Article contentMunn’s precociousness has already given him other highlight experiences with the Wanderers’ under-21 team. He’s been in the lineup the past two summers in friendlies against development teams from some of Britain’s biggest clubs.Article content“Getting to train with the Wanderers’ first team was definitely a big step up,” he said. “I was super excited to get that opportunity, and then I was looked at for the under-21s because I performed well at the first team training. We had the summer series last year with the under-21s against Middlesbrough and Ipswich. Those were great games.Article content“It was an amazing experience to play against those clubs in front of so many fans. It was just a great feeling. Then this year we played against Wrexham and there were about 7,500 fans, which we heard broke the record at the Wanderers Grounds, so that was another incredible experience.”Article contentArticle contentBut as thrilling as those games were, heading to British Columbia later this month to immerse himself in the training hothouse for the sport he loves will top it all.Article content“It’s definitely the highest level you can play here in Canada for someone my age and it’s always just a dream for anybody in Canada or the U.S. to play MLS because that’s the top league here,” Munn said. “There are so many combines out there and so many places you can get noticed but you have to stick with it.Article content“Out there, it’s like being in a pro environment. Everything is like what a pro would have – you have a whole schedule for (roughly) the next month all planned out hour by hour. And the environment is professional and it can lead to (Vancouver) FC 2, which is their Whitecaps second team, and then maybe even the first team one day, which is the dream.”Article contentMunn went on to describe in more detail what that daily life looks like for an Academy player and it really does resemble the routine of an MLS first-teamer, with a few minor wrinkles because of his age.Article contentArticle content“We live with a host family,” he said. “I met them when I went out in June and July and they’re great people – very nice, very welcoming. And I got to see my room and they told me how many (other players) I’m going to be living with. It will be eight other players and then two international students so it’ll be a busy house, but it’s a great house.Article content“The way it’ll work day to day is I wake up every morning to take a bus with the team to practice. We have to show up an hour and 30 minutes before training. When we get there, they give us our workout and then we go to the field for two hours. After that, we go straight from practice so we get cleaned up at the facility and then we bus to the school, which is University Hill high school. We’re there until 3 o’clock and then I go home and I’m free usually for the rest of the day.Article content“Then it’s usually travel every weekend all across the U.S., which will be amazing. And sometimes we’ll have home games. That will be really good, too. It’s far from home but the time difference isn’t crazy for my family. I can communicate with them and talk to them because it’s four hours from Vancouver to Nova Scotia so that should be pretty easy to work around.”
Connor Munn’s big break with Vancouver Whitecaps FC Academy puts him on path to soccer’s highest heights
