FC Continentals is a Canadian soccer club founded in 2008. The team is currently a member of the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; ) 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 (CNSL). It is a non-FIFA league previously ...

, a non-FIFA sanctioned league. The club originally played under the name FC Vorkuta and was renamed FC Continentals in 2022. Their home venue is

Centennial Park Stadium Rob Ford Stadium (formerly Centennial Park Stadium) is a 2,200-seat stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is primarily used for association football, soccer, track and field, Canadian football, football and occasionally for kabaddi. It is loca ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario.

History

The club was formed by Russian immigrants Igor Demitchev and Samad Kadirov in Toronto in 2008. The club derived its name from the main financier Demitchev's hometown

Vorkuta Vorkuta (; ; Nenets languages, Nenets for "the abundance of bears", "bear corner") is a coal-mining types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin a ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Initially the club operated at the amateur level in the Downtown Polson Pier Soccer League. In their debut season, Vorkuta achieved instant success after clinching both the regular and postseason titles. Within a year, the club transferred to the Thornhill Soccer Club League, and continued its uphill climb to success by winning the playoff title. In 2010, the team remained in the

York Region The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional ...

territory by joining the Richmond Hill Soccer League, and the Downsview Hangar Indoor Soccer League. In 2016, the organization decided to make the transition to the professional ranks by applying for membership in the

. After presenting a successful strategic business plan, the club received the necessary votes in order to be approved by the league ownership. In preparation for the 2017 CSL season, the team hired the services of Serhiy Zayets as head coach. Zayets assembled a roster with several key CSL veterans acquired primarily from

FC Ukraine United FC Ukraine United is a Canadian soccer club founded in 2006. The team is currently a member of the Canadian Soccer League a league that is not sanctioned by any FIFA recognized body. Their home venue is located at Centennial Park Stadium in Etob ...

. The acquisitions included Sergiy Ivliev, Oleg Shutov, Mykhailo Bulkin,

Vitaliy Dnistryan Vitaliy Dnistryan ( Ukrainian: Віталій Петрович Дністрян; born March 31, 1990) is a Ukrainian former footballer who played as a midfielder. Dnistryan was a product and graduate of FC Lviv's youth system, where he failed to ...

Danylo Lazar Danylo Lazar (; born 30 December 1989) is a former professional Ukrainian football defender. Club career Ukraine Lazar played with the youth system with FC Lviv. In 2009, he began training with the senior team in preparation for the 2009- ...

, Vadym Gostiev, and Oleh Kerchu was assigned the team captain. In addition to the CSL veterans, several imports were brought in from

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and Russia to further strengthen the roster. Vorkuta made their professional debut on May 27, 2017 against

Milton SC Milton SC is a Canadian soccer club formed in 2014. The team is currently a member of the Canadian Academy of Soccer League. Their home venue is located at Milton Community Sports Park in the town of Milton, Ontario. History In 2014, profession ...

with a 7–0 victory with goals coming from Kerchu, Lazar, Shutov, Gostiev, and

Yaroslav Svorak Yaroslav Svorak (; born 7 February 1989) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Club career Early career Svorak was a product of the Volyn Lutsk School System and would ultimately sign with the senior team. ...

. In the club's inaugural season at the professional level, Vorkuta managed to produce a significant result. By clinching the regular season title, and establishing the best offensive record with the second best defensive record. In the preliminary round of the postseason, they defeated Royal Toronto FC by a score of 6–3. Their 2017 campaign came to a conclusion in the following round after a 1–0 defeat to

Scarborough SC Scarborough SC is a Canadian soccer team founded in 2014. The team is currently a member of the Canadian Soccer League. The team plays home games out of Birchmount Stadium in the district of Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. The team's colours are ...

. In 2018, the club produced a notable season by securing the

CSL Championship The Canadian Soccer League championship final, or CSL Championship, is the post-season match of the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) and is the successor to the CNSL Championship. The winner is crowned champion as in other North American sports le ...

, and found further success in the Second Division as its reserve squad secured the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

(division title and DII Championship). In 2022, the club was renamed FC Continentals.

Crest

The club's first crest was in the shape of a circle with a soccer ball placed in the center and with the club's name beneath it. The colors of the crest were blue, red, and white which represented the colors of the Canadian and the city of Toronto flags. On top of the crest was a barbed wire, which symbolized the owner's birthplace,

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, Russia, where a former

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

was located. In 2022, the club's name was changed to FC Continentals, resulting in a rebranding of the club's logo.

Players

Current squad

Head coaches

* Serhiy Zayets (2017) * Samad Kadirov (2018) * Denys Yanchuk (2020) *

Andrei Malychenkov Andrey Yuryevich Malyshenkov (; born March 28, 1968) is a former Russian footballer who played as a midfielder and football manager. Playing career Russia Malyshenkov began his career in 1986 with Dynamo St. Petersburg in the Soviet First L ...

& Viktor Raskov (2021) *

(2022–)

Honours

FC Continentals *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

runner-up:

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

First Division/Regular Season:

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

First Division runner-up:

*ProSound Cup:

FC Continentals II * CSL II Championship:

Second Division:

Seasons

First team

Second team

References

External links

FC Continentals
(Official website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Continentals FC Canadian Soccer League (1998–present) teams Soccer clubs in Toronto Association football clubs established in 2008 2008 establishments in Ontario Diaspora association football clubs Russian diaspora Ukrainian diaspora in Canada