Guelph United Football Club is a Canadian semi-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 ...

club based in

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

that plays in League1 Ontario. The women's team is known as Guelph Union and competes in the

League1 Ontario women's division League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional women's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league in the Canadian soccer league system. Th ...

. Both teams play at the

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

's Alumni Stadium.

History

Men

Guelph United F.C. was founded in 2020 by Keith Mason, Benny Mezezi, and Ami Mezezi, in partnership with the

Gryphons The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back ...

, the Guelph Soccer Club, and the City of Guelph with the goal of bringing semi-professional soccer to the community. Guelph Gryphons head and assistant coaches Keith Mason and

Justin Springer Justin Springer (born 8 July 1993) is a former professional footballer and current coach, who serves as head coach of League1 Ontario club Guelph United FC. Born in Canada, he represented the Saint Kitts and Nevis national team. University ca ...

were announced as the team's associate coaches. The team is expected to be primarily composed of

players, supplemented by local players. The club joined League1 Ontario for the 2021 season and will also field a team in the reserve division. Ahead of their debut, they made headlines signing former Canadian Premier League player

Jace Kotsopoulos Jace Dayton Kotsopoulos (born December 1, 1997) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays for Burlington SC in League1 Ontario. Early life Kotsopoulos first played youth soccer with Oakville SC and Dixie SC. He joined Burlington SC at ...

as the team's first ever player. They made their debut on July 30, 2021 defeating FC London by a score of 6-0. In their first season, they came in first place in the West Division, advancing to the playoffs, with their team featuring three of the top four regular season goal scoring leaders. In the playoffs, they won the League1 Ontario title, after defeating

Blue Devils FC Blue Devils Football Club (formerly known as Oakville Blue Devils FC) is a semi-professional soccer club based in Oakville, Ontario. The senior men's and women's teams currently compete in League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. History ...

3-1 in the finals, qualifying them for the

2022 Canadian Championship The 2022 Canadian Championship was the fifteenth edition of Canada's national soccer cup tournament, awarding the Voyageurs Cup. It took place from May 10 to July 26, 2022. The winners of the tournament, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, were awarded th ...

. They were defeated in the first round of the Canadian Championship by professional club

HFX Wanderers FC HFX Wanderers Football Club, commonly known as HFX Wanderers, and spoken as Halifax Wanderers, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League at the top of t ...

of the Canadian Premier League 2-0.

Women

Guelph Union was founded by the Guelph Soccer Club to join the

for the 2021 season. The women's team exists as a separate entity from the men's team. Prior to this the Guelph Soccer Club had fielded four teams in the Ontario Women's Soccer League. They made their debut in the 2021 Summer Championship season on July 22, 2021, defeating

Darby FC Darby FC is a Canadian semi-professional association football, soccer club based in Whitby, Ontario and Clarington, Ontario. The club was founded in 2015 to compete in League1 Ontario. The club was formed as a partnership between two local area ...

1-0. The club partnered with the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington as their charitable partner, donating fifty percent of the revenue from their ticket sales to the organization. In their debut season, they participated in the short-season Summer Championship division, finishing with a perfect 6-0 record to win the division. In 2022, they began playing in the main division (after opting to play in the short-season division in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), winning their debut match 1-0 over

. They finished their inaugural season in the main division in 13th place.

Players and staff

Current roster

as of April 21, 2022

Coaching staff

as of March 30, 2021

Seasons

Guelph United

Guelph Union

Notable former players

The following players have either played at the professional or international level, either before or after playing for the League1 Ontario team:

Men

Women

External links

Guelph United F.C. (men) websiteGuelph Union (women) website

References

{{Ontario Sports Association football clubs established in 2020 Soccer clubs in Ontario League1 Ontario teams Sport in Guelph 2020 establishments in Ontario