David Monsalve’s whirlwind soccer journey has taken him halfway around the world and back. Since turning pro in 2007 with Toronto FC, the veteran Canadian goalkeeper has lived the life of a soccer journeyman, playing for clubs in Finland (Inter Turku, FC Sinimustat, AC Oulu), Sweden (Husqvarna FF), Colombia (América de Cali), and Guatemala (Club Deportivo Suchitepéquez). In between those sojourns abroad, Monsalve made his way home, turning out for FC Edmonton (in the NASL) and the North York Astros of the Canadian Soccer League, playing one game for Vaughan Azzurri during the 2017 League1 Ontario campaign, and spending the last two seasons with the Ottawa Fury in the USL Championship. When the Fury ceased operations last November, Monsalve, a 31-year-old native of North York, started to plan his next move. That’s when Monsalve received a phone call from Forge FC team manager Jelani Smith, a former player himself who crossed paths with the goalkeeper earlier in their respective careers. Things snowballed from there, with Monsalve visiting Hamilton to meet with Bobby Smyrniotis and his coaching staff, and check out the facilities at Tim Hortons Field. Monsalve and Smyrniotis liked what they heard from each other, and Forge decided to add the veteran shot-stopper to their roster for the 2020 CPL season, making the formal announcement on Monday. RELATED READING: CPL pre-season roster tracker: How each team is shaping up For Monsalve, joining Forge was a no-brainer. "When the champions from the year before you call you, you take that call seriously," Monsalve told CanPL.ca. "I was excited. Everything worked out, and I am excited to be with Forge... I thought it was a good situation for myself and I think I can bring a lot of value to the club." He later added: "I don’t want to lie, it was a tough situation in Ottawa at the end. Having my family there and not knowing what was going to happen, it was hard. It was difficult on the family side, to tell your kid that we’re leaving, and not being able to explain why. It was an unfortunate situation for everybody, but life goes on." Monsalve, who has one cap with the Canadian national team, admitted that other clubs from outside of the CPL had reached out to him. But the lure of being closer to home was what sealed his fate with Forge. He plans to live in the Vaughan area, where he will be able to coach his young son David Jr. (he turns five this month), who is member of Vaughan Soccer Club’s grassroots program. "There were other options. With my history in Guatemala, and Colombia and Finland, it’s quite deep, especially in Finland, so I had a few calls. I had a great six months in Guatemala where we won a championship; a team that hadn’t won a championship in a long time. I constantly get calls from Guatemala, and I’m very proud of what I accomplished down there, and there were serious offers," Monsalve revealed. "But moving closer to home was a priority, so my family played a big part in this decision. To have my son close to his cousins and grandparents, and to impact my son on a soccer level by coaching him, that was huge too." Monsalve’s arrival in Hamilton strengthens a Forge side that is already solid at the goalkeeper position. Triston Henry, a 26-year-old from Scarborough, Ont., posted a league-leading nine clean sheets in 2019 (tied with Cavalry FC ’s Marco Carducci), and he made 55 saves (fifth overall in the league) as he played a pivotal role in helping Forge hoist the North Star Shield. Monsalve sees his new role as a balancing job between mentoring Henry (who signed his first pro contract with Forge last February) and challenging him for the starting job. "Triston is a great ‘keeper, a great guy, and we get along very well. I’m excited to help him develop and I want to be part of something bigger than myself. I’m here to help these young Forge players become professional, like Carl Robinson and Danny Dichio did for me when I was at TFC. Those guys helped me out, so I want to do the same with the generation of young Canadian pros coming up. That’s the major thing for me," Monsalve explained. "At the same time, I want to play. That’s the competitive nature in me. I’m going to fight for the starting position, respectfully, like anybody would." Teaching Henry and the other young players on Forge how to be a professional player is just part of his mandate. Monsalve feels his vast experiences playing abroad allows him to impart valuable life lessons to his new teammates, too. "Not every situation was perfect, so you learn to deal with things, so that when real problems come to you, you know how to handle them. What my experiences have taught me, and what being a father has taught me, is that there are tougher things in life than football," Monslave said. "Football is a way for you to express yourself and to enjoy your time on the field, but at the end of the day there’s real-life responsibilities, real-life situations that you have to go through that make you take a step back and puts things in perspective."

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