CF Montréal Academy (, formerly Montreal Impact Academy) is a

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

academy based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. They are the academy of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club

CF Montréal Club de Foot Montréal () is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Montreal. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. Founded in 1992 as the Mo ...

. Founded in 2010, they operated a team in the Canadian Soccer League from 2010 to 2012. Their U-23 team played in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States, forming part of the United States soccer league system. The league will featu ...

in 2014.

History

The club was founded in 2010 by the original Montreal Impact after Trois-Rivières Attak decided to take a sabbatical for the 2010 season. Attak owner Tony Iannitto waived his players rights and opened his territory for the benefit of the Impact Academy. Montreal repatriated all the players and coaching staff from Trois-Rivieres to form the Academy while the Attak decided to sit out the 2010 season for undisclosed reasons. Head Coach

Philippe Eullaffroy Philippe Eullaffroy (born January 9, 1964) is a French association football, football manager and former Football player, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He is the technical director for AS Dakar Sacré-Cœur. ...

recruited several promising players like

Karl Ouimette Karl William Ouimette (born June 18, 1992) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Celtix du Haut-Richelieu in Ligue1 Québec. Club career Early career Ouimette played in Quebec's top amateur circuit in 2008 ...

, Maxim Tissot, Maxime Crépeau, Alessandro Riggi, Valentin Radevich, Kevin Cossette, Kevin Luarca, Mircea Ilcu, and Anthony Jackson-Hamel.

Saputo Stadium Saputo Stadium (Canadian French, French: ''Stade Saputo'') is a soccer-specific stadium at Olympic Park, Montreal, Olympic Park in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The stadium opened on May 21, 2008, a ...

served as their first home venue. The club made its debut on May 15, 2010 in a match against Milltown F.C. which ended in a 0-0 draw. In their debut season in the CSL, Montreal finished ninth in the standings missing the final postseason berth by two points. For the 2011 season notable academy graduates were

Wandrille Lefèvre Wandrille Lefèvre (born December 17, 1989) is a Canadian soccer player who plays as a centre back for AS Blainville in Ligue1 Quebec. Career Amateur Lefèvre played with the youth teams of OC Perpignan, a satellite club of Montpellier HSC. ...

, Zakaria Messoudi, Victor N'Diaye, Philippe Lincourt-Joseph, and Jonathan Vallée. In their second season Montreal clinch their first postseason berth by finishing sixth in the standings, and finished with the fourth best offensive record within the league. Their opponents in the quarterfinals were Capital City F.C., where in the first match the Impact tied Ottawa to a 1-1 draw with a goal from Lefèvre. In the second leg of the series Montreal suffered a 2-1 defeat with Luarca recording the lone Montreal goal, which eliminated Montreal from playoffs by a score of 3-2 on goals on aggregate. In 2012, Yacine Ait-Slimane, Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé, and Stefan Vukovic were some of the notable alumni that played with Montreal. During the season Montreal achieved a nine-game undefeated streak, and recorded a franchise milestone by finishing as runners-up in the standings with the second best offensive and third best defensive record. In the first round of the playoffs the team faced TFC Academy, and secured a 2-0 victory with both goals coming from Ilcu. In the next round the Impact faced the

York Region Shooters York Region Shooters is a Canadian association football, soccer team, that plays in the Canadian Soccer League. The Shooters played their home games at the St. Joan of Arc Turf Field in the City of Vaughan, Ontario. The team's colours were blue ...

, and advanced to the CSL Championship finals by defeating York Region by a score of 3-1 with Lefevre, and Ait-Slimane contributing the goals. Their opponents in the finals were Toronto Croatia, but unfortunately Montreal fell short by a 1-0 defeat. At the CSL awards ceremony Tissot received the CSL Defender of the Year award. In 2013, head coach Eullaffroy was promoted to the senior team as an assistant coach. After the De-sanctioning of the CSL by the CSA the club left the league. In 2013-14 the U-17/18 team played in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. In 2014, the Academy joined the

. In May 2023, the club launched a women's academy program, also taking control of the Program Excel Féminin, a national development center of Soccer Québec, which brings together the best players in the province from 15 to 18 years old, including the Ligue1 Québec women's team.

Staff

Year-by-year

Outdoor team

U17/18 team

U23 Team

Stadium

The Academy currently plays its home games at

, a

soccer-specific stadium A soccer-specific stadium, mainly in the United States and Canada, is a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-purpose stadium whic ...

which opened in May 2008. As the name suggests, the stadium was funded privately (mainly by the Saputo family). Seating 20,341 supporters, Saputo Stadium is located just east of

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

in the city's east end. Currently the seating is restricted just to the north grand stand. *CS St Jean De Vianney (2012-)

Notable players

Canada * Yacine Ait-Slimane * Jason Beaulieu * Louis Béland-Goyette * Nazim Belguendouz * Janouk Charbonneau * Kevin Cossette * Maxime Crépeau * John Dinkota * Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé * Jems Geffrard * Chakib Hocine * Emad Houache * Anthony Jackson-Hamel * Charles Joly * Mastanabal Kacher * Frédéric Lajoie-Gravelle *

* Philippe Lincourt-Joseph * Kevin Luarca * Zakaria Messoudi * Aron Mkungilwa * Victor N'Diaye *

* David Paulmin * Zachary Sukunda * Marco Terminesi * Maxim Tissot * Jonathan Vallée * Stefan Vukovic Belarus * Valentin Radevich Germany * Mélé Temguia Romania * Mircea Ilcu

References

External links

Official websiteImpact Soccer fan site
{{PDL NE Canadian Soccer League (1998–present) teams Impact CF Montréal Reserve team soccer in Canada 2010 establishments in Quebec Association football clubs established in 2010 Soccer clubs in Quebec 2010 in Montreal