"I'm a man of two hats," said Tomasz Skublak, after pulling a real estate business card from his sock, holding it to the camera, and flashing a "call me" gesture to the broadcast. Not your standard goal celebration. But then, the Canadian Premier League isn't your standard football league.
The Inter Toronto striker had just scored in a 4–1 home win over reigning champions Atlético Ottawa when he decided to squeeze in some free marketing. It went viral. And honestly? Fair enough.
The math makes the stunt make sense
The CPL minimum salary is CAD $30,000 — roughly USD $22,000 — in 2026. The entire league operates under a team salary cap of CAD $1,217,500 (about USD $895,000). You can't build a life in the Toronto area on those numbers, and Skublak isn't pretending otherwise. He's been a licensed real estate agent for three years, working the profession full-time during a stint in the Ontario Premier League before returning to the CPL this season.
"I spend a lot of money on marketing for my business outside of football," he said. "So I got some free marketing in here." Hard to argue with the logic.
He's 28, back in Canada's top division for the first time since 2019, and clear-eyed about what that means. "You're training every single day, you're doing video, making sure your body is recovering. The levels are obviously a lot better." The CPL demands more. The paycheck doesn't always match it.
This is where the CPL is right now
The league is in its ninth season, and the Skublak story is less novelty and more mirror. MLS players were doing the same thing in its early years — most famously D.C. United goalkeeper Troy Perkins, a 2006 MLS All-Star who also worked as a mortgage loan processor. D.C. fans made him a banner: "Troy saves and loans." The CPL is living that exact moment right now.
MLS minimum salaries hit $109,000 in 2026. The CPL is betting its future on a similar growth curve, with expansion franchises in the works across a country about to co-host the World Cup. The upside is real. But the gap between now and then is exactly the kind of gap you fill by keeping a business card in your sock.
