Tofa Fakunle is currently the assistant General Manager at Canadian Premier League cub, Cavalry FC.
Before this current role, he was the football operations manager at the same club, and then before that, a professional player.
Based in Calgary, Cavalry FC are one of 8 teams that compete in CPL, which is a relatively new league, having only started in 2019. The league is the only professional league in Canada, which offers a lot of potential to grow, especially with the World Cup arriving in 2026.
In this conversation we speak about how Tofa has to look after and manage the clubs’ budgets, the rules set by the leagues around squad building, and how Tofa and his team source players, for free, from all over the World.
We touch on data, the MLS, and a bit more on the overall football landscape within Canada.
Timestamps
0:00 – Introduction
1:28 - Tofa joins and gives some background
3:47 – Transitioning from player to front office, roles & responsibilities
7:55 – Transfer window and season timeline
10:41 – Access to data and spending rules
14:56 – Recruiting players from around the World
18:26 – The landscape of football in Canada & North America
24:25 – Cavalry FC squad profile
28:18 – Rules around building a roster
31:57 – Networking and working with agents
33:38 – Team culture
35:40 – Trading players for profit, thinking long-term
42:59 – Future thoughts on soccer in Canada
46:24 – Summary and wrap up
You can also see more of Chris chatting to analytics professionals over on his podcast too, right here: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisgill_UK
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Tofa Fakunle is currently the assistant General Manager at Canadian Premier League cub, Cavalry FC.
Before this current role, he was the football operations manager at the same club, and then before that, a professional player.
Based in Calgary, Cavalry FC are one of 8 teams that compete in CPL, which is a relatively new league, having only started in 2019. The league is the only professional league in Canada, which offers a lot of potential to grow, especially with the World Cup arriving in 2026.
In this conversation we speak about how Tofa has to look after and manage the clubs’ budgets, the rules set by the leagues around squad building, and how Tofa and his team source players, for free, from all over the World.
We touch on data, the MLS, and a bit more on the overall football landscape within Canada.
Timestamps
0:00 – Introduction
1:28 - Tofa joins and gives some background
3:47 – Transitioning from player to front office, roles & responsibilities
7:55 – Transfer window and season timeline
10:41 – Access to data and spending rules
14:56 – Recruiting players from around the World
18:26 – The landscape of football in Canada & North America
24:25 – Cavalry FC squad profile
28:18 – Rules around building a roster
31:57 – Networking and working with agents
33:38 – Team culture
35:40 – Trading players for profit, thinking long-term
42:59 – Future thoughts on soccer in Canada
46:24 – Summary and wrap up
You can also see more of Chris chatting to analytics professionals over on his podcast too, right here: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisgill_UK
Episode 43: Justinas Gasiunas, First Team Goalkeeping Coach at Hajduk Split
Analytics FC Podcast
28 minutes 43 seconds
3 years ago
Episode 43: Justinas Gasiunas, First Team Goalkeeping Coach at Hajduk Split
This month, we spoke to Justinas Gasiunas, the first-team goalkeeping coach at Hajduk Split.
After ending his career as a goalkeeper, Justinas has coached with a number of clubs including Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford.
In the conversation, we talked about the development of goalkeeping analysis, Justinas's processes for analysing opponents ahead of games, and the future of goalkeeping analysis.
You can follow Justinas on Twitter @GasiunasJ.
We’ll be back next month with another interesting guest, but until then, make sure you subscribe to this podcast, rate and review it, and check out all the content that is going out from Analytics FC on our Twitter account @analyticsfc.
Analytics FC Podcast
Tofa Fakunle is currently the assistant General Manager at Canadian Premier League cub, Cavalry FC.
Before this current role, he was the football operations manager at the same club, and then before that, a professional player.
Based in Calgary, Cavalry FC are one of 8 teams that compete in CPL, which is a relatively new league, having only started in 2019. The league is the only professional league in Canada, which offers a lot of potential to grow, especially with the World Cup arriving in 2026.
In this conversation we speak about how Tofa has to look after and manage the clubs’ budgets, the rules set by the leagues around squad building, and how Tofa and his team source players, for free, from all over the World.
We touch on data, the MLS, and a bit more on the overall football landscape within Canada.
Timestamps
0:00 – Introduction
1:28 - Tofa joins and gives some background
3:47 – Transitioning from player to front office, roles & responsibilities
7:55 – Transfer window and season timeline
10:41 – Access to data and spending rules
14:56 – Recruiting players from around the World
18:26 – The landscape of football in Canada & North America
24:25 – Cavalry FC squad profile
28:18 – Rules around building a roster
31:57 – Networking and working with agents
33:38 – Team culture
35:40 – Trading players for profit, thinking long-term
42:59 – Future thoughts on soccer in Canada
46:24 – Summary and wrap up
You can also see more of Chris chatting to analytics professionals over on his podcast too, right here: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisgill_UK
