BringBackTheBlizzard Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I suspect the whole point is that in order for our sport to get to the next level (and not coincidentally from an MLSE standpoint for TFC to reach its full potential) Canada's top soccer player should be a household name just like Steve Nash and Sidney Crosby and that is a lot more likely to happen if he is playing in Toronto in games televised on CBC rather than somewhere like La Corunna or Pamplona in games that are shown only on some obscure digital cable channel. MLSE have consistently said that they are not interested in what they perceive as minor league sports operations when the question of women's soccer franchises has been broached. Although the prevailing view on here is that TFC should be for emerging wannabes who are looking for a stepping stone to Europe and returning washed up hasbeens in CMNT terms I doubt very much that is a vision shared by the likes of Tom Anselmi and Richard Peddie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superbrad Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca The latest update from the CBC (from Vijay, who's actually at the Gold Cup) is that Julian is still leaning towards Europe. Here's the article... By Vijay Setlur COLUMBUS, Ohio - Toronto FC wants Julian de Guzman. He may not want them as much. The Canadian midfielder said Tuesday night it's unlikely he'll accept Toronto FC's contract offer to be the Major League Soccer club's designated player. "Toronto did come up with a very lucrative offer, but I haven't made a decision yet," said De Guzman, winner of the Gold Cup 2007 most valuable player award. "Me, personally, I want to stay true to myself and I'm still leaning to Europe, preferably Spain." De Guzman addressed reports of the offer after Canada defeated El Salvador 1-0 in CONCACAF Gold Cup to move closer to a quarterfinals berth. Reports surfaced Tuesday in Canada that Toronto FC director of soccer Mo Johnston offered de Guzman, whose contract with Spain's Deportivo La Coruna has expired, a deal to make De Guzman it's designated player - which under Major League Soccer rules allows the team to circumvent the salary cap. According to the reports, De Guzman has received offers from clubs in England, the Netherlands and Spain. If he did accept the offer to join Toronto FC, he would join a team that already has three Canadian internationals in attacking midfielder Dwayne De Rosario and defenders Jim Brennan and Adrian Serioux, all of whom declined to participate for Canada in the Gold Cup. De Guzman, 28, has 39 international caps and four goals since making his senior national team debut in CONCACAF Gold Cup 2002. The Canadian men's Player of the Year in 2008 started his club career with Germany's Hannover 96 in 2002 before moving to Deportivo La Coruna of Spain in 2005. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doopy Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 JDG - Stay in Spain... if MLS refuses to adhere to FIFA calendar and he goes to TFC, we may not see him play national games in the summer... per Brennan, DeRo, Seri'o. Unless WCQ, then I think they would all play for Hart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPjr Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 quote:Originally posted by doopy JDG - Stay in Spain... if MLS refuses to adhere to FIFA calendar and he goes to TFC, we may not see him play national games in the summer. Don't be surprised to hear in the near future that there is a movement afoot, spearheaded by TFC and supported by at least a few fellow MLS clubs, to have MLS create a rule that would require the league to postpone and reschedule regular season league matches involving teams where one or both teams is missing a certain number of players (not sure how many) who are called to play for their NT. The catch is that this would apply only on FIFA match days. If this happens, TFC letting players go for friendlies or WCQ won't be an issue. Canada fans would be happy and so would fans of TFC. This would be helpful to Whitecaps when they join MLS as well, assuming they try to recruit some MNT players. Not sure how this would apply for a tournament like Gold Cup. The MLS player association is supportive of this. Makes a lot of sense to me as a reasonable accomodation for FIFA dates by this league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aljarov Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Not before time. It exists most other leagues and is really a minimum expectation now...especially since TFC/MLS showed how easy it was to move games for nice fat $125 a ticket games against Madrid. Sorry, that sounded horribly cynical, but really watching games in the summer during international 'season' has been painful. Who wants to watch (and pay to watch) an MLS' teams reserves....and that's for the games when they actually have enough players to dress 18 guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 quote:Originally posted by VPjr Don't be surprised to hear in the near future that there is a movement afoot, spearheaded by TFC and supported by at least a few fellow MLS clubs, to have MLS create a rule that would require the league to postpone and reschedule regular season league matches involving teams where one or both teams is missing a certain number of players (not sure how many) who are called to play for their NT. The catch is that this would apply only on FIFA match days. If this happens, TFC letting players go for friendlies or WCQ won't be an issue. Canada fans would be happy and so would fans of TFC. This would be helpful to Whitecaps when they join MLS as well, assuming they try to recruit some MNT players. Not sure how this would apply for a tournament like Gold Cup. The MLS player association is supportive of this. Makes a lot of sense to me as a reasonable accomodation for FIFA dates by this league. Wow, that would be awesome if it comes to fruition. The Canadian clubs really seem to be forcing MLS to grow up a bit. Vancouver with its total club structure and TFC with its approach