The 2025 CPL-U SPORTS Draft took place on Thursday evening and saw 12 former League1 Canada players chosen across seven of the eight clubs in the country’s top flight for men’s soccer.

With the first pick of the draft, Valour selected Jevontae Layne – the Forward of the Year from League1 Ontario’s 2024 Men’s Premier Division season.

Layne scored 13 goals in 21 games for Simcoe County Rovers this past season, and will bring some big-game experience to Valour. He netted twice to help Simcoe win the 2023 Men’s Premier Division Final against Scrosoppi, and ran out against Toronto FC in the TELUS Canadian Championship earlier this year.

For the second time in two years, a player with League1 BC experience was selected as the second pick by Vancouver FC. Henri Godbout was on the books at Altitude in 2024 and started in the Men’s Division Final against TSS Rovers, narrowly losing out on glory in a five-goal thriller.

Another player with high potential is defender Matthew Paiva, who was a finalist for the 2024 Men’s Premier’s Young (U20) Player of the Year after playing 20 games for Scrosoppi, helping them to become champions of the division. He was selected as the draft’s third pick by Patrice Gheisar’s Halifax Wanderers.

Woodbridge-based Luca Accettola was selected in fifth by York United. The midfielder played for TFC Academy in the inaugural League1 Ontario Men’s Championship season, scoring five goals in four games.

Premier Division midfielder Paul Ekwueme was the last League1 Canada alumnus to be picked in the first round. The former Alliance United midfielder, who had played 18 times for the club in 2024, is heading to four-time Canadian Premier League champions Forge.

The second round opened with the first Ligue1 Québec pick, as Ibrahim Chami will link up with Valour. Like new teammate Layne, Chami also has Canadian Championship experience having played for FC Laval against Forge in 2023, and more recently ran out for AS Blainville in L1QC.

Mehdi Essoussi will be switching from Ontario to British Columbia after he was selected by Vancouver as the 10th pick. He is the second former Alliance player to be chosen this year after playing for the club 19 times during the 2024 Men’s Premier season.

Joven Mann will also be moving provinces but in the other direction. The League1 BC star was a key player for Burnaby in their inaugural Pro-Am season and he will be swapping the west for the east after being picked by Halifax Wanderers.

York United opted once again for a local talent and picked Matthew Fischer, who played seven times for Simcoe during the League2 Division in Ontario. Two former Ottawa South United players in League1 Québec were selected straight afterwards, with 14th pick Adam N’Goran going to Atlético Ottawa and 15th pick Maxime Filion heading to Forge.

The final pick of the second round was Owen Antoniuk, who scored 13 goals in 20 matches for Windsor City in League1 Ontario’s 2023 season, and played more minutes than any other player at the club that campaign. He also played 10 times for Calgary Foothills in League1 Alberta in 2024, and is staying in the province after being selected by newly-crowned CPL champions Cavalry.