There is the adage of the straw that stirs the drink. Manny Aparicio is all that and more for Pacific FC. How his stirring goes, so usually goes the PFC offence. He may be five-foot-six but he stands like a giant in the midfield.
The Canadian Premier League soccer team announced it has re-signed the clever and darting attacking midfielder for the 2023 season by picking up its club option. It will be Aparicio’s third season on the Island with the Tridents.
“Manu is a top player in this league and one of the most dynamic box-to-box Canadian central midfielders in the game,” said PFC head coach James Merriman, in a statement.
Aparicio, 27, had two goals and four assists in 23 games last season for PFC. He has seven goals with seven assists in 43 appearances for PFC over two seasons and was part of the Trident’s 2021 CPL championship team.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story as Aparicio’s presence has been crucial the past two seasons with star midfielder Marco Bustos — now gone to the Swedish top-tier Allsvenskan with just-promoted IFK Varnamo — limited by injuries and overall lowering production.
Merriman said last season was Aparicio’s best “in terms of the impact he had on matches.” A lot of other people thought so, too, as Aparicio was a finalist for the 2022 CPL Players’ Player of the Year Award annually voted on by the players in the league.
Merriman said he believes more is to come: “We know the quality that [Aparicio] brings to our team, the energy he has on the field, and we believe he is coming into his best football.”
Aparicio came up through the Toronto FC Academy and signed a Major League Soccer contract with the club in 2013 and played in friendlies against touring English sides Man City and Sunderland but spent most of his time with Toronto FC II. That followed with stints at SD Ordenes, CD Izarra and CD San Roque de Lepe over three seasons in Spain before he signed with his home-region York United of the CPL in 2019, captaining the Nine Stripes for two seasons.
Aparicio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but raised in the Greater Toronto Area and played for sa国际传媒 in the hometown 2015 Pan Am Games and has also represented sa国际传媒 in U-20 and U-23 with a total of 28 appearances. He earned his lone senior national team cap in 2014 against Colombia.
PFC, now with 18 players under contract, opens training camp Monday at PISE on the Camosun College Interurban campus.
