For Inter Toronto, their new identity comes with new expectations.
In 2025, with a rookie head coach and 14 new players — many of whom had returned home to play in Toronto — the club (then known as York United FC) established a strong foundation. They made the playoffs for a second consecutive season and won a road playoff game for the first time in club history.
As the team’s 2026 training camp, presented by WestJet, opened a month ago, they wasted no time in drawing blueprints to quickly build upwards from that base. Standing out in a city like Toronto, of course, requires thinking big.
“We’ve taken the approach, since day one [of pre-season], we want it to be a title-winning season,” said head coach Mauro Eustáquio, taking charge of his second pre-season. “It doesn’t matter what title, we want to make sure that we’re in that top group. And that mindset has really changed compared to last year. Not that we weren’t trying to win last year, but I think this year it’s extremely clear.”
This ambition is accentuated by a statement off-season where the club made multiple high-profile signings, both from the CPL’s history and top leagues across North America.
“We have a lot of players in our locker room today that have won titles, that know what winning is, and that’s why I think it’s been different,” said Eustáquio. “The vibe is different from last year.”
Full-back Raúl López, who boasts over 300 matches of Liga MX experience, won a Concacaf Champions Cup with Pachuca. Carlos Guzmán won a SuperCopa MX during his time in Mexico, while attacker Sebastián Gonzáles won a league title in Peru. Former Forge attacker Béni Badibanga, meanwhile, is a 2023 CPL champion, while Ollie Bassett won a CPL Shield with Atlético Ottawa in 2022 and a championship with Pacific in 2021.
“[Last year] we had a young team, we played big, but there were a lot of situations that we didn’t know how to deal with them, just more on the emotional and mental side, because a lot of the time, it was the first for many players,” said Eustáquio.
“When you bring in guys that have experience, that won titles, it doesn’t really matter if they’re playing Cavalry away, Forge away, Pacific away, it’s just another game that they want to win, and to have that mindset and experience in the locker room I think is massive for the club.”