to marketing the game as a true "big time" sport that caters to actual soccer fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKottonmouthed1555362307 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I see him reuniting with his little brother in Feynoord Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obinna Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I don't think he is going to want to play at Feynoord, but he did mention interest in Holland for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 From the Dobber: First, Julian DeGuzman. Despite what you might be hearing, he is nowhere close to accepting a lucrative offer to play in Toronto. It still could happen as the pile of dough they're throwing at him has made him ponder the situation. But he desperately wants to remain in Europe. It is getting close to crunch time however. If no serious offer from Spain or Germany is forthcoming, the dollar signs from MLSE will be hard to ignore. http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2009/07/12/dobson_tfc_right_moves/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marktci Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 quote:Originally posted by jpg75 From the Dobber: First, Julian DeGuzman. Despite what you might be hearing, he is nowhere close to accepting a lucrative offer to play in Toronto. It still could happen as the pile of dough they're throwing at him has made him ponder the situation. But he desperately wants to remain in Europe. It is getting close to crunch time however. If no serious offer from Spain or Germany is forthcoming, the dollar signs from MLSE will be hard to ignore. http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2009/07/12/dobson_tfc_right_moves/ This may just be semantics, but doesn't that say that he IS somewhere close to accepting a lucrative offer to play in Toronto? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trueviking Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 it sounded to me in the interview that a return to spain is most likely...it was clear that he feels the timing is not right for TFC and he used the past tense when he mentioned the england and holland offers....he refered to them almost in passing. i would love to see him in england, but my money would be on another spanish club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKottonmouthed1555362307 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 As much as he is still in his prime and an efffective player at a high level of football. After becoming a bench warmer in the end of his Depor career; I don't see him getting an offer from a team thats in better or even the same positon as depor in terms of Eupropean competion. Not only will TFC's offer be lucrative their is the enticment of playing high level CONCACAF football in the Champions League. That being said we will learn wehat JDG is truly about with this upcoming move if he stays in eurpe it will be becuase of his passiona nd love for the sport at an high level of football regardless of payment or championship calibre team. If he opts to tak ehte money and run to TFC it may be sorta a black eye especially being under the harsh critzies of what a DP brings JDG will be under the same amount of pressure as Becks was except he will be coming home to play in front of his hometown fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 You're crazy if you think JDG would be under anywhere near the same pressure as Beckham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKottonmouthed1555362307 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Are you kidding me. He would garner major buzz and TFC fans are as fickle as Maple Leafs fans probably cause they are both in the same. I know for a fact Beckham didn't feel any pressure becuas eh has no loyalty to LA he has Loyalty to England. De Guzman is fromt he Toronto area and is in his prime. Yu think the De Ro build up was something. If JDG signed for TFC BMO field would expolde. People expectaion and hopes for the club would sky rocket any thing less than a long play off run and getting farther than the USL-1 divison Islanders and Impact would surely be on the mind sof every TFC fan. Its not just a high paid DP its a hometown hero. He would be under not only have much pressure from above and the fans but he would put a lot more on himself than Beckham ever did wearing a Galaxy jersey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 quote:Originally posted by TheKottonmouthed Are you kidding me. He would garner major buzz and TFC fans are as fickle as Maple Leafs fans probably cause they are both in the same. I know for a fact Beckham didn't feel any pressure becuas eh has no loyalty to LA he has Loyalty to England. De Guzman is fromt he Toronto area and is in his prime. Yu think the De Ro build up was something. If JDG signed for TFC BMO field would expolde. People expectaion and hopes for the club would sky rocket any thing less than a long play off run and getting farther than the USL-1 divison Islanders and Impact would surely be on the mind sof every TFC fan. Its not just a high paid DP its a hometown hero. He would be under not only have much pressure from above and the fans but he would put a lot more on himself than Beckham ever did wearing a Galaxy jersey. Um, you realize that the entire MLS - not just one team - hinged its hopes on Beckham. The hype of Backs coming to LA was about 1,000,000x anything JDG coming here would create. It's not even comparable. It wasn't just one stadium "exploding". It was 70000 in Giants Stadium, 50000 in DC, 40000 in New England, etc, etc. All of tose people expected Beckham to score a hat-trick every game. The situations aren't even comparable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPjr Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 An updated from Kristian Jack at The Score http://my.thescore.com/footyblog/archive/2009/07/15/21336.