Pacific FC believes it has its goalkeeper of the future in Emil Gazdov. That’s a big responsibility for a 19-year-old, however, so the Canadian Premier League club bought itself some insurance this week with the signing of Kieran Baskett for the 2023 season.
Baskett, 21, has two seasons of pro goalkeeping experience with his hometown HFX Wanderers of Halifax and played in 21 career games for HFX, nine of them last season with five clean sheets, as he shared the Wanderers crease with Chris Oxner.
The six-foot-four Baskett won the Colonial Conference championship during his NCAA Div. 1 tenure at William and Mary. He spent the off-season training with Coventry City of the English Championship.
“Kieran is a complete goalkeeper with enormous potential,” PFC goalkeepers coach Daniel Ortiz said in a statement.
“He adapts perfectly to our way of thinking about the game, and we value his ability to control the space in defense, and how difficult he makes it to score against him,” added Ortiz, who joined the Tridents last month after six years coaching in the FC Barcelona youth academy.
“Our fans are going to really enjoy his game.”
The scramble to wear the gloves in the PFC box for 2023 began when three-season veteran Callum Irving left in the off-season to join the CPL expansion franchise Vancouver FC in his hometown. Gazdov was Irving’s understudy last year and is looking to move up to the starting role and will battle Baskett in training camp taking place on the PISE turf field at the Camosun College Interurban campus.
The six-foot-three Gazdov has been a pro for three seasons, beginning on loan in Germany for two seasons with the U-19 team of FC Nurnberg of 2Bundesliga. The native of North Vancouver, and graduate of the Vancouver Whitecaps Academy, made two CPL starts for the Tridents in 2022 and played well in a 2-1 victory over Valour FC of Winnipeg and a 1-0 loss to the HFX Wanderers and dressed as Irving’s back-up in 24 other PFC games last season.
Either Baskett or Gazdov will be in the PFC net to face Irving when the 2023 season kicks off with the Tridents meeting Vancouver FC to inaugurate the CPL’s B.C. derby on April 15 at Starlight Stadium.
Meanwhile, PFC also announced the signing Friday of 21-year-old forward/winger David Brazão, who was most recently with SU Sintrense in the Portuguese pro third division with six goals and three assists in 17 appearances last year after coming up through the Benfica U-17 and U-19 teams. The connection comes through PFC assistant coach Armando Sá, who was capped six times for Mozambique, and played pro for 16 seasons all over Europe with Benfica, Villareal, Espanyol, Rio Ave, Braga and Leeds United.
