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Former Canada captain Paul Stalteri named coach of Canadian men's under-17 team

Jamaica's Demar Phillips (right) and Canada's Paul Stalteri vie for the ball during first half FIFA World Cup qualifying action in Toronto on Wednesday August 20, 2008. Former national team player Stalteri will serve as head coach of the Canadian men's under-17 team for the upcoming cycle of CONCACAF and FIFA competitions. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Original Publication Date January 28, 2016 - 8:15 AM

Former Canada captain Paul Stalteri, who won 84 caps for his country at the senior level, has been named head coach of the Canadian men's under-17 soccer team.

The 38-year-old from Brampton, Ont., is no stranger to Canada's young talent having spent the last few years with fellow former international Ante Jazic evaluating talent and coaching Canada's under-15 players.

"When I look at the pool of (under-17) players today, most of them I know," Stalteri said in an interview Thursday.

"It's great for myself and Ante as well to know a lot about these players having worked with them," he added. "So it's very positive and it's a good step forward."

The job starts now. An under-17 camp is scheduled to begin next week in Burnaby, B.C.

"It's a good group," Stalteri said. "So hopefully we get them together and we can do some great things in the next year."

Stalteri, with help from Jazic, will be looking to lead his young charges to the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India. The CONCACAF qualifying tournament is expected in early 2017.

Stalteri has big shoes to fill. Former U-17 coach Sean Fleming helped Canada reach the U-17 World Cups in 2011 and 2013, coming one win short of qualifying for the 2015 world championship.

"He did a fantastic job," said Stalteri.

Fleming, who led the under-17 team through four CONCACAF/FIFA cycles, is shifting to the Canada Soccer Association's coach education department alongside Ray Clark.

The under-17 Canadians have not been together since a summer camp in Mexico under Fleming.

Soccer took Stalteri from the Toronto Lynx to Tottenham Hotspur. And he made history in Germany in 2000 when, in his debut with Werder Bremen, he became the first Canadian to score in the Bundesliga.

A forward turned fullback, he also played for Fulham in England and Borussia Moenchengladbach and was twice named Canadian player of the year.

He retired in 2013 as Canada’s most capped men's player, an honour that now belongs to current Canadian captain Julian de Guzman.

Stalteri, who will remain based in the Toronto area, has personal experience of FIFA's U-17 and U-20 World Cups.

In '93 in Japan, he was part of a team that was outscored 18-0 in three games at the U-17 World Cup. Four years later, he helped Canada reach the round of 16 at the U-20 World Cup in Malaysia, at the time a breakthrough performance for a Canadian men's side at a FIFA world championship.

In his new role, Stalteri will be working with players born in 2000 and after.

On the plus side, he can rely on the Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal academies to produce talent. But on the minus side, it is harder for Canadian teenagers to play to Europe because of FIFA rules that require players to be 18 before they go to European teams unless families pull up stakes and move with them.

Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter

News from © The Canadian Press, 2016
The Canadian Press

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