Charlie Trafford (born 24 May 1992) is a Canadian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Cavalry FC.

Club career

Youth and College

Born in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Trafford spent time playing local youth soccer before joining the Whitecaps Residency. He later played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

with

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, and also spent time with Dutch club

De Graafschap VBV De Graafschap () is a professional football club from Doetinchem, Netherlands, playing in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football. It was formed on 1 February 1954 and they play their home games at the De Vijverberg stadium. ...

. In 2012, he played with

SC Toronto SC Toronto was a Canadian soccer team, founded in 1994. The team was a member of the Canadian Soccer League, and played its final home games at Lamport Stadium in the city of Toronto, Ontario. The club found success early on since its incep ...

of the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

Finland

Trafford began his senior professional career in Finland, playing with

IFK Mariehamn IFK Mariehamn is an Ålandic football club based in Mariehamn, the capital of the Åland Islands. It plays in the Finnish Premier Division (''Veikkausliiga''). The club is managed by Daniel Norrmén, and it plays its home matches at Wiklö ...

, TPS and

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura (or KuPS) is a Finnish football club, based in the ninth most populated city of Finland, Kuopio. KuPS plays in Finland's Premier League, Veikkausliiga. KuPS has won the Finnish championship six times, the Finnish Cup 4 times ...

. While with KuPS, Trafford won their 2014 Player of the Year and Goal of the Year awards.

Poland

Trafford signed with Ekstraklasa club

Korona Kielce Korona Kielce, , (Korona – ''Crown'' – symbol of club and city, Kielce – name of city where club is based) is a Polish football club, which will compete in Ekstraklasa in the 2022–23 Ekstraklasa, 2022–23 season. In the year ...

on 24 November 2015. He made his debut against Pogoń Szczecin on 15 February 2016. Trafford would struggle to receive playing time with Korona Kielce, and in March 2017 would transfer to

Polish First League I liga ( pl, Pierwsza liga, ), currently named Fortuna I liga due to its sponsorship by Fortuna, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga vi ...

side

Sandecja Nowy Sącz Sandecja Nowy Sącz is a Polish football club formed in 1910. In the 2016–17 season, Sandecja won I liga, which promoted the club to the Polish Ekstraklasa, Poland's highest professional football league, for the first time in the club's histor ...

Return to Finland

Trafford returned to Finland and signed with RoPS on 14 July 2017. He made his debut for them against FC Lahti on 16 July.

Scotland

After only a month with RoPS, Trafford transferred to Scottish side

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

on 18 August 2017. He made his debut the next day against

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

. Trafford would start regularly for the club during his first two months, but would lose his starting spot after injuring his thumb. Trafford would be in and out of the starting lineup during his first 2.5 years at Inverness, showing good form when getting a regular run of games. He left the club at the end of the 2019–20 season. He then signed for Hamilton Academical. On 19 May 2021 it was announced that he would leave Hamilton at the end of the season, following the expiry of his contract.

Wales

Trafford signed with

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

side

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

on 25 October 2021, signing a short team deal following a successful trial. In January 2022, it was announced that Trafford's contract had expired without making an appearance for the club.

Cavalry FC

On 17 February 2022, Trafford signed a two-year contract with his hometown club, Canadian Premier League side Cavalry FC, where he joined his cousin

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

. In January 2024, Trafford extended his contract with Cavalry through the 2025 season, with a club option for 2026.

International career

Trafford received his first call up to the Canada national team on 6 October 2015 as a replacement for Kyle Bekker, who withdrew from the squad due to injury. He earned his first cap seven days later on 13 October, starting in central midfield against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

Personal life

His cousin

Mason Trafford Mason Trafford (born August 21, 1986) is a retired Canadian soccer player who most recently played for Canadian Premier League club Cavalry FC. Besides Canada, Trafford has played in the United States, Finland, and China. Club career Youth and ...

is also a professional soccer player. Both have played for

and Cavalry FC.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trafford, Charlie 1992 births Living people Canadian men's soccer players Soccer players from Calgary Men's association football midfielders Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Wales Expatriate men's footballers in Wales Whitecaps FC Academy players De Graafschap players SC Toronto players IFK Mariehamn players Turun Palloseura footballers Kuopion Palloseura players Korona Kielce players Rovaniemen Palloseura players Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Calgary Foothills FC players Wrexham A.F.C. players Cavalry FC players Canadian Soccer League (1998–present) players Veikkausliiga players Ekstraklasa players Scottish Professional Football League players Canadian Premier League players Canada men's international soccer players