AGR: What Coimbra, Salter moves could do for growing CPL to Allsvenskan pipeline
Could we be seeing the development of a new pathway for young Canadian talent to emerge from?
Certainly, you can’t help but look at some of the recent news out of the Canadian Premier League and be intrigued, as some of the league’s top players have made very interesting transfers this offseason.
In particular, two players have made especially eye-catching moves - Atlético Ottawa’s Sam Salter and the Halifax Wanderers’ Tiago Coimbra, who have made offseason transfers to Swedish Allsvenskan sides GAIS FC and IFK Göteburg, respectively, with Salter signing on a free and Coimbra moving for a fee.
🇨🇦👉🇸🇪@atletiOttawa striker Sam Salter is headed to @GAIS_SE!
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 8, 2025
He’ll join them following this CPL season, signing a pre-contract for 2026.
DETAILS 📰: https://t.co/slvTWamltm pic.twitter.com/ybsB1KfURf
Both strikers were outstanding in 2025, with the 25-year-old Salter scoring 24 goals and adding four assists in 35 appearances across all competitions with Ottawa, and the 22-year-old Coimbra scoring 13 goals and adding three assists in 23 appearances across all competitions with Halifax. As a result, Salter earned the league's Player of the Year, Player's Player of the Year and Golden Boot awards, while Coimbra took home the top Canadian U21 honour, as both did well to turn their goals and assists into indvidiaul hardware.
Anchors aweigh ⚓️🇸🇪@HFXWanderersFC announce the club-record transfer of Tiago Coimbra, the CPL’s 2025 Best Canadian U-21 Player, to Swedish club IFK Göteborg #CPLSoccer | ✍️: @charliejclarke https://t.co/LnFS5veLHh
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) January 31, 2026
Now, they’ll look to build on that success in Europe, where they’ll hope to continue to peel open the door for other CPL players to perhaps follow their path further down the road. 
In fact, by moving to Sweden, they’re already following the footsteps of another successful CPL export, Matteo de Brienne, who joined GAIS last year. A former teammate of Salter’s with Atlético Ottawa (making it fitting that they’re linking up again at GAIS), de Brienne ended up being an instant success in Sweden, scoring two goals and adding three assists in 25 appearances across all competitions at left back in 2025, helping GAIS qualify for the early rounds of the 2026-2027 UEFA Conference League, while even igniting his own ambitions of playing for the Canadian Men’s National Team.
Because of that, you have to imagine de Brienne’s success played a factor in Salter’s signing, as well as Coimbra’s, showing Swedish sides that the CPL could be a market worth shopping in for them, while proving to players that it’s a great next step on the ladder after success in the CPL.
Certainly, there are a few factors that indicate that could be the case.
Firstly, of course, is the growing evidence that top players from the CPL can do well in Sweden. So far, that list isn’t long, but de Brienne’s play in 2025 is a prime example, and there’s also the solid play of Marco Bustos, who scored four goals and added two assists with Allsvenskan side Värnamo across two seasons in 2023 and 2024.
It might not be much yet, but it’s a good building block, and it’ll only grow as more CPL players head to Sweden and prove that they can hang around and even thrive.
Clearly, that Salter and Coimbra were both brought in during one offseason shows that even while the body of work is still growing, Swedish teams are catching onto the trend and giving more players a chance.
GOAL ⚓️
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 22, 2025
It's TIAGO COIMBRA! 💥@HFXWanderersFC go up 1-0 over @YorkUtdFC at the stroke of Burnbrae Farms Eggstra Time 🥚 as Sean Rea picks out the perfect cross for a thundering header 🎯
🔴 Watch #CanPL PLAYOFFS on OneSoccer & TSN pic.twitter.com/496mRQZ8Df
Secondly, something else to note is the value that teams are getting from these players. The transfer economy in Sweden is quite strong - just in 2025-2026 alone, 27 players have been sold for over one million euros (per Transfermarkt), showing that teams have the funds to reinvest into players thanks to their strong sales.
But in a competitive transfer market, it can be hard to find replacements at good prices, but that’s where CPL players can come in. Instead of paying significantly for players from other markets, it can make sense to sign someone at a far lower price from the CPL, especially if they’re proving to be capable of playing at the Allsvenskan level. With the prices that they’re costing, it’s a low-risk proposition - Coimbra, so far, is the 25th most expensive player signed in Sweden this offseason, showing that Göteburg isn’t exactly taking a big risk by signing him.
By comparison, a bigger price tag comes with more risks, and for a league still growing its transfer economy, that can be a limiting factor for business. 
