By Dan Marshall

Former VIU soccer star Blasco joins new Vancouver Island based pro soccer team

Feb 16, 2019 | 9:58 PM

NANAIMO – The inaugural season of soccer for Pacific FC is just around the corner and the Canadian Premier League side already has deep connections to Nanaimo.

Assistant coach James Merriman played in the Harbour City in his formative years and one of the early player signings is former Vancouver Island University standout Victor Blasco.

The schedule for the CPL should drop any day now with BC’s entry in the seven team league based out of Langford on Vancouver Island.

Merriman says the squad will have a 23 man roster with up to seven of those spots for internationals.

But the plan is to focus on Canadian talent, specifically from BC and Vancouver Island.

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“We do want to add some island talent if they’re at the level, and we do have have a few that we’ve got our eye on and that we’ve been talking too, and hopefully bring into to preseason and let them push themselves over the line,” said Merriman.

Merriman was involved in bringing Blasco over to Canada from Spain several years ago.

The initial plan was to have Blasco suit up for Simon Fraser University, but those plans changed and he ended up at VIU.

The now 24-year-old also played for Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 in the 2014-15 campaign and scored four times in 24 matches.

Merriman hopes that Blasco isn’t the only player island roots on Pacific FC this coming season, there have been talks with others who may get a chance to be a part of the preseason roster, which will open March 4th.

“This club is for the island, that’s going to be the fan base,” said Merriman. “We want to influence the community and help build the soccer culture here.”

Pacific FC held some youth camps in October in an attempt to build their brand and tap into the local soccer community at the grass roots level.

Those sessions in Nanaimo, Parksville, and around the rest of the island were well attended.

The first game for Pacific FC is expected to be around the last week of April.

More details about the team and the league are available at canpl.ca.

dan@nanaimnonewsnow.com

On twitter: @danmarshall77