Georges Mukumbilwa represents the future of the Vancouver Whitecaps. He may not be the next Alphonso Davies, but he might be the beginning of a surge of Homegrown players the team will finally see …
Georges Mukumbilwa was 13 when he and his family emigrated to Canada from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They landed in Winnipeg in 2013, where he was soon introduced to the joys of a Manitoba winter.
But the club has moved to bridge that gap with a developmental U-23 team, a side that head coach Marc Dos Santos sees as almost an extension of the first team. “It’s been really great. Really good. Playing with guys like that, learning from them … and coach Marc, I just want to thank him for giving me a chance,” said Mukumbilwa, a.k.a. “Georginho.”
It has only been in the past two weeks that Mukumbilwa, and some of the younger players — Theo Bair, David Norman Jr., Brendan McDonough, Simon Colyn, Patrick Metcalfe — joined the developmental squad, which is about to embark on a three-game tour of England. “For me, it’s about letting these kids know what it takes to be a pro. And you have to absolutely own this development team to have any chance of going to the first team. You have to be a stud here.
The goal is to use that wide geographical base, a recruitment territory that covers all of Canada except for New Brunswick, Quebec and an 80-kilometre perimeter around Toronto, to funnel talent into their development pyramid.
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