Pacific FC saw a need and addressed it in a big way, quite literally. The Island-based pro soccer club was left with a gaping hole in central defence when Lukas MacNaughton moved up to Major League Soccer with Toronto FC.
The defending Canadian Premier League champion Tridents filled it Wednesday by signing imposing six-foot-four Canada-capped centre-back Amer Didic away from CPL rival FC Edmonton.
Many observers had Didic rated as the second best central defender in the CPL behind MacNaughton.
“Amer is one of the best central defenders in the Canadian Premier League,” PFC head coach James Merriman said in a statement. “He brings good experience and leadership qualities to our locker-room. He is not only a physical presence on the pitch but can also play the style of football we want to play here at Pacific.”
It’s a case of poaching a former nemesis. Despite that Pacific FC won the 2021 CPL championship and lowly FC Edmonton missed the playoffs, the Eddies gave the Tridents fits last season with Didic blunting many a PFC attack. He can go on offence, too, which is crucial to the way PFC approaches the game. That was evident when Didic scored for Canada, heading home a corner kick, in a 4-1 victory in a friendly against Barbados in 2020. The match was one of his two caps earned for Canada after representing the country in the 2015 World University Games in South Korea and also playing on the national U-23 team.
That international play, along with being named conference MVP and top defensive player during his university career in the NAIA with Baker College in Kansas, got Didic a long look with Sporting Kansas City of MLS. He appeared in 40 games for the main affiliate Swope Park Rangers (now Sporting KC II of MLS Next Pro) between 2016 and 2018 and was named league first-team all-star in 2016.
Didic got called up to two games with the first team MLS side Sporting KC, both cup matches against Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium in the Hunt Cup U.S. Open championship tournament and in the CONCACAF Champions League against Central FC of Trinidad and Tobago. The latter experience will come in handy as Pacific FC will play in the CONCACAF League this season, a perk which goes to the defending CPL champion.
Didic later signed with San Antonio FC of the USL before inking in 2019 with his hometown FC Edmonton in the CPL, where he had three goals in 48 games, and earned an MLS trial with the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The 27-year-old was born in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and came to Edmonton at a young age following the Bosnian War and came up in the Sherwood Park youth soccer system.
Meanwhile, PFC also announced the return of hometown midfielder Sean Young, the emerging 20-year-old pro and former Victoria Highlanders, Westcastle United and Vancouver Island Wave player, who made 28 appearances last season for the Tridents.
PFC midfielders signed for 2022 now include returnees Young, Manny Aparicio, Matthew Baldisimo and Kunle Dada-Luke. Three-season PFC midfield standout Kadin Chung is on MLS trial in the Toronto FC training camp.
