We are, of course, a nation of immigrants. There’s a metric honkload of Canadians who have parents or grandparents from somewhere else.
And that causes some serious headaches – and setbacks – for Canada’s national soccer teams.
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FIFA rules allow such players to play their international soccer for other nations. And the better they are as players, the more likely it is they’ll decamp. It hurts the program, and enrages Canada fans beyond endurance.
And I want to talk about all of it.
Back in 2001, of course, young Owen Hargreaves – a Calgary lad, with Welsh/English parents, who’d been played years in Germany for Bayern Munich – chose to trot out for England in the closing moments of their ringing 5-1 triumph over the Germans, three days before September 11.
Huge numbers of Canada fans still consider this an unforgivable betrayal. “Traitor,” “Whore” and “Judas” are the three most common epithets. The lad’s been called “Whoregreaves” more than Hargreaves in this parts in all the years that have followed.
A still-bitter fan actually said to me, in a soccer bar the other day, that Hargreaves would have had a better career if he’d chosen to play for Canada.
Hmm. Two starts in UEFA Champions League finals, winning both. Several seasons (until he was badly injured) as first-call holding midfielder for Manchester United – winners of the last three English Premier League titles on the trot. Oh, and internationally, likely England’s best player in the 2006 World Cup.
I fail to see how posing for Holger Osieck coaching rants on a Canada team that – despite winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2000 – wasn’t going anywhere was going to add to Hargreaves’ accomplishments.
To be fair, it was a hugely unpopular decision, and Hargreaves himself didn’t handle it well – particularly when he boarded that final airplane out of Canada while a room full of press (which he, himself, had summoned) stood around waiting for him at a still-famous Calgary press conference that didn’t happen.
I, too, have lamented his loss. Where I differ with most of his critics, though, is on whether he had the right to do it. Canada, in 2001, was years away from another shot at World Cup qualifying. Coach Osieck was publicly dismissing them as “a bunch of second-division players,” and chronic dysfunction at the Canadian Soccer Association was making bad situations worse by the minute.
One of the biggest questions was whether Hargreaves could even get on the field for England, let alone succeed. The answer to that one turned out – ringingly – to be “yes.”
FIFA rules say players are eligible to play for the country they hold a passport for. And, if their parents or grandparents hold different citizenship, those are possible destinations as well. In Hargreaves’s case, he had lived and worked in Germany long enough to be eligible there, as well.
Two sides to this coin:
Heads – It would be great if it were as simple as you play for the country you were born in. Okay, that’s a bit hard on refugees, but no one ever called Owen Hargreaves that. Fans the world over burn with this belief, and that’s mostly where the hatred originates.
Tails – The rules say it’s legal, and what’s more Canadian than going wherever you have the best chance to get the absolute most from your talent and opportunities?
In my case, my bloodlines all originate in the British Iles. But not for five or six generations. But my mom’s mom was born in Montana. So if FIFA rules applied to writing, I could represent either Canada or the United States, and that’s it. I would have no trouble picking Canada.
But if my forebearers had been a bit slower highsailing it out of Old Countries (England, Scotland and Ireland), I might have had a bigger choice. And while I’m happily and hopelessly Canadian, that larger pallet of possibilities might at least – intrigue.
No, I wouldn’t leave. But if a bunch of writing fans started loudly calling me names for even thinking about it in the first place – well, it wouldn’t be enough to push me out the door, but I know I wouldn’t feel good about it.
I fully understand the fan frustration. Great Canadian soccer players are rare, and the World Cup dream needs all the miracles it can get. In Hargreaves’s case, though, I still feel he would not have made a decisive difference for Canada – and that most of the fans who rip him for choosing England would be up in arms, pitchforks and torches if any government anywhere tried to slap the same working restrictions on them.
This entire debate took an infuriating new twist in recent times, with the case of young Jonathan DeGuzman. Even I’m bugged about this one – and that’s where we’re going next.
Onward!