Kyle Bekker knew this would be his last season playing professional soccer.
He didn’t know that he’d spend much of it sidelined — first by a cancer diagnosis and treatment, then by a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
Still, as the Forge FC captain prepared to announce his retirement on Thursday, he spoke of the campaign as a personal success.
“This was not the year that I thought it was going to be, in a sense,” Bekker said. ”But I think it allowed me to take a step back, kind of take account for the entire career I’ve had, the whole body of work, and sort of right some wrongs that I kind of wish I had the opportunity to do at a much earlier age, right? You don’t learn until you sort of fall on your face.”
The 36-year-old midfielder is the only captain Forge has ever known, and he’s been a foundational player in the Canadian Premier League.
Playing professional soccer in Canada was something Bekker didn’t dream of growing up in Oakville, Ont., because the opportunities were so limited.
He came up through the Sigma FC academy and played four seasons at Boston College before being selected third overall by Toronto FC in Major League Soccer’s 2013 SuperDraft.
Over four years, he played 58 MLS regular-season games with Toronto, FC Dallas and the Montreal Impact, then played for San Francisco and North Carolina in the North American Soccer League.
In 2018, Bekker received a call from his former coach at Sigma, offering a chance to be part of the new CPL.
“He was playing in the U.S. and the first phone call was to pitch him on this project that none of us knew where it was going to lead,” said Bobby Smyrniotis, now Forge’s head coach and sporting director.
“And it’s eight years later, (almost) 250 games for him later, and being part of a club that has accomplished everything with him at the forefront. It’s been absolutely fantastic to see.”
What Smyrniotis saw in Bekker wasn’t simply a player who brought great technical abilities, but also a mature, honest young man who could be a trailblazer and mentor for up-and-coming athletes.
“I thought there was no better person who could represent what we wanted to do on the field and off the field for that next generation of players that we were bringing in here,” he said.
Bekker played 239 games for Forge across all competitions, amassing 27 goals and 32 assists. He tallied 27 of those assists in CPL regular-season play, the second most in the league’s history.
During that time, Forge won four CPL championships and finished the regular season atop the standings three times. The club also reached the Canadian Championship final twice, and the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals once.
“When I first came in, by no means did I think that we’d be playing Champions League … and playing in these massive games that the Forge faithful have just become accustomed to,” Bekker said. “Like, we’re playing MLS teams year in and year out. We’ve had incredible results every time we’ve come up against them. We’ve lifted trophies.
“It’s so ridiculous to think how much we’ve achieved in such a little time and how much there still is to go.”
Before the 2026 campaign began, Bekker sat down first with Smyrniotis, then with Scott Mitchell, chief executive officer of Forge’s owner, Hamilton Sport Group, and told them about his plans to retire at the end of the season.
Then came startling news — Bekker was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
After undergoing surgery, he began working his way back into the Forge lineup. Doing so meant putting into practice so many of the lessons he’d learned across an expansive career, from how to be a good teammate to the importance of trusting the process.
“The road to recovery was never going to be a linear one, and there were highs and there were lows,” Bekker said. “And it was sort of ‘How do I navigate this to get back to what I felt that I was capable of doing and being for the group?’ … How can you just be that positive voice and that positive role model?”
“And by no means am I perfect in any sense, but sort of with that reflection, it was a new perspective and it definitely helped a lot.”
The midfielder played his first game of the season on May 2.
Last month, there was more bad news when Bekker was hurt while playing against Supra du Quebec in the Canadian Championship semifinals.
Learning the knee injury would end his season came at a notable time.
“I get the MRI confirmation that my ACL is ruptured, all that stuff and two days later, I have to go for a six-month checkup to make sure that I’m still cancer-free,” he said. ”And all of a sudden, the knee’s not a really big situation for me for a few days.”
Bekker — who remains cancer-free — had already decided his professional playing career was at its end. The knee injury simply meant the end came sooner than expected.
“I made this decision when I was completely healthy — or at least knew I was completely healthy from the outside looking in,” he said. ”It’s something that I was sort of at peace with. And it definitely helped in terms of the obstacles that I’ve had to face this year. I think it’s given some much-needed perspective being faced with two obviously really big challenges.”
Forge (14-4-5) will celebrate their stalwart leader when they host Inter Toronto on Oct. 12.
Bekker plans to stay involved with soccer and has had conversations about what that might look like, but said nothing has been confirmed yet.
What’s clear, though, is that this is the time to step off the field.
“I’m very passionate about this game,” Bekker said. ”I fell in love with this game at a very young age, and I’ve been very lucky to carve out a career and do it for a living for as long as I have.
“I kind of always joked about going until the wheels fell off or … until I knew the time was right. It’s tough to really put into words what that moment was, but there was just a feeling finishing the year last year, coming into this season that it felt like the right time for me to sort of go on, this was going to be the last one.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2026.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
