This coming Monday, Sean Fleming will sit down with FC Edmonton coach Colin Miller and assistant Jeff Paulus, who also directs the team’s Academy. Fleming will also meet with parents of some of the Alberta Capital Region’s  best soccer prospects.

In what is a unique deal, FC Edmonton has received a transfer fee from MLS for the rights to teenage standout Shamit Shome.

"We call it the ‘what ifs.’ And I learned that really from John Herdman, who was very thorough and very precise in how he did things.”

The Eddies confirmed that a deal has been consummated between the clubs, but won't release the terms. But this is not a case of a player leaving the academy as a free agent.

Shome turned down offers from a couple of NCAA programs; instead he chose to play at the University of Alberta, where he could be closely monitored by the FC Edmonton brass.

Soccer officials in the United States are moving to ban heading of the ball in youth soccer. Similar measures have been debated in Canada — but we’ve decided to go with an approach that stresses education over regulation. But, is there hard, peer-reviewed evidence out there that supports the notion that heading the ball leads to brain injuries?

Fifteen years ago, Allan Zebie was a boy, playing soccer in the playgrounds and on the streets of Paris with his friends and cousins.

“I don’t want to be the player who was only called into one game,” he said. “The experience, it was huge. I gained a lot of experience from it. There are so many players there who have careers in Europe, from around MLS and other teams in North America. I can see that’s where I want my career to go.”

If Lance Laing enjoys an extended period with the Reggae Boyz, FC Edmonton will have to learn to play without him on the left wing.

On Thursday, the Eddies announced that the France-born, Canada-raised fullback — who played with Canada’s U-20 side in 2013 — has been signed.