Ethan Beckford (born 21 June 1999) is an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

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 ...

. Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, England into a family of former professional footballers, he joined

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

in 2015 and was put into the club's

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

. He also played for

Toronto FC II Toronto FC II is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, who play in MLS Next Pro, a third tier league of the United States soccer league system. It is the reserve team and minor league affiliate of Toronto FC as well as ...

in 2016, before entering

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...

the following year. He spent two years in college and represented

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interc ...

. He joined English non-league club

Curzon Ashton Curzon Ashton Football Club is an association football club based in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. Founded in 1963 and nicknamed "The Nash", the club is affiliated to the Manchester Football Association and currently com ...

in December 2019.

Early life

Beckford played for Richmond Hill SC, where in two seasons won the Coupe Quebec-Ontario Cup championship, secured a silver medal at the Ontario Summer Games, made the Ontario Indoor Cup finals, and claimed back to back championships in the Ontario Youth Soccer League. He joined the

Toronto FC Academy Toronto FC Academy, also known as TFC Academy, is the youth academy and development system of Canadian Major League Soccer club Toronto FC. The academy has divisions from U14 to U19 and includes over 110 young players. The senior academy team is ...

in February 2016

College career

In fall of 2017, Beckford went to play

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 Philippines, the Philippines. Th ...

. He played two seasons with the Nittany Lions, scoring seven goals and tallying one assist in 33 appearances. During his time with Penn State, Beckford was named to the Big Ten All Freshman team in 2017. In early 2019, Beckford opted to leave Penn State to pursue a professional career in Europe.

Club career

While in the Toronto FC academy, Beckford was called up to the

squad during the

2016 USL season The 2016 USL season was the sixth season of the United Soccer League and the twenty-second season of USSF sanctioned Division III play organized by the United Soccer Leagues. On August 6, 2015, the league announced that the season would cons ...

. Beckford made his professional debut on 25 May 2016, in a 2–1 defeat to

Harrisburg City Islanders Penn FC (formerly the Harrisburg City Islanders) was an American professional soccer team based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 2003, the team most recently played in the USL Pro, the second tier of the United States soc ...

. He also played with the

TFC Academy Toronto FC Academy, also known as TFC Academy, is the youth academy and development system of Canadian Major League Soccer club Toronto FC. The academy has divisions from U14 to U19 and includes over 110 young players. The senior academy team is ...

in the

USL League Two 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 sy ...

and

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league in the Canadian ...

during 2016 and 2017. On 2 December 2019, Beckford joined

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

side

. He played a total of 16 minutes for the "Nash" in one league and one

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

game. He had a trial at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

in August 2020. On 3 November 2020, Beckford signed with

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division ...

side

Hyde United Hyde United Football Club is a semi-professional Association football, football club in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 1919, they were renamed Hyde F.C. between 2010 and 2015 as part of a sponsorship deal with Manchester City F.C. ...

. He only made a single appearance for the club. Beckford signed with Ramsbottom United in the summer of 2021. Beckford joined

North West Counties Football League The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern ...

Premier Division side Ashton Athletic on loan in late August 2021, going on to bag 11 goals in 13 appearances in league and cup. In November 2021, Beckford changed clubs in the NWCFL Premier Division, joining

Irlam Irlam is a suburb in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, it had a population of 19,933. It lies on flat ground on the south side of the M62 motorway and the north bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Salford ...

. In 2022, he joined

Simcoe County Rovers Simcoe County Rovers Football Club is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Barrie, Ontario, that plays in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. History The club was founded in 2021, by former Canadian national team p ...

, joining his

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

, who was named the team's head coach. He scored 15 goals in 17 league appearances, adding another two goals in two playoff games. In January 2023,

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

announced they had signed Beckford to a multi-year contract ahead of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

Personal life

Ethan is from a family of former professional footballers, including his father Jason Beckford, uncle

Darren Beckford Darren Richard Lorenzo Beckford (born 12 May 1967) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. His younger brother Jason also played professional football. In fourteen years as a professional footballer he scored a ...

and cousin

Danny Webber Daniel Vaughn Webber (born 28 December 1981) is an English former professional football striker. He represented England under-20s in 2002. Born in Manchester, Webber began his career as a trainee with Manchester United, but failed to cement a ...

. Through his father, he is of Jamaican descent.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckford, Ethan 1999 births Living people Men's association football forwards English men's footballers Canadian men's soccer players English sportspeople of Jamaican descent Canadian sportspeople of Jamaican descent Toronto FC Academy players Toronto FC II players Penn State Nittany Lions men's soccer players Curzon Ashton F.C. players Hyde United F.C. players League1 Ontario players USL Championship players USL League Two players National League (English football) players Ramsbottom United F.C. players Ashton Athletic F.C. players Irlam F.C. players Simcoe County Rovers FC players English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Footballers from Manchester