When Jordan Murrell takes the field for his first Valour FC training session, me might feel right at home. That’s because he’ll be lining up next to Skylar Thomas.

It is the archetype of the Canadian striker playing professionally in Europe.

Rob Friend got the last laugh over Randy Edwini-Bonsu in a battle between Canadians in Bundesliga 2. Sunday afternoon.

“It’s really exciting for me,” said Jalali, who also trained with the youth wing of German side, Kaiserslautern, last year. “There are not a lot of 17-year-olds who can say they have moved onto a first team right away.”

Sadi Jalali’s appearance this past weekend for the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency surprised more than a few Canadian soccer fans. But none were as surprised as those at FC Edmonton headquarters.

The Canadian Soccer Association announced that our men’s national team will play Armenia during the FIFA international match day of Feb. 29.

Sadi Jalali and Kianz Froese Gonzalez won't be on the pitch next Monday when FC Edmonton ends its holiday break reconvenes its off-season training.

All four of Canada’s MLS and Division-2 professional sides are represented on the roster of the U-18 developmental squad.

If you add the ages of Sadi Jalali and Kianz Froese Gonzalez together, you would still be short of 33 — the age of FC Edmonton veteran midfielder Ilja Van Leerdam. But the two teens were on the same indoor pitch as the veteran at Edmonton’s Victoria Soccer Club Thursday morning.

Teenagers Sadi Jalali and Kianz Froese Gonzalez have committed to leave Canada and play club football in Germany — but they have made FC Edmonton their Plan B.