Four Falcons players signed to semi-professional soccer teams

By Juan Ramírez

A new upstart B.C. soccer league has snapped up four players who are part of the Langara Falcons men’s soccer team.

Wizaso Chavula, Athos Michellepis de Siqueira and Rafael Jorge Oliveira signed for North Vancouver-based Altitude FC, competing in the new League1 British Columbia. Aidan LeBreche signed with Langley-based Unity FC, also competing in League1 BC.

The league is made up of seven teams, including a developmental club for the Vancouver Whitecaps. The inaugural season begins this May.

Altitude FC is a semi-professional men’s and women’s football club that represents the North Shore and Sea-to-Sky region. Expectations for the team are high. Faly Basse, Altitude FC’s head coach, highlighted the strong level of play and expressed the potential of the new players.

“The goal for this season is to maintain a higher level of play,” said Basse. “Those players, they have huge, massive potential … We just need to get them together and work together and show them the road to take, right, to be successful.”

The Falcons soccer team is made up of players from various nationalities. Malawi, Germany, and Brazil are some of the countries where the newly signed players come from.

Lots of potential

Marc Rizzardo, the head coach for the Langara Falcons men’s soccer team, said the players who were signed by the new teams are all talented.

“They’re all very technically good,” said Rizzardo. “They’re all very skilful. They’re all very quick, all of them have high soccer IQ. And the one thing I would have to say about all those guys is that they’re very passionate about the game.”

Rizzardo said the players who were signed can reach a high-calibre professional level.

“I think they now have the ability,” said Rizzardo. “They just have to get the right opportunity.”

Players said they had a positive experience playing for the Langara Falcons under the direction of Rizzardo.

Wizaso Chavula, a left back and Langara Falcon who signed with Altitude FC, said that playing under Rizzardo helped him grow as a player.

“Playing at Langara under Marc Rizzardo was quite an exciting and a good time to be alive,” said Chavula. “The experiences I had there were great. A lot of good games and just a good team. Nice environment and love playing there, the two seasons I was out there.”