Peschisolido, 37, who's been in the city for the past two weeks lending his expertise to his inaugural Pesch's Premier Academy soccer camp, notes he won't return for a 17th.

Last season, an Achilles heel injury in the early going as a striker with Luton Town Football Club kept him out of the lineup for almost the entire campaign.

"No, I don't think so," says Peschisolido on Friday of returning to the professional pitch in England. "This week, I picked up injuries just playing around with the kids. I'm calling it a day. At 37, I've surpassed my expectations of wanting to play until I was 34 or 35 years old."

In an interview in May, Peschisolido said the heel injury, suffered only two games into Luton Town's schedule, was slow to heal, but he held out hope at that time of a possible returning to competition later this year. As a free agent (he signed a one-year deal with Luton Town), he mentioned a couple of English clubs were interested in signing him to a contract. He also pondered a possible return to Canada to play professionally with Toronto FC of Major League Soccer.

In addition to Luton Town, Peschisolido had career stops at top-level clubs including Birmingham City, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Norwich City and Derby County.

He's also played 53 games for the Canadian national team and was voted player of the year in Canada in 1996.

The father of two, who's married to Karren Brady, the managing director of the Birmingham City Football Club, may be giving up on extending his English league playing career, which began in 1992 with Birmingham City, but the game will stay part of his day-to-day life. He's acquired his UFA 'B' licence for coaching, which he earned last summer. He said he'll eventually go for his 'A' licence, one which would allow him to manage at the highest levels of soccer.

"It's something I've always enjoyed doing. Coaching young lads has been very enjoyable. It should be beneficial to me in the long term."

Now that his Pesch's Premier Academy has been successfully launched, with approximately 200 players on the field for the two weeks of the academy, Peschisolido says he plans to make a yearly pilgrimage to Pickering to continue the camps. As well, his ultimate goal is to eventually build a school of soccer excellence in Canada, probably in Ontario, which produces a number of players who've thrived in European soccer.

"Ontario is a hotbed of soccer and I want to be build up a relationship with clubs and keep in contact with these clubs. I want to do coaching clinics as there's no point in working with (the kids) and the coaches don't know what we're doing."

In addition to coaching, he's currently partners in a company called RSR Sports Management with long-time associate Rob Segal that represents English football players.