Lastly, one big thing to watch out for is the similarity between the CPL and the Allsvenskan in two factors - climate and calendar. Both operate on a spring-to-fall calendar, which makes it a lot easier for players to move between both leagues, as their offseasons line up. It can’t be understated how important it is that players get to have a full offseason and preseason when joining their clubs, for example.
Then, for players who join from the CPL, there isn’t as much of a culture shock when they have to play in cold weather at the beginning and end of the year, or in the heat of the summer, which can further help a player adjust to making a transfer.
All of that might not stand out at first, but those are important details, as players who can seamlessly adapt to new leagues are extremely valuable - there’s a reason why clubs in the top European leagues typically like to buy from certain leagues, because of the reliability those players tend to have.
GOAL 🦖🦖@atletiOttawa turn it around vs. @ForgeFCHamilton as Golden Boot winner Sam Salter heads it home to make it 2-1 🤩
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 26, 2025
🔴 Watch #CanPL on OneSoccer, TSN & FuboTV pic.twitter.com/CwnFebqDOJ
The reason some common markets such as Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Senegal and the US, just to name a few, tend to sell young players at higher prices and that’s due to the familiarity developed over years, decades and sometimes even centuries of sales.
If the CPL can be such a market for Allsvenskan clubs, that opens up doors for more players down the road (both in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe), as the Allsvenkan has proven to be a pretty good market for other top European teams to keep an eye on. Just look at the journey undertaken by one CanMNT regular, Derek Cornelius, who used his time in Sweden with giants Malmö to eventually earn a move to Ligue 1 side Marseille.
It’s not uncommon to see players head to clubs like that in the top five leagues straight from the Allsvenskan, just giving an idea of how well the league is rated.
There’s a reason why the Allsvenskan is ranked 19th among UEFA leagues in the country coefficients (around leagues like Switzerland’s, Scotland’s, Croatia’s and Serbia’s), and 30th in the OPTA rankings (around leagues like the Austrian Bundesliga and Scottish Premiership), which indicates that it’s a solid level.
With the CPL still only ranked 151st in the OPTA rankings, which is quite low due to how new it is relative to most leagues, being able to consistently produce players that do well in circuits like MLS, the Allsvenskan, and others is quite important, as that can prove to analysts that 151st rank is far too low.
Unfortunately, though, while MLS has proven to be a good market like the Allsvenskan for a multitude of the same reasons, there is a feeling that there could still be more transfer movement from CPL to MLS, especially in terms of attacking talent. Yet, a big reason for that is a bigger problem MLS deals with - due to its unique roster construction and salary cap rules, teams don’t always invest enough in young domestic attacking talent, leaving them to leave the league to have to thrive - so this phenomenon isn’t caused by anything the CPL is doing.
EVERY SAM SALTER GOAL 🧂
— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 19, 2025
The @atletiOttawa star scored a #CanPL-record 19 of them en route to the Golden Boot 🔥 pic.twitter.com/YBUsmqhXuP
There’s a reason why some of the best CPL to MLS exports have been defenders such as Joel Waterman and Mo Farsi, as it’s made more sense for MLS teams to seek out cheaper defensive options compared to attackers.
Perhaps, though, that could help explain why the Allsvenskan can be so important to the CPL, showing why it’s so important that two top strikers in Salter and Coimbra have ended up there. While both could likely play in MLS, they were unlikely to find the situations that they’ll now get in Sweden. 
Best case scenario for them in MLS would’ve been to follow the Osaze De Rosario path, which is the best example of a CPL to MLS transfer working out for an attacker, but in his case, it worked because he had to grind with the Seattle Sounders’ second team before earning a first-team contract - and he had to spend parts of two seasons with their second team to earn that. And he’s not the only player to follow a certain path, as Woobens Pacius is trying to do the same with Nashville SC after joining them in 2024.
In Sweden, Salter and Coimbra will play at the top level right away, instead of battling it out with a second team like they would’ve probably had to do if they joined an MLS club like De Rosario and Pacius, and that should be beneficial for their long-term development.
Because of that, look for both to make the most of this opportunity, as they could open the door for more youngsters to follow their path going forward. Often, the transfer market plays an imitation game, which puts pressure on trailblazers to light the path, and it certainly feels like Salter and Coimbra have the opportunity to do that if they can hit the ground running in Sweden.
Given how well they played in the CPL last year, that’s not an unrealistic proposition, so look for them to take this chance to prove that a Canadian to Sweden pipeline is truly starting to develop.
