Charlie Gregory (l) has been playing in Sweden
Photo: Photo: Oliver Åbonde/lt.se
Team Cascadia is heading to the ConIFA World Cup. The international campaign gathered steam last week when James Nichols was unveiled as the head coach.
Now Prost can reveal that the first member of the playing staff has been secured. He is Vancouver born Charlie Gregory. Gregory lived in Vancouver till the age of nine before moving to Europe.
Recently, he had been playing non-league in England for a few clubs, Aveley FC, Heybridge Swifts, and Waltham Forest FC before he was scouted and had a trial for Crawley Town FC on a bigger stage.
Gregory’s name appears at No 4 in a local journalist’s Sporting Bengal line up on Saturday.
That situation didn’t work out for him so in January 2017 he signed a deal at Assyriska FF in the Swedish town of Södertälje. The club, was formed in 1974 by Assyrian immigrants and was playing in the third tier of the Swedish league.
Since coming back to England, he has been playing for Essex Senior League side Sporting Bengal United in the East End of London, while training and preparing for any opportunities in the summer window.
Before then however, he will be proudly representing Cascadia.
We asked Gregory how he first heard about the opportunity to pay for Team Cascadia. It all went through Jack Thorpe, who is Head of London & South-East Recruitment at Wolverhampton Wanderers FC.
“Jack messaged me explaining the opportunity and asked if I was interested in playing which I was.
“So coach James Nichols called me and we spoke about the format and the teams goals and we went from there.”
Fans might be wondering what type of player he is. He explains:
“Definitely my ability to play with both feet, plus my vision, are what I base my game off. After that it’s all graft.”
He still has memories of Vancouver and they are football related:
“I lived there until I was nine so they are all good memories. It’s a much nicer environment than London. I remember I was definitely playing football constantly whether it was in the street or on the gravel the young kids played on in those days. Seriously, I look back and I can’t believe I played on that stuff!”
So what tempted him to extend his season? Two things; patriotism and career.
“Obviously the chance represent my country in any way is something i jumped at. But James (Nichols) also was pretty clear about wanting to win and anything like this could be good exposure, so it was a no brainer.”
Cascadia starts its World Cup campaign on May 31 against the Isle of Man and will also meet Barawa and Tamil Eelam.
See Also: Cascadian team prepares for first CONIFA World Cup
