Attacking midfielder Marco Bustos, generally regarded as the greatest player in Pacific FC history, is surveying the playing field in the world of professional soccer.
“I’m a free agent, so of course, I’m exploring,” said Bustos, 26.
He was responding to a report by Victoria-based soccer writer Manuel Veth that Bustos is leaving North America and is in deep talks with two clubs in Sweden and one in the Eredivisie, the Dutch premiership.
Veth, who writes for the authoritative Transfermarkt and is among the most connected soccer reporters in Canada, wrote that a decision is coming soon. None of the clubs was identified.
“There is nothing. I have no comment,” said Bustos, who has been capped six times for Canada.
In his four-season Canadian Premier League career, the first with his hometown Valour FC of Winnipeg and the past three seasons with Vancouver Island-based Pacific FC, the darting five-foot-six Bustos has accumulated 23 goals and 20 assists in 90 games with an intuitive sense that found seams to the net seemingly out of nowhere.
A highlight was lifting the North Star Shield as CPL champion with Pacific FC in an otherwise personally difficult 2021 season.
An MCL tear limited the field magician to 17 games that season, in which he was well on his way to the CPL MVP award with seven goals and six assists before going down and missing a good portion of the year, before returning near the end.
Bustos’ offensive production also fell precipitously this past 2022 season to three goals and seven assists in 33 games although his threat level and pitch presence remained invaluable for PFC.
“It was a difficult season for me and tough for me to find the net. But I worked on other parts of my game,” Bustos said following the season.
So much so that Bustos’ reputation hardly waned and he had a trial in November with Toronto FC of Major League Soccer.
It doesn’t appear, however, he will be joining former Pacific FC teammates Lukas MacNaughton, who went onto become a Canada-capped TFC starter, and Kadin Chung with an MLS contract.
Former Valour FC goalkeeper James Pantemis and ex-Cavalry FC stars Joel Waterman of CF Montreal and Mo Farsi of Columbus Crew are other players who have moved up from the CPL to MLS.
Waterman and Pantemis were named to the 26-player Canada roster for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar while MacNaughton made it as far as the final Canadian pre-World Cup camp and earned his first cap in a friendly against Bahrain.
“Toronto was good and I felt I did well, but you can only control what you can control [and not decisions teams make],” said Bustos.
Bustos’ route now looks likely through Europe, according to Veth.
