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Toronto FC has loaned Canadian youth international defenders Julian Dunn and Dante Campbell to Winnipeg’s Valour FC of the Canadian Premier League for the 2020 season.
The eight CPL teams are currently in Prince Edward Island, where their pandemic-delayed second season kicks off Thursday in Charlottetown.
Dunn, 20, signed with the Toronto first team as a homegrown player in April 2018, making two MLS appearances. He has spent most of the last three seasons with Toronto FC 2.
Campbell, 21, has spent four seasons with Toronto FC 2.
Toronto pulled its second team out of USL League One last month, citing border restrictions and other pandemic-related issues, and has been looking for clubs to give some of its youth playing time.
Winnipeg-based Valour FC conceded a league-worst 52 goals in 28 games last season.
Toronto FC 2 also loaned defender Nyal Higgins to Nykopings BIS, a Swedish club third-division club.
The 22-year-old Higgins was taken 19th overall in the 2020 MLS SuperDraft after a collegiate career split between Oakland University (2016-2018) and Syracuse University (2019).
In other CPL news Monday, York 9 FC added former Forge FC striker Jace Kotsopoulos, replacing Jamaican forward Nicholas Hamilton whose arrival in Canada had been delayed because of visa issues.
Kotsopoulos, a 22-year-old native of Burlington, Ont., was taken third overall in the 2018 CPL-U Sports draft by Forge FC. He scored twice in five appearances in all competitions before returning to the Guelph Gryphons.
Trinidad and Tobago midfielder Andre Rampersad was named HFX Wanderers FC captain with German centre-back Peter Schaale second-choice as skipper.
Canadian fullback Alex De Carolis was given leadership duties off the pitch.
“I have confidence in them and I know they will do the job,” coach Stephen Hart said in a statement. “The reasoning for naming three is so it’s clear that if one is substituted who will be captain, so it just saves any confusion.”
Expansion Atletico Ottawa completed its roster by signing six players: forwards Mohamed Kourouma and Maksym Kowal, midfielder Ben McKendry, defenders Jarred Phillips and Milovan Kapor and goalkeeper Horace Sobze Zemo.
The Ottawa club also said Ghanaian defender Bernardino, Jamaican defender Tevin Shaw and Canadian winger Kunle Dada-Luke did not make the trip to P.E.I., leaving the team at 20 players.
McKendry, a former Vancouver Whitecaps homegrown player, spent last season with Nykopings. The Vancouver-born 27-year-old, who holds both New Zealand and Canadian citizenship, has won one cap for Canada.
Kourouma, 30, spent last season with HFX Wanderers, appearing in 26 games.
Kowal led League 1 Ontario in scoring last season with 16 goals in 18 appearances for Vaughan Azzurri. The 29-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., has also played in New Zealand, Poland and England. Phillips also played for Vaughan.
Kapor, a 29-year-old from Toronto, comes from Uzbek Super League side FK Buxoro.
The Cameroon-born Zemo, 27, joins Ottawa from Laval University and League 1 Ontario’s Ottawa South United Force.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2020.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
