{"id":22404,"date":"2018-12-08T16:18:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T21:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22404"},"modified":"2018-12-08T16:18:56","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T21:18:56","slug":"york9-fc-ink-adjei-with-cpls-first-international-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/york9-fc-ink-adjei-with-cpls-first-international-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"York9 FC ink Adjei with CPL\u2019s first international signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

A historic first for the Canadian Premier League has one striker returning to a familiar place.
\nYork9 FC announced on Sunday the signing of Simon Adjei, the first international player to be signed by a CPL club after a few handfuls of Canadians inked contracts in the opening week of filling the rosters for the league\u2019s inaugural season.
\nYet \u201cinternational\u201d is hardly the moniker to be given to Adjei, who worked with York9 FC Manager Jim Brennan with the League1 Ontario\u2019s Aurora FC in the 2016 season.
\n\u201cWe wanted a player that has an eye for goal and is clinical in the 18-yard box,\u201d said Brennan in a team statement. \u201cWe look for strong strikers that can link up play and push themselves to get in the box. Simon fits that mould and we\u2019re excited to have him.\u201d
\nCalling the 25-year old \u201cprolific\u201d, Adjei scored 19 goals in 19 games for Brennan\u2019s semi-pro squad in 2016, leading his team in scoring by a whopping sixteen goals.
\nA loan to Aurora from his home club of Husqvarna that season, Adjei then returned to his home country of Sweden in 2017, joining Assyriska IK while averaging 1.2 goals per game.
\nIt was while in a pre-season camp with his Swedish side in 2016 that Adjei first grew fond of the GTA.
\n\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t understand it,\u201d said Adjei. \u201cThey are texting me and calling me, but I already created my name in Sweden. People already know me.\u201d
\nYet the Swedish import said it is not just the geographical location that piques his interest, but the intrigue of the new league, where memberships are already skyrocketing for the York Region club.
\n\u201cI got asked a question recently: \u2018Are you here for some other reason, the city, whatever?\u2019\u201d said Adjei.
\n\u201cIf I just wanted to experience a city, I\u2019d pick a new city. I\u2019m just here for the football because I believe in it. I\u2019m going to work hard all the time.
\n\u201cThis new league is more than a really cool experience. I believe if I work hard and get my team together with me, like a family, we can go far. If we go far in the CPL I believe I can go far individually.\u201d
\nTeams from across the world, such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Albania and Cambodia, all had interest in signing Adjei for the 2019 season.
\n\u201cI believe in Jimmy and I\u2019ve heard so much about this league. For me, this is serious. I believe it will be a good league. If I come in now and play well I believe I can go far.\u201d
\nBrennan added Adjei has \u201cgreat touch, good pace\u201d for a big-body presence.
\n\u201cIn and around the box he\u2019s lethal. He needs half-a-yard and he\u2019s putting something on target. He\u2019s good in the air. He\u2019s willing to mix it up with defenders. He can also drop into pockets and link up play. He\u2019s at a great age and we\u2019re excited to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A historic first for the Canadian Premier League has one striker returning to a familiar place.
\nYork9 FC announced on Sunday the signing of Simon Adjei, the first international player to be signed by a CPL club after a few handfuls of Canadians inked contracts in the opening week of filling the rosters for the league\u2019s inaugural season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-12-06-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Pm","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 03:35:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}