Veteran defender Mason Trafford started planning for life after soccer long before retiring as Cavalry FC captain in February.
Trafford graduated from UNLV in 2008 with a degree in accounting and, after soccer stops in Canada, China, Finland and the U.S., joined Cavalry for its inaugural 2019 season in the Canadian Premier League. He had been playing south of the border for Miami FC and wanted his next move to be to a club where he could do more than just play.
"One of my pitches to everybody was always 'I want to come play but I'm in my early 30s and I want to know what the next steps are for me,'" he said. "I had a six-month daughter and a wife at the time."
Cavalry, through head coach and GM Tommy Wheeldon Jr. and president Ian Allison, were the most receptive, asking for a resume showing "who Mason Trafford is, beyond just the football pitch."
Trafford has been helping off the field since joining the Calgary-based club, working in the front office in the off-season as well as a little bit during the season.
"It was in everything, from partners and sponsors to ticket sales to community engagement to marketing, advertising. A little bit of everything," said Trafford, who made 77 appearances in all competitions for Cavalry.
In March 2021, while still playing, he was given the title of commercial and marketing director. Now the 36-year-old, whose family has expanded to five with the addition of twins, is doing it full time as the club's commercial director.
Trafford has always been an entrepreneur, starting several businesses while playing — from a soccer academy with a couple of partners to a business named Soccer Shape, which took soccer training into corporate team-building.
As the eight-club CPL kicks off its fifth season this weekend, alumni like Trafford are working in team front offices or coaching across the country.
Drew Beckie recently hung up his boots to become Atletico Ottawa's team manager. Jamar Dixon is Pacific FCs manager of football and player development while Daryl Fordyce is Valour FC's assistant coach and coordinator of youth development.
Former York United midfielder Jordan Wilson has also stayed in the game, working as a TV analyst for OneSoccer.
"I like to think of our league as the league of opportunity," said CPL commissioner Mark Noonan.
"I'm working right now with our competition committee to update our rules as it relates to giving players opportunities while they're still playing," he added. "And not adding to the salary cap for the team.
"Mason Trafford kind of gave us a blueprint, where he started working for Cavalry while he was still playing."
There are others graduating from the pitch to the front office or sideline.
"Who better to kind of usher in a new era of soccer in Canada, as we really do develop into a soccer country, to have people who know and understand the game involved?" said Trafford, whose cousin Charlie Trafford is a midfielder with Cavalry. "And that's happening now, I think, to a degree that's never happened before and it's pretty special to be part of it from Day 1."
"I use the word grateful a lot because I really am," he added.
Cavalry has been one of the leaders in the CPL in developing a post-retirement career path for its players.
Oliver Minatel is the team's head of recruitment and player development while Tofa Fakunle is assistant general manager and former captain Nik Ledgerwood is an assistant coach.
While Mason Trafford, who was born to Canadian parents in Florida but grew up in North Vancouver, says the CPL is a work in progress with a "long way to go," he firmly believes it is on the right path.
"There's opportunity now, which never was the case," he said. "You almost had to go and forge your own path in some random country in Europe and try to get a shot somewhere. That was definitely what it was like for me."
That remains the case on the women's side, although there is light at the end of that tunnel with former Canadian international Diana Matheson spearheading Project 8's bid to launch a domestic women's league. Former national team goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe serves as the Vancouver Whitecaps' general manager of women’s soccer.
The 32-year-old Beckie announced his retirement on Dec. 5 after captaining Atletico Ottawa to the 2022 regular-season title and the CPL final, where it lost 2-0 to Forge FC. Seventeen days later, the club announced the Regina-born defender would start a new role as team manager in January.
Beckie missed the championship game after taking a head knock. And in 2017, he was diagnosed with myocarditis, a rare disease that causes inflammation of the heart muscle.
He says career trajectory rather than health was the major factor in making the move to the front office, especially given Atletico Madrid's status as the CPL team's owner.
"When Atletico offered this opportunity … I just saw the potential of where I could start a new career, maybe at a younger age, to be in the front office or to work with Madrid in the future," said Beckie, who speaks Spanish. "All those things were a possibility whereas me as a player, with how my body was feeling and dealing with certain things, I just felt that it was the right opportunity to take at this moment and I didn't want to lose that opportunity."
Atletico Ottawa is keeping Beckie busy.
"It's a lot of work but it's a labour of love," he said.
In his new role, Beckie liaises with Ottawa's front-office staff, assists with scouting talent, serves as a team ambassador and helps the coaching staff develop the club's players while helping them on and off the pitch.
"Because right now in the Canadian Premier League, that's where we are at," he said. "We're helping players have an opportunity that wasn't available when I was that age … Right now is a perfect opportunity to be a part of the game in this country and it's just going to keep growing."
"I'm learning an immense amount," he added. "I have an immense amount to learn still. I'll learn more every day. But I'm just honoured and blessed to have this opportunity."
Beckie, whose younger sister Janine has won 101 caps for Canada, had two stints with the now-defunct Ottawa Fury before joining Atletico Ottawa in 2021.
Originally taken 28th overall by Columbus in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft, the former Canadian youth international went onto play for the Jacksonville Armada, North Carolina, Oklahoma City Energy FC and El Paso Locomotive FC.
A move to a team in the Middle East fell through during the pandemic and he got a call from Atletico Ottawa to come play.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2023
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
