The Dutch sportsmagazine "Sportweek" evaluated the first half of the dutch soccer season. They gave ratings for the best team, top scorer etc. The meteor like rise of Jonathan de Guzman was expressed in the tabel with the rating for the best 15 players of the first half. Number 1 and 2 were Cocu and Farfan, both with PSV and with a rating of 6.94 out of a (im)possible 10. Jonathan was 3d, rated 6.92, leaving behind him Dirk Kuyt at number 4, rated 9.83 and also leaving behind him the topscorer for the moment, the 10million euro signing of Ajax, Huntelaar. You might think that is not a high rating, 6.92. But the Dutch and in particular the Dutch press are hard to please. He just played a limited number of games, but managed to put all the soccer power houses on alert.
Did anyone else know Julian's brother was playing in Holland? First I hear about it. We should cap him.
sorry Daniel, it''s become a hot topic . . .read the threads. we all hope he chooses Canada, but it doesn't look good
The "Voetbal Magazine" has in it's latest issue an article on the five hottest young players in Europe at this moment. Yep, you guessed it, Jonathan is mentioned as one of those five, including Kompany from Belgium. You can criticize the small number of players (truly there are more than those five), but perhaps it is the start of a series on the subject.
Yeah, but we're talking about a football magazines "hottest young players" so i doubt they care whether they're playing first team football or not. anyways, it was just a guess!
Daniel Alves (1983) playing for Sevilla, Michael Essien (1982) playing for Chelsea and Luca Toni (1977). I have to correct my poster, the magazine called them the hottest players on the rise to fame, not the youngest. I donot agree with their choice of Luca because of his age. Why has he been undetected until now? He is a good player, sure. But to put him in this serie of players? I can name several others that fit the bill of promise better. let me guess: theo walcott, mikel obi john and lionel messi I would have chosen one of them for sure, Lionel!! About Jonathan, last weekend he didnot play so well as usual. Feyenoord spilled points at home in a draw against Roda JC. Sportweek rated his performance with a 5 (out of a possible 10) and commented: he is human after all. Of course, it's just a kid and he will have his unevitable fall back, just as his young collegues at PSV, Aisatti and Affelay had, as it is the proces of maturing.
brazil needs to call up dani alves. spain tried calling him up but fifa shot down their request. apparently, he was already capped for brazil at the youth level.
Youth level call up doesnot count. As long as he isnot capped by the big selection he is as free as a bird.
yes and no. if he was a dual citizen at the time of the call up, then you are correct. dani alves was not spanish though when he played for the youth team, so he isnt free.
Tony Adams, the Arsenal superhero, who was training the Feyenoord youth for 6 months as part of his training education, said about Jonathan de Guzman that he has everything one needs to become a great player. He only has to get more muscles (or how do you say that in English, musclier?).
never at any level. he's been in the netherlands since he was 12. canada tried calling him up at the youth level and he declined saying he wanted to concentrate on his club career for the time being.
This may mean very little, but the Netherlands will not be at the 2007 WYC being held in Canada. They have already been eliminated from UEFA qualifying.
It probably means very little, i assume based on the interviews that he'll wait for a senior team call up before deciding...
In an interview with four Feyenoord youngsters that made it into the first team as 17,18,18 and 20 years old the last question the reporter asked was if they could see themselves as members of the Orange team for the 2010 WC. Jonathan said wisely: you donot mind me jumping that question.
And this is why I respect this kid a he!! of a lot more than He-Who-Shan’t-Be-Named. de Guzman isn't jerking anyone around. He's being up front about the fact that it is a tough decision (on an emotional level--it ain't tough from a logical level). He's also being candid about the reasons Canada will likely lose out. "I think they have only qualified for the World Cup once" was his quote. If de Guzman chooses Canada he will be kissing away a lot--a legitimate opportunity to win a World Cup, a change to play (and compete for a championship in) in the Euros and cold, hard cash. There isn't a lot of sponsorship coin in Canada for soccer stars. If he chooses Holland, he gives up a chance to play with his brother (which isn't insignificant) and a chance to give something back to a country that gave his family freedom and opportunity (also not insignificant). I suspect his head knows what he is going to do, but his heart won't let him say it out loud. And I hope he wins the 2010 World Cup. And that his brother gets to play three games in it too.
Funny you mentioned his brother! At the moment there is a legal battle going on between the gouvernement and Salomon Kalou, who desperately wants to play for Holland this summer, but is denied naturalisation speeded up. Salomon's brother played for Feyenoord too and as fait would have it they will play against each other this Worl Cup, should Salomon Kalou win his fight.
ahhh man. I know that thsi is preetty much a lost cause, but I do hope he chooses to play for Canada, especially for the U-20 in Canada. I think he'd get allot of exposure and become almost of a local herro to young soccer players in canada. We have no one to look up to hear as we do with other major sports. Heck, I even had a curler who I looked up to when I was growing up, but never a soccer player. It'll be nice for this generation of youngsters, especially when they see him play in canada in 2007.