CFL Global Combine in Great Britain kicks off

| American Football | 03/05/2022

The CFL Global Combine series heads to SGS College in Bristol, England today, Saturday. March 5 as the British American Football Association, BAFA is hosting the event in conjunction with Bristol Academy PRIDE.

This is the fourth of five CFL Global Combines being held in 2022. The first was organized in Brazil February 19, the second in Norway, February 26 and the three others including this one, this weekend.

A total of 20 UK athletes have been invited to attend the event in Great Britain at the request of the CFL and all are hopeful they will catch the eyes of scouts and teams around the CFL and gain an invite to the CFL Combine in Toronto from 27-29 March. This will be followed up by two separate drafts in the spring – one for global players and one for Canadians.

The CFL Global Combines are designed to assess and measure the size, speed, athletic ability and football skills of top players from outside Canada and the United States who have aspirations of playing professionally in the Canadian Football League.

Candidates will undergo a series of tests including the standard 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle and three-cone drills as well as vertical jump and bench press. Various positional drills will also be performed.

Previous UK players to have been drafted by the CFL include David Izinyon(Hamilton Tiger-Cats) and Tigie Sankoh (Toronto Argonauts).

This year’s UK athletes who will be aiming to earn a spot are:

  • Cedric Akrong
  • Maceo Beard-Aigret
  • Tyrrell Bovelle
  • Jack Brennan
  • Joe Christian
  • Emmanuel Falola
  • Jaymyn Haddad
  • Jai Jackson
  • Isiah Kleberg
  • Joe Marton
  • Kieran Matthews
  • Arthur Mbahin
  • Wael Nasri
  • D’wayne Obi
  • Simeon Okonta-Wariso
  • Edward Onamade
  • Andy Owusu
  • Henry Rowland
  • Jacob Smilie
  • Eden Thiede-Palmer
  • Lewis Thomas
  • Chad Walrond
  • Kris Wedderburn
Michael Callan, BAFA Head of National Programme:

”Our partnership with the CFL continues to help us establish a pathway for talented British athletes to achieve their utmost potential in our sport. The standard expected is high, but I know how hard the participants have been working in preparation and I hope to see some of them on a CFL roster later this year. We had a number of logistical challenges to work through this year to make our first post-pandemic CFL-UK Combine event a reality, and I’d like to thank SGS College and Bristol Academy PRIDE for their help with this and for once again supporting BAFA and the CFL by providing excellent facilities.”

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