The 2023 CPL–U Sports Draft was the fifth annual

CPL–U Sports Draft The CPL–U Sports Draft (french: Repêchage de la PLC–U Sports) is an annual event in which Canadian Premier League clubs select players from U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. The draft allows student-athletes to play pro ...

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's Association football, soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary nationa ...

(CPL) teams selected 16 eligible

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

soccer players to be invited to their respective preseason camps with the opportunity to earn developmental contracts for the

2023 Canadian Premier League season The 2023 Canadian Premier League season is the fifth season of the Canadian Premier League, the top level of Canadian soccer. The 2023 CPL playoff champion and 2023 CPL regular season winner will both earn berths in the newly expanded 2024 CONC ...

Format

Players could be selected if they had one to four years of U Sports eligibility remaining, were in good academic standing, were planning to return to school the following year, and completed the CPL's draft declaration form by December 9, 2022. On December 12, the CPL released the list of 199 athletes who declared for the draft. Players who were selected can sign a full professional contract or a developmental contract, which allows them to return to university for the following season, without losing their eligibility. Teams were able to retain the rights to previously drafted players who had signed developmental contracts. Players who had their rights retained and did not enter the draft were: Kareem Sow (HFX Wanderers FC), Jacob Carlos (Valour FC), Markus Kaiser (Cavalry FC), and Luca Ricci (Pacific FC). Each CPL team made two selections in the draft with selections made in the reverse order of the previous season's standings, including playoffs and final standings. Expansion club

Vancouver FC Vancouver Football Club, commonly known as Vancouver FC, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club in Langley, British Columbia (district municipality), Langley, British Columbia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier Le ...

made the first and second picks of the draft but did not make a selection in the second round.

Format

Player selection

Round 1

Round 2

Selection statistics

Draftees by nationality

Draftees by university

References

Further reading