Forge FC’s top tier competitive history is relatively short having joined the Canadian Premier League in 2019. The club has already appeared in four Champions League/Champions Cup editions.
Based in Hamilton, Ontario, the club qualified for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup by winning the 2025 Canadian Premier League Shield as the regular season winners. They face Mexican giants Tigres UANL in the first round.
On October 1, 2018, the fledgling franchise announced that Canadian Bobby Smyrniotis would be the club’s first head coach and technical director.
Smyrniotis has been a major success. In May 2023, Smyrniotis signed a four-year contract extension with Forge, also taking on the role of the club’s Sporting Director. In 2024, Smyrniotis was nominated for the Canadian Premier League Coach of the Year for a sixth consecutive season and in 2025, was named the Coach of the Year, for the second consecutive season.
The question is whether he has enough to mount a serious Champions Cup challenge.
Smyrniotis’ teams are designed to dominate matches through possession, with short passing, and quick combinations to move the ball through the lines.
Rather than sticking to a rigid formation, he isn’t afraid to shift between 3-4-1-2 and 4-1-4-1 systems, or 3-4-3 and 4-3-3. His teams press hard and look to regain possession in the opposition half.
In the 2025 season Forge has a number of league stand-out players including CPL Best XI selections goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat (Golden Glove winner, led the league with 13 clean sheets), defender Daniel Nimick (Defender of the Year), defender Rezart Rama, and midfielders Nana Ampomah and captain Kyle Bekker.
Up front Tristan Borges is very much a creator while veteran Brian Wright has been banging the goals in and is the club’s top scorer. Alessandro Hojabrpour has built a reputation for coming up with crucial goals in big match situations.