The bruise over Aribim Pepple's right eye is a testament to the type of battles he has fought over the past four years in English football.
He uses his fingers to enlargen his eye slightly, showing the camera how red it still is, courtesy of a clash of heads against Lincoln City on Feb. 7. At the time, his eye swelled completely shut, but he returned a week later to score in a 4-0 win over Blackpool.
"It looks worse than it is, really," he tells CPLSoccer.com.
Pepple has had to overcome a lot since departing his hometown club, the Canadian Premier League's Cavalry FC, in 2022 to join Luton Town. In the four years since, he has been part of seven different clubs, mostly out on loan.
But with Plymouth Argyle this season in League One, he is back to doing what earned him his move abroad in the first place — scoring goals. A brace in a 3-0 victory over Wigan on March 10 put him up to 14 goals in all competitions this season, making him the most prolific Canadian player in Europe this year.
On Thursday, he received his first Canadian national team call-up for friendlies in Toronto against Iceland on March 28, and Tunisia on March 31.
CPL fans might remember Pepple for his remarkable goalscoring run in the summer of 2022, when he scored six goals for the Cavs in five games before earning his move to England. Now, several years later, he is scoring for fun once again.
"I just want to continue it," said Pepple. "But it's really a nice club to do that. It's the biggest fan base I played under, like 16,000 to 17,000 every game. We still want to get up and get promoted back to the Champ. So it's a big club, and it's enjoyable to play week in, week out."
Every stop on his incredible journey, first at Luton, then loaned out to Grimsby Town, Bromley, Inverness, Southend United and Chesterfield before signing for Argyle this off-season, has brought with it lessons that he is now putting into practice.
Just 19 when he initially joined Luton, who a year later would be promoted to the Premier League, Pepple admitted he was a little too assured of himself and his quick adjustment to the speed and competitiveness of the English game — even if Luton were clear that he would be loaned out upon joining the club.
"The naive part of me probably thought I was gonna go in there and walk in and be fine, especially because I was scoring goals in Canada," said Pepple.
It took him over a year to find the net, and even then it didn't come until a loan to Scotland with Inverness. Last year, however, the tide really started to turn. Joining Southend United in the National League, the fifth tier of English Football, Pepple found his form again with 10 goals in 20 league matches. In January of that year, he moved up to League Two, where he scored five more for Chesterfield.
"That was huge for me to play 20 games, 20 starts, play week in, week out," said Pepple. "Start scoring goals there, gave me the confidence, and stepped up again to Chesterfield, showed I could do it in the EFL. My confidence has just been from there, once I saw I could do it, I'm capable of playing at this level."
Now with Argyle, he is proving that point, and four years after a red-hot scoring stretch earned him a move to England, he is in the midst of another.
"It always seems like when I score goals, it comes in bunches," he said with a smile.
Cavalry still holds a special place in Pepple's heart. Born in Kettering, England, he moved to Calgary at age five. Coming through the Calgary Foothills program, he signed his first professional contract with Cavalry midway through their inaugural season at just 16 years of age.
"That was huge, because I was probably just planning to go to university, and after kind of see where it takes me," said Pepple. "So to Cavalry and Tommy [Wheeldon Jr.] to give me that opportunity, especially at 16 as well, to sign my first professional contract and to be around the pro players...It's huge, and all started with that opportunity."
He was thrilled to see Cavalry finally win a CPL title in 2024, and still keeps a close eye on the league from afar. Like many across the globe, he was enthralled by the scenes from this past year's snow-covered CPL Final, even if Cavalry lost to Atlético Ottawa. Pepple showed disbelieving teammates clips of the match, as in England matches are often called off for inclement weather.
"I had a lot of people ask me questions about the league, which is good to see, it's good to see the league is growing quite rapidly," said Pepple. "And obviously, a lot of players are getting moves and stuff like that from the league. It makes me proud to be now, like, 'this is where I come from'."
Having flown the Canadian flag in England over the past few seasons, he will now get to pull on the national team shirt. He knows that the runway to making the 2026 World Cup squad is a bit tight now, but having seen players at a similar level get called up in recent years, he isn't far away.
"Definitely, it's a goal of mine," said Pepple. "If I can get into the World Cup squad, that'd be lovely. If I can get into a squad after that, that'd be lovely. But 100 per cent, that's part of the reason I moved to Argyle as well. I knew it was a big club, and If I do well here, hopefully get the club in the Champ, it just makes it easier to get in."
All he can do now is keep scoring, and more career goals will surely follow.
