reigning champions after beating Cavalry FC in a blizzard-hit championship game in November.

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