It’s been a long and blessed while since any key member of the Canadian Soccer Association braintrust has freely admitted in public he has no idea whatsoever what is really going on in the Canadian game.
That streak got blown to Pluto this week, when CSA veep Victor Montagliani ripped into Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps over changes to what constitutes a “domestic player” in Major League Soccer.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
In a nutshell, Canadian MLS teams used to have to give six roster spots to Canadian players. Now, they don’t have to give any.
“We feel let down a little bit by MLS, but the Canadian clubs have really let us down,” Montagliani told the open microphone of Vancouver Sun sports scribe Bruce Constantineau.
If you’re a soccer fan and this move sounds disastrous to you, stick around and I’ll happily talk you through it.
If you’re a member of the CSA and you don’t see the problem here – well, I’ll try to kind and patient, but no promises.
Under the old system:
- Toronto FC tried hard to develop young Canadian players for the pros. In four years, only one such player has been able to crack the starting lineup, and meaningfully contribute. That would be Nana Attakora, of course, and any future gifts he gives the national team will owe a significant debt to TFC.
- Other than Nana, the gulf between kicking-around-Canada and playing MLS soccer has been insurmountable. Gabe Gala got to score a cracker of a goal against Real Madrid, but has almost no playing time to show for four years. And the 2007 public self-destruction of young Canadian striker Andrea Lombardo wasn’t good for anyone.
- If one Canadian MLS team can’t find contributing stay-at-home Canucks, howzabout two? … Or three? The system had to change, because there simply aren’t enough local pros who aren’t playing in Europe who can usefully fill that many roster spots. Not even close.
Under the new system:
- Somewhere in the vicinity of a dozen or more Canadian soccer prospects will not be forced into high-pressure jobs they simply aren’t ready for. That has to be a good thing.
Montagliani wasn’t done:
“This just goes to show you can’t rely on professional clubs to develop Canadian players,” he gaffed. “They can wax poetic that they’re here for Canadian development but at the end of the day, their number-one priority is to put a winning team on the field, regardless of where the players come from.”
Three things:
- All three Canadian pro clubs are investing heavily in youth soccer academies. The Whitecaps toss a million bucks a year at player development, some of which they nicely recouped when hot young goal-poacher Marcus Haber was sold on to West Bromwich Albion of the English Premier League.
- Toronto FC recently signed two players from its academy – Doniel Henry and Nicholas Lindsay – to pro contracts. The club is also racking up frequent-flyer miles to Mexico, studying the gigantic youth soccer set-up at Pachuca. Huge investment in training facilities is imminent.
- Compare that – and similar, more modest efforts by the Montreal Impact – to the rag-tag mesh of provincial rep teams that have been under-developing generations of Canadian soccer talent. Compare solid, wealthy, motivated backing to a national set-up that still actually funds national teams primarily by boosting fees charged to amateur players.
And another thing:
MLS relies heavily on the American NCAA college soccer system to produce the bulk of its players. Canadian teams have some big problems with that.
While the NCAA is loved passionately by its fans and undoubtedly produces some entertaining games, it is globally poor as a player-development system. NCAA graduates tend to be 22 or 23 years old, ancient for starting pro careers on the world stage, and have spent four key development years playing really-not-that-many-games against honestly-not-very-strong competition.
That produces a decent crop of MLS pros – guys who can contribute in the league for five years and are no threat to ever depart for Europe. Sam Cronin, if you will. If that’s how they want to develop talent Stateside, good luck God bless to all concerned.
Up here, though, we have a huge sucking vacuum where our player-development system ought to be – and we’re not content to drink the NCAA kool-aid.
Rather than waiting for the CSA to get its muddled act together, the Canadian clubs are doing what should have been done generations ago – spending real money and creating a genuine ladder for promising potential pros to climb.
Victor, I know Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi was in town this week. I ran into him in that interminably awful elevator at BMO Field on Tuesday night. I know everyone was talking player development, and I know he was squarely in your sites when you lost the bigger plot.
Are you seriously comparing your vision of the game to that of a guy who played for Canada in the 1986 World Cup, coached the Canadian national team in World Cup qualifying, and a huge driving force behind the present player-development revolution taking place in B.C.? Do you honestly think the Whitecaps can’t handle the twin goals of fostering the future of Canada’s national teams – and being competitive in MLS?
Frankly, sir, I’ll take his word for it over yours.
I understand these issues are confusing. I understand how – on first, cosmetic site, it might look like TFC and the ‘Caps are wriggling out of their Canadian commitments.
I do not understand – will not understand – how someone as highly placed in the CSA as Victor Montagliani could be this wrong.
It speaks to deeper problems that still must be addressed, and is a ringing endorsement for the sweeping governance changes the CSA is glacially considering.
Onward!