Five years ago, Ali Ahmed's career was floundering. He had no club and was training with friends' local club sides in north Toronto.
They would often play on fields adjacent to TFC's immaculate training, just the other side of a fence. "Sometimes, we would get a little too excited and say, 'F*** it, we're going to jump up and play on the pitches', we just wanted that feeling," he told The Athletic.
He was consumed with regret back then. TFC had offered him a deal to join their academy a year earlier, but he turned it down, partly from naivety, partly from self-belief. Yet playing on those THC pitches would give him that feeling of being a professional.
He is now one of the quickest players on Jesse Marsch's Canada roster, but what he didn't realise then was quite how much of that pace he was going to need to get away from THC's training fields after being spotted by security.
"I'll expose myself now," Ahmed said. "Because honestly, the TFC security guys are quick, man."
Ahmed is able to laugh because he made it: as a Vancouver Whitecaps player and now as a starter for Canada, with another appearance expected in their friendly against Panama. He is also among the Canadians with a good chance of making it in Europe.
Multiple sources who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships told The Athletic there have been inquiries about him from clubs in England's second tier, the Championship, as well as from clubs in the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.
Getting back to Europe will be extra sweet for a player who had his career chewed up and spit out on the continent. His journey is not only a cautionary tale, but a reminder of what dedication can do for the next wave of Canadian players.
Ali Ahmed learned about European soccer early. Before he was born, his Ethiopian-born parents lived in Italy and they got hooked on following Lazio. They then emigrated to Canada, where Ahmed's earliest memories of soccer were being called from his room in a tiny apartment for weekend breakfast with Serie A games on a small television.
He grew up in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood -- "I'm not going to lie, it definitely was not the safest community. You just never knew. You have a lot of kids dying, a lot of shootings," Ahmed said -- where his parents prioritized his education. He was barely allowed out their high-rise apartment. Only to play soccer. "I looked at soccer like a way out and help my family make it out," Ahmed said.
Yet when Toronto FC offered him an academy contract early in 2018, he turned it down. One of his youth coaches at the time suggested TFC's academy wasn't the best option for him to develop. There's some merit to that: TFC's propensity to allow talented young players to move on has become part of what's led to the club's downfall over the last four years.
But Ahmed also didn't know any better. He was told by his coach he could land with a club in Portugal. The stars in his eyes shone brightly. So the then 17-year-old left Toronto without any clue on how wild the next year or so of his life would play out.
His European sojourn might be the envy of backpackers, sure. But it's also a reminder that the soccer world remains the wild west in many ways. For his original trial at Belenenses' Under-19s Ahmed had to stay in Lisbon for six weeks, but the club told him they had fallen on hard times financially, which forced Ahmed to pay for a hostel out of his own pocket for the duration of his trial.
He had to ask his parents for money repeatedly. During training sessions, his mind would drift to how he was draining their savings to pursue his dream. Finally he worked up the courage to ask the team if they were going to sign him. He was met with quizzical, furrowed brows: FIFA rules meant that no club in Europe would be able to add him until he turned 18.
Ahmed's heart sank. "I didn't know any of the FIFA rules," he said.
He stayed in Lisbon, continuing to pay for his own lodging without any income. His parents would send him more money while grilling him: What, exactly, is your plan here?
Finally, when Ahmed turned 18 in October, he thought he had an answer. But a contract offer never came. Ahmed stopped believing that the club were serious about signing him. Frustrated, he stormed out of Lisbon of his own accord.
It was only weeks later, once he had arrived in Spain for trials and showcases with various clubs that he learned that the European transfer window didn't open until January 1, making it impossible for Belenenses to have added him late in 2018.
"I wasn't educated the way I should have been," he said, shaking his head. "That was the bare minimum."
The same coach that convinced him to leave TFC landed him with a trial with a third-division under-23 team in Spain. Again, all accommodations were on his own dime. No contract was forthcoming.
In March 2019, he left the country and returned to Canada dejected.
Throughout the summer he trained, including those unauthorised sessions on TFC's fields. Then in November that year he landed a two-month trial with the Whitecaps Under-19 team, though the organization was hesitant.
"I didn't have a proper trial or resume or video," Ahmed said. The Covid-19 pandemic eventually sent him back to Toronto without a way forward for the MLS side. "Then," he said, exhaling heavily, "the European journey started again."
Once he was cleared to travel, Ahmed went to the Netherlands in June, training with a group of unattached players hoping to showcase his talent. Nothing came of it. Back to Portugal for another showcase in August.
"I was getting a lot of, 'We like you, but..." Ahmed said, his voice growing weary.
His next stop was England in September 2020. Converting his remaining Euros to the more expensive British Pounds made for another new low in his journey. "That was killing me," Ahmed said.
Desperate to make his career work, he arranged trials with clubs you'd have to squint to find on the English football league pyramid: Enfield Town FC, Cheshunt FC and Tooting & Mitcham United FC of the Isthmian League, the seventh tier of English soccer.
"I saw the players there, and I really believed I could be there. I felt like I just needed an opportunity. For Canadians, just finding opportunities is really hard," Ahmed said.
His trials were chock full of overtly physical sessions with players fighting for their own professional lives. Ahmed's quality and daring on the ball was improving, but he still suffered with a slight build and with it came "a lot of rejection".
Late one evening after a training session with a club almost no one in the world would recognize, Ahmed sat on the edge of his hotel bed and counted a dwindling amount of pounds. An uncomfortable reality began to take hold.
"I definitely started thinking, 'This might not be for me. Maybe it's time I go home and just stop playing,'" Ahmed said.
But then a friend he had made along the way entered his room and suggested a lifeline. Why not try the Whitecaps again?
Ahmed was worried about Covid regulations, but more so that they might not take him back after he left for Europe. Yet they did take him back, and he began training with Whitecaps 2 and their Under-23 side in March 2021.
It was the opportunity he had craved, and when he signed his first professional contract with Whitecaps 2 in March 2022, it was an opportunity he wouldn't let go. Back then, virtually no one in the Canadian soccer landscape had heard of Ahmed, but magnanimous Whitecaps coach Vanni Sartini couldn't take his eyes off him -- and the coach deserves credit for giving Ahmed his shot.
Within a year Ahmed had been called up to the first team, was named Best Young Canadian Player at the 2023 Canadian Championship, and made his Canada debut at the 2023 Gold Cup. He's now a regular Whitecap thanks to his ability to take opponents on with the ball, find the right spaces and then break tight lines with his dribbling and passing.
The same abilities are why he has worked so well in the Canada team, too. Marsch wants worker bees who are prepared not just to run but to fight in duels, make second and third efforts, and use creativity in the final third. Ahmed ticks every box.
Marsch labelled Ahmed "gifted" to reporters in his tactical and technical approach. Of course, he needs more seasoning with the Whitecaps and needs to add to his frame. Even still, the quality Ahmed shows on the ball means he remains dead set on becoming the next Canadian to head to a European league ahead of Canada co-hosting the 2026 World Cup with the United States and Mexico.
If it happens, he may not leave so easily this time. "I want to be competing in a top five league by 2026," Ahmed said. "That's going to give me the best shot to be impactful in at the World Cup."