“Poland, Slovakia, Ireland, England, Northern England. I kind of know a thing or two about moving, and so does my partner Hannah,” Kris Twardek said with a smile during an interview with CanPL.ca this week.

His next journey will take him to Winnipeg, after his transfer from Atlético Ottawa to Valour FC was finalized. He heads to the Manitoba capital after one year with his hometown club — a first professional season on home soil for the 27-year-old after over a decade abroad.

“Honestly, it’s kind of cool as a Canadian that left pretty young to get to see and experience different parts of the country,” he added. “I loved that last season as well, just flying into Victoria and landing in Winnipeg and Calgary, I hadn’t really seen these places, so it’s kind of nice to appreciate the beautiful place we live.”

It was a first Canadian Premier League campaign with highs and lows both individually and collectively. After a fantastic start to the season, which included Twardek scoring a late winner on his debut and celebrating it with a now-famous knee slide on the TD Place turf, Ottawa were flying high and seemingly on their way to a second regular season title in three years. A slump in the second half of the season, however, saw them drop down to third place, missing out on the CPL Shield before being eliminated in the semifinals of the playoffs by provincial rivals Forge FC.

The second half of the year was also “disappointing” personally for Twardek as he watched a lot of it from the sidelines. After starting 19 of the first 21 games of the season in all competitions, Twardek was dealing with an injury and limited playing time down the stretch, starting just once more the rest of the year.

The decision to leave Ottawa was made at the end of the season. Valour came calling, and he jumped at the chance to explore a new opportunity and head one province west.

“I’m really excited,” Twardek said. “I was keen to come, Valour was keen to bring me in, and it honestly happened quite quickly. I’m glad it’s all finalized now. New challenges are always so exciting for athletes and soccer players, so it’s a cool challenge.

“I pushed a lot for this. I was excited for the opportunity, and I just think it’s going to be a good fit playing-wise. For me, it was just purely positive and purely an exciting challenge, and it’s something that I’m looking forward to.”

Early discussions with new head coach Philip Dos Santos have been promising, with the pair sharing similar ambitions for the season ahead. One thing that has been a priority for Valour when building their roster for 2025 has been making the playoffs for the first time in club history.

“[Conversations have been about] setting a standard that you really want to push and have a successful year and achieve something that the club hasn’t done yet, and building on a successful half of the season for Valour,” Twardek said. “I don’t know the exact numbers, but I have to assume Valour was up there in the second half of the season for picking up points, so that’s something exciting to build off, and just being a difficult team that’s hard to beat and and makes the league exciting.”

He’s right — in the second half of last year Valour turned things around dramatically from an early-season losing streak. Wins over playoff teams Forge FC, Pacific FC and York United among others nearly saw them creep into the postseason, before two losses in three matches to end the year saw them slip again and end up at the bottom of the table. The hope is that the club can build on that second half of the year and set the tone early for what could be a more successful season.

There have also been discussions about Twardek’s role on the pitch. He has primarily been a winger throughout his career, but last season he was deployed at right-back for most of the year. He expects to be playing a bit higher up the pitch again with Valour, but knows he is capable of sliding in anywhere he is needed on the right flank.

“I think it’s one of those things you can service both roles, but definitely I think a little higher up the field, probably providing a bit more of an attacking role to the team,” he predicted. “I view myself as just a box-to-box wide player, so really it’s more the coach’s view of how they see me in that role.

“I view myself as athletic, powerful, and if that wide attacking role is in a full-back role, in a wing-back role, or as a winger, it’s all kind of just adapting to the coach’s system.”

Twardek will look to add experience to a group that has many of its key players returning, something that was not the case a season ago when the club overturned the majority of the roster. He will be heading over to Winnipeg in about a month for the start of preseason, before the action gets underway in April.

There are several familiar faces in and around the squad that he believes will help his transition into the club when the time comes.

“I’ve worked with a number of players in that group, a lot of offseason training with some of the guys — the goalkeeper [Jonathan] Viscosi, some of the guys in the youth national teams with Dante Campbell, Shaan Hundal. There’s a lot of familiar faces there and I was former teammates with Daryl Fordyce, who’s in the coaching staff there as well.

“I think the ambition and goal for the group has to be to achieve something the club’s not done and getting [into the] playoffs, and I think there’s no reason that the club can’t,” he repeated. “It’s got great resources, great staff, great players … I think that’s got to be the motivation.

“Personally, bringing my experience to the group, creating chances from wide areas, getting some goals off the right and just having a successful season,” he said of his own objectives for 2025. “You can’t really put numbers on things, but I think just basically staying away from injuries, and just bringing as much quality as you can day in day out to have a successful season.”