Marcello Polisi (born January 24, 1997) is a Canadian

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 currently plays for

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 ...

side

Valour FC Valour Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home matches at IG Field. The team is coached by Phillip Dos Santos and community owned thro ...

Early life

Born in

Burnaby, British Columbia Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard Inl ...

, Polisi grew up in nearby

Coquitlam Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with a population of 148,625 in 2021, and one of the 21 municipa ...

. He began playing soccer at age four with

Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC Coquitlam Metro-Ford Soccer Club (''CMFSC''), formerly known as ''FC Xtreme'' and ''Tri-Cities Xtreme'', are a Canadian men's and women's soccer club soccer team, founded in the city of Coquitlam, British Columbia in 2003. The team is a member o ...

, from 2001 to 2011. In 2008 and 2009, he had training stints with the youth teams of Belgian club

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

. In 2011, he joined the

Vancouver Whitecaps Academy Whitecaps FC Academy is a Canadian soccer team, the academy of professional team Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as ...

, after having previously been part of the Whitecaps Prospects program, which he captained the U11 and U12 levels and appeared with the U11 squad in Europe against European club academy teams. He also played on the British Columbia provincial team, serving as U13 captain and as a member of their U14 team and also trained in the

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (Canada Soccer) is the governing body of soccer in Canada. It is a national organization that oversees the Canadian men's and women's national teams for international play, as well as the respective junior sides ( ...

’s National Training Centre program at U13 level. While with the Whitecaps Academy, he often served as captain at the various age levels. In 2015, he helped his high school win the AAA provincial championship.

University career

In August 2016, he committed to attend

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

, where he would play for the men's soccer team. In his second game of his first season, he suffered an ankle injury against

Seattle Pacific Falcons The Seattle Pacific Falcons (also SPU Falcons) are the 12 varsity athletic teams that represent Seattle Pacific University, located in Seattle, Washington, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Falcons compete as members of the Great No ...

, which ended his season. He scored his first goal on August 31, 2017, against the University of Mary Marauders. In 2017, he was named

Great Northwest Athletic Conference The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. It has historically operated in the northwestern United States, but al ...

Player of the Year and a GNAC First-Team All-Star. He was also named an NCAA D2 All-American in 2017. In 2019, he was named to a GNAC First Team All-Star for the third consecutive year and was named to the All-West Region Second Team. His 2020 season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Over his time with Simon Fraser, he scored six goals and added seven assists in 51 appearances. He declared for the

2021 MLS SuperDraft The 2021 MLS SuperDraft was the 22nd edition of the SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The SuperDraft is held every January prior to the start of the MLS season. The 2020 SuperDraft was the first held exclusively via conference call and ...

, but was ultimately not selected.

Club career

In 2017, Polisi joined

USL PDL USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

club

TSS FC Rovers TSS FC Rovers are a Canadian association football, soccer team based in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada that play in League1 British Columbia. Established for the 2017 PDL season by general manager Will Cromack and head coach Colin Elmes, the ...

, and played for the club through the 2019 season. In 2017, he made 5 appearances, followed by 14 appearances in 2018, and 3 appearances in 2019. In June 2021, Polisi turned professional, joining

side

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

on a one-year contract, with an option for a further year. He made his debut for the Wanderers on July 3 against

Cavalry FC Cavalry Football Club, is a Canadian professional soccer club based in the Calgary metropolitan region of Alberta. The club competes at the top of the Canadian soccer league system in the Canadian Premier League, and plays their home matches at ...

. In January 2022, the Wanderers announced they had exercised Polisi's contract option for the 2022 season. After the conclusion of the 2022 season, HFX announced Polisi would be departing the club. In January 2023, Polisi signed with

International career

In June 2009, Polisi was captain and Most Valuable Player with the Western Canada team at the Danone Nations Cup. He was then selected to represent Canada at the 2010

Danone Nations Cup The Danone Nations Cup is a football tournament for children between the ages of 10 and 12 (U12s category); it is organized every year since 2000 on the initiative of Groupe Danone.Matteo Polisi Matteo Mario Polisi (born April 15, 1998) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays for TSS FC Rovers in League1 British Columbia. Early life Polisi began playing soccer at age four with Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC, where he played from 2 ...

, who is also a professional soccer player.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polisi, Marcello Living people 1997 births Canadian men's soccer players Canadian Premier League players Canada men's youth international soccer players Men's association football midfielders HFX Wanderers FC players Simon Fraser Red Leafs men's soccer players Soccer people from British Columbia Sportspeople from Coquitlam TSS FC Rovers players Valour FC players