haha. i know. i'm just saying that i capped him for brazil. i was just saying that sometimes i wished the real world were like video games. that's all.
i have to hand it to geovanni. i admire him because i think he made the right decision. he made it clear he wanted to play for his country, mexico, unlike de guzman who is so damn ambiguous. it would be very easy to just play for brazil...although I think the choice wouldve been a bit more interesting if both his parents were Brazilian. i hope de guzman makes the right choice here. dos santos could have even played for spain... it's funny. this whole concept of identity. i was born and raised here in the US to Brazilian parents and even I wouldnt feel comfortable playing for the US (if i were ever good enough hah). it's obvious that a lot of the players out there just have money and glory on their mind instead of playing with their hearts.
From this match report: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=192200&cc=5739 I wonder how long the contract is for ...
According to a post on the feyenoord thread it is til 2010... https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7093945#post7093945 i suppose it's probably to up his transfer fee, cuz i doubt he'll be there more than another year or two
i don't think he's been in spain long enough. there was talk of spain trying to poach him, when the time was right. one more question. why giovanni to brazil? i hope jonathan opts for canada. he'd be a hell of a player to up against in concacaf. reminds me of nery castillo. he was born in mexico, when his dad was playing there. his dad is from uruguay. a few years ago, the mexican NT and uruguayan NT came knocking. he said no to uruguay, and no a u-23 mexican call up. he said he'd play for the senior mexican NT, if given the chance. lavolpe said no, then came a whole mess with offers and rejections, and then some rumors that he was waiting on an italian call up in the future (he has an italian passport, but doesn't really have a shot at the italian team. now that i think about it, when camoranesi was in mexico, never pictured him on the italian NT, but after argentina rejects you, why not?) anyway, jonathan will be capped at some time, i just hope that he doesn't get capped by holland then get lost in the depth of the squad. i prefer his NT career get shortened because he refuses to play for canada than not making the dutch team (which could've been done with nery. one call up, a couple minutes, and BAM he's mexican. then mexico never calls him again and his NT career is over.)
Wow, I just read this thread through and I must say that I haven't read a single thing about this national-side-thing here in Dutch newspapers. He's in the news now because he's doing great a.t.m. and he's a young new player but I don't think it's an issue here (yet) whether he plays for Holland or Canada. Didn't know this was such a big thing already here.
This all makes me very thankful Ryan Giggs chose, probably at great personal expense, to play for Wales.
That's a great example actually. Didn't Giggs join United as a young teen and therefore was "developed" by ManU? Yet, he chose to represent his homeland and foresake "World Cup glory"...
I've heard from dutch television that marco van Basten watched him play with feyenoord and was inpressed with his play (guzman, duh). And after the game he asked the people from Feyenoord If he wanted to play for Holland etc.
good ol' van basten. getting greedy. looks as if kalou is one step closer to wearing orange. man, i hope de guzman isnt next.
Van Basten's only doing his job. It's up to whether De Guzman will be a man, or take the easy way out.
Whether he plays for Canada or Holland, there is no doubt he is a man. If you're going to start wondering about 'manliness', you have your issues at home there fella:
But surely there must be some responsibility placed on the manager of the 'adopted' nation in these scenarios. If he caps players like Kalou and De Guzman, it hurts the identity of the Dutch national team, deprives their home nations (Canada and Ivory Coast) of talented footballers, and cheapens the the honour which comes with wearing the shirt of your country. Not to mention it keeps young Dutch players out of the squad, which is a shame considering all the youth talent Holland has, and the fact that these youngsters have probably grown up dreaming of wearing the Oranje jersey, for the love of their country and national pride, whilst players like De Guzman would wear it only for the glory. Canada is itself maybe guilty of this, but most of the players, if not all, would never be in contention for the squads of their home nations.
While I wouldn't agree with the decision to play for Holland, these two players will have gone through the standard immigration procedures and will be as Dutch as any other immigrant.
Well, de Guzman yes. Kalou no. Kalou still technically has about 1 year left and they're trying to expedite it by saying he is of important "cultural value" or something, which to me, is rediculous. The Netherlands, especially, has been guilty of getting very young players. They would always get like 15 year old Brazilians until our football federation changed the rules that only 18 year olds could leave to play abroad.
its funny I see this thread. Did you know De Guzman alert Jamaica about his eligabilty but they werent interested. His mother is Jamaican. So JA is also in the case. If he plays for holland I'll think it would be a bad move. Canada or JA is his best bet for regular international football
Of course they wouldn't be interested! they have loads of 18 yr olds playing in European top flight leagues scoring goals...
guzman is a good player that he is in a situation where who will he play for? canada right now are not doing so well and really you never know but canada has a young brass of talent coming and i cant wait to see.