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 quote:Originally posted by VPjr An updated from Kristian Jack at The Score http://my.thescore.com/footyblog/archive/2009/07/15/21336.aspx "For what it is worth I am hearing from the De Guzman camp that they continue to explore avenues in Spain, which is clearly the player's choice, but the continued increases in offers from Toronto and the MLS (it's now more than the first reported $10 million over 3 and a half years) have made him seriously consider playing in North America. Something, for example, he had no interest of doing at this time of his career when asked by The Score back in December." Pretty much sums up the situation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 quote:Originally posted by TheKottonmouthed Are you kidding me. He would garner major buzz and TFC fans are as fickle as Maple Leafs fans probably cause they are both in the same. I know for a fact Beckham didn't feel any pressure becuas eh has no loyalty to LA he has Loyalty to England. De Guzman is fromt he Toronto area and is in his prime. Yu think the De Ro build up was something. If JDG signed for TFC BMO field would expolde. People expectaion and hopes for the club would sky rocket any thing less than a long play off run and getting farther than the USL-1 divison Islanders and Impact would surely be on the mind sof every TFC fan. Its not just a high paid DP its a hometown hero. He would be under not only have much pressure from above and the fans but he would put a lot more on himself than Beckham ever did wearing a Galaxy jersey. I think you are greatly overrating how well known JDG is in Toronto and Canada. Yes the hardcore fans would be happy and understand what a big signing he would be but I bet if we took a survey of even the number of season ticket holders who didn't know who he was the results would be disappointing. I think even DeRo is better known because he scores highlight reel goals and has been playing in North America while JDG has been a solid average player on mid-table Bundesliga and La Liga clubs that are seldom on tv here. When DeRo was signed I think at least some portion of the casual soccer or general sports fan looked on the paper and said "He's the guy who I saw scoring the bicycle kick goal on the highlights". I think among these people, a JDG signing announcement would get a reaction of "Who?" They might be impressed when they read what he has accomplished but up to now they are unaware of this. This is obviously unjust since JDG has far exceeded the accomplishments of DeRo and is a much better player but that is the way it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 The 10 million over 3 and a half years seems like a much more reasonable offer than the 7 million a year reported by MediaGuy which would be massively overpaying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 quote:Originally posted by Grizzly 1)When DeRo was signed I think at least some portion of the casual soccer or general sports fan looked on the paper and said "He's the guy who I saw scoring the bicycle kick goal on the highlights". 2) This is obviously unjust since JDG has far exceeded the accomplishments of DeRo and is a much better player but that is the way it is. Or #1 - He's the guy with the cool chicken dance goal celebration! #2 - They both are fun to watch but play different roles on a team. I wouldn't say "far exceeded" but playing in La Liga is a great accomplishment. #2 also makes me wonder if we have a list anywhere of years played by various Canadians in top leagues? EPL, La Liga, Serie A and Bund 1? Something for me to work on in my spare time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruud Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 What I like most about the offer is that it is a show of respect for his commitment - TFC is saying " Listen, your play over in Spain and now for the national team is not going unnoticed" - I think they know he's likely to refuse it (for now), but they are putting down notice that TFC will look for him at the right time to come to Toronto. Secondly, if TFC has real grass as of next year (please confirm...) suddenly interest in coming home to roost for De Guz, Radz and Stalteri doubles/triples/quadruples. Trust me, they'll be beating down the door to play in the best stadium in the MLS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 quote:Originally posted by Grizzly The 10 million over 3 and a half years seems like a much more reasonable offer than the 7 million a year reported by MediaGuy which would be massively overpaying. The $10 million was the original offer. It is much more now (as alluded to by Kristian Jack's blog). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 quote:Originally posted by Rudi The $10 million was the original offer. It is much more now (as alluded to by Kristian Jack's blog). He say it is more than the original 10 million not much more. If Media Guy is correct it would be something close to 25 million over 3.5 years which would be absolutely ridiculous and far, far more than he is worth. To be honest even the original offer is overpaying a bit in regards to what his worth would be in Europe but since he is a hometown boy it may be worth that for TFC. I would find it very hard to believe they would offer him anything close to what MediaGuy was reporting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 quote:Originally posted by Grizzly He say it is more than the original 10 million not much more. If Media Guy is correct it would be something close to 25 million over 3.5 years which would be absolutely ridiculous and far, far more than he is worth. To be honest even the original offer is overpaying a bit in regards to what his worth would be in Europe but since he is a hometown boy it may be worth that for TFC. I would find it very hard to believe they would offer him anything close to what MediaGuy was reporting. It is an outlandish offer, but I think TFC sees JDG as not only a marketable star but also a key cog in helping them become a true winning team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 quote:Originally posted by Rudi It is an outlandish offer, but I think TFC sees JDