Who is Aribim Pepple? Here’s how Plymouth Argyle’s breakout star became the latest CPL to CanMNT success story
Aribim Pepple has officially become the Canadian Premier League’s latest National Team success story, as the 23-year-old forward earned his first call-up to the CanMNT this week.
Included in Canada’s squad for their friendlies against Iceland and Tunisia later this month, this is a huge opportunity for the former Cavalry FC player, who has been on fire lately for EFL League One side Plymouth Argyle, putting together a run where he scored 12 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
Having caught the eye of Canadian head coach Jesse Marsch with his red-hot form, he’ll now get the opportunity to showcase his skills in Canada’s upcoming camp, as he makes a late push to try and get included in their 2026 World Cup squad.
He’ll face a tough road to make that happen, with Canada’s solid depth up front, but you just can’t rule him out based on how clinical he’s been in front of goal lately.
Now, he’ll look to replicate that goal-scoring form while wearing a Canadian shirt, further showing that while he’s one to watch for the future at his age, he’s ready to make an impact a lot sooner than expected.
Here’s what you need to know about the CanMNT’s newest call-up.
How did Pepple go from Cavalry to Plymouth?
Long before he ended up with Plymouth Argyle, Pepple took his first steps as a professional in his hometown of Calgary, where he had grown up since moving there from England with his family as a five-year-old.
As luck had it, the launch of the Canadian Premier League came at a perfect time for a 16-year-old Pepple, who had impressed enough during the CPL’s ‘Got Game’ open trials and in games with local semi-professional side Calgary Foothills to earn his first professional contract with Cavalry FC partway through the league’s inaugural season.
Immediately, he was thrust into action, too, as the teenager played nine times for Cavalry in the 2019 season, racking up 71 minutes across those appearances.
From there, he featured in five games in the 2020 CPL season, which was heavily impacted due to the pandemic, before heading on trial with English Premier League sides Sheffield United and Leicester City, using his UK passport to facilitate those moves. Eventually, though, he joined the youth side of La Liga outfit, Getafe, officially leaving Cavalry ahead of the 2021 season.
Despite that, Pepple’s story with Cavalry wouldn’t be finished. After spending a year with Getafe, he returned to the CPL for the 2022 season, and that’s where things took off for the then 19-year-old.
In just eight games across all competitions with Cavalry, he scored six goals, as he immediately hit the ground running to start the 2022 CPL season. Because of that, his stint back in Canada didn’t last long, as he was transferred to EFL Championship side Luton Town by the summer, as they decided to take a flier on Pepple.
"A goal scorer's a goal scorer: He's earned the opportunity to show what he can do in front of Jesse."
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 18, 2026
Cavalry FC manager Tommy Wheeldon Jr. on scouting & signing new CanMNT 🇨🇦 striker Aribim Pepple all the way back in #CPLsoccer Year 1 open trials ✨ pic.twitter.com/yMLEJO7YeZ
Unfortunately, though, Pepple never got a chance to showcase his abilities for Luton, who immediately loaned him to EFL League Two side Grimsby Town for the 2022–2023 season, the first of five different loans Pepple would have with his time at the club, with whom he never made an appearance.
After failing to score in 15 appearances with Grimsby, which led Luton to cut his loan short, he joined National League side Bromley for the 2023-2024 season, where he made six appearances and failed to score, leading him to be recalled by Luton once again. There, they then sent him to Scottish Championship side Inverness Caledonian Thistle, where he made 18 appearances, scoring just two goals and adding one assist.
Eventually, though, having learned from those loans, that led to a breakout 2024-2025 for a 21-year-old Pepple. Loaned back to the National League to start the season, this time with Southend United, Pepple did well to score seven goals and add two assists in 20 appearances for the club.
As a result, Luton recalled him in January before immediately sending him on loan to EFL League Two side Chesterfield, where he scored five goals and one assist in 23 appearances to cap off a solid season.
Yet, despite showing good signs of growth, that’d be the end of the road for Pepple at Luton, who, since signing the youngster, had been on quite the journey of their own, going up to the Premier League in 2023, before going back down to the Championship in 2024, and then down to League One in 2025.
Instead of keeping Pepple on for their first season back in League One since 2018-2019, however, they sold him to fellow League One side, Plymouth Argyle, who paid an undisclosed fee for his services.
Safe to say that move has proven to be a shrewd one for Plymouth, with Pepple now up to 14 goals across all competitions as of writing, which is second on the team behind Lorent Tolaj - although unlike Tolaj, who has scored four penalties this year, all of Pepple’s goals have been from non-penalty situations.
GOAL 🐎
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 11, 2022
Aribim Pepple makes it 1-0 @CPLCavalryFC over @HFXWanderersFC with a beautiful finish!🔥
🔴 https://t.co/7JFAUhgjL6 #CanPL pic.twitter.com/AhDPoN5zTg
What led to his 2025-2026 breakout?
While Plymouth will take credit for their decision to bring in Pepple, however, even they’ll have struggled to envision him taking a big leap forward in this way.
At the same time, it’s worth noting that there were signs in 2024-2025 that he could benefit from being in the right environment at a higher level, as he’s since proved with Plymouth.
In particular, his numbers across his stints with Southend United and Chesterfield suggested that he could be ready to take a big leap forward this season.
Firstly, with Southend United, he averaged 2.86 shots, 0.4 xG and 3.42 touches in the box per 90 minutes last year, showing that he was getting into good areas of the pitch, which is why he was scoring at a rate of 0.49 goals per 90 minutes.
Then, at Chesterfield, while his goals per 90 rate dropped to 0.3, he was even more dangerous: despite firing only 2.01 shots per 90, he still took 3.22 touches in the box and, more importantly, generated 0.47 xG per 90 minutes.
For context, across his two loans in the National League and the Scottish Championship in 2023-2024, he scored just 0.21 goals per 90, and only generated 0.26 xG and 2.00 shots per 90 - although he did have 3.47 touches in the box.
Yet, that was the biggest development in his game in 2024-2025. Clearly, as seen above, he saw a lot of the ball in the box before, but he didn’t turn those touches into quality goalscoring opportunities.
In 2024-2025, he started to do that, and that allowed him to quickly take off.
Bim's February catalogue 🎯 pic.twitter.com/rFwBJqaxOY
— Plymouth Argyle FC (@Argyle) March 13, 2026
That has only continued this year, where he’s averaging 0.56 goals per 90, thanks to the fact that he’s generating 0.5 xG, 2.8 shots and 3.4 touches in the box per 90. Therefore, while he’s only run hot since Boxing Day, with 12 of his 14 goals coming after that date, those numbers show that he’s been doing good things in and around the box all season long.
Plus, more importantly, it shows that while he likely won’t keep scoring at this torrid pace, he’ll still produce at a reasonable rate the rest of the season, given the numbers he’s generating.
Overall, though, credit has to be given to Plymouth for identifying Pepple and bringing him into this system, and to Pepple for how he’s adjusted to this league. Now, with the club just two points behind a promotion spot, they’ll both hope that they can finish this year on a high note and perhaps push to make the jump to the Championship - although based on his numbers this season, you have to wonder if a club in that league takes a punt on Pepple next season, no matter how this year ends for him with Plymouth. 
How does he play?
In a world where the striker position is constantly changing, Pepple is an old-school #9, operating as a typical poacher, one who makes a living with first-time finishes inside the box. That’s seen in his goal catalogue from this season, as 12 of his 14 goals have come inside of the box, with eight of those 14 goals coming in or just on the edge of the six-yard box.
What that shows, however, is how he’s done such a good job of generating xG, as he tends to shoot the ball quite close to the goal, averaging 0.18 xG per shot attempt. 
Here's a map of all of Pepple's 70 shots from this season, showing where he typically likes to generate attempts from (WyScout)
He can fire the ball from distance, as he’s scored a pair of great goals from beyond the 18-yard box this season, but typically, he makes his living by getting on the end of opportunities inside the box, which is what you want to see from a striker.
Thanks to his movement, he does a good job of opening up small windows to get on the end of crosses and passes from his teammates, and he also has good awareness for a striker, allowing him to anticipate rebounds and other half-chances.
“He just knows how to score goals,” Pepple’s old coach, Cavalry’s Tommy Wheeldon Jr., told OneSoccer this week. “It doesn't matter whether it was the youth level, the semi-pro level, the pro level, or now over to England, a goal scorer is a goal scorer. And he’s shown that, he's earned his minutes, he showed resilience in trying to earn those minutes, and now he's scoring goals at the right time.”
🎙️ "The man of the moment does it again!" pic.twitter.com/oBpijyZr9Z
— Plymouth Argyle FC (@Argyle) February 18, 2026
Then, for good measure, it’s worth remembering that Pepple’s also got a good build for a forward, which also allows him to get stuck in and contest aerial duels in the box if needed. To that last point, it’s worth noting that he’s averaging just a 24.5% aerial duel win rate, so it’s not as if he’s been dominant in that area, but considering that he’s contesting 8.31 aerial duels per game, you can’t fault his commitment.
At the same time, he still needs to polish out the rest of his offensive game, especially in terms of his link-up play. That’s shown in the fact that he’s completing just 66.3% of the 12.34 passes he’s attempting per 90, and only generating just 0.44 key passes per 90, although he does have 0.09 xA per 90, which isn’t bad - that he’s also averaging 0.20 xA per key pass shows that he will set up teammates if they’re in good positions.
And, defensively, while he’s a committed and aggressive presser of the ball, he’s not turning that into interceptions and recoveries quite yet, which is what someone like CanMNT head coach Jesse Marsch will want to see from him.
Given his age, though, you have to imagine that he’ll keep rounding out his game, especially if he wants to play at a higher level. What’s important to see is that he’s got a knack for the things you can’t teach strikers, such as his ability to generate high xG chances for himself, which is what Plymouth picked up on when signing him, and what will hopefully open the door for him to further move up the footballing pyramid.
“At any level he’s played at, he just wanted to win and just wanted to score goals,” Wheeldon Jr. added. “In training, he had this great resilience, as even if he'd missed a chance, he’d then go back and score the next one. He didn't really care about the last moment. He just wants to get on with the next moment.”
Where does he fit in the CanMNT?
Now, it’ll be fascinating to see where he fits in with this Canadian team going forward, both in the short and long term.
For the upcoming months, Pepple’s goal is simple - crack the World Cup squad. That will be very hard to achieve, no doubt, but Pepple will want to at least give himself a chance to be included in that team, and to do that, he’ll need to keep scoring for Plymouth, while also making an impression during this March camp.
Because of that, look for him to perform in training, earning him the chance to play minutes off the bench in these friendlies against Tunisia and Iceland - from there, he’ll want to generate chances and perhaps even score in those cameos, showing Marsch what he can do even in limited minutes.
But even if he doesn’t crack the CanMNT World Cup squad, which might not happen unless there are a few injuries to other forwards (no matter how well he plays), Pepple will be a player to watch in the 2030 World Cup cycle.
Especially if he can crack a squad in the Championship as soon as next year, that will allow him to be in the mix for call-ups like this more regularly going forward - despite his red-hot form as of late, it’s hard to imagine him earning this call if Promise David wasn’t dealing with an injury, for example. While his form for Plymouth has been good enough to put him in the discussion to earn a call-up, he’ll need to play at a higher level to be regularly considered for opportunities, without relying on injuries or other opportunities.
At just 23, though, he’s at an age where strikers can tend to breakout - two of Canada’s main options up front, the aforementioned Promise David and Tani Oluwaseyi, both burst onto the scene as options for Marsch around this age, and now are crucial parts of this Canadian set-up.
Certainly, if Pepple can keep scoring the way he has as of late, he’ll be harder and harder to ignore, especially if that form can open the door for him to move up the ladder in the club game, just as David and Oluwaseyi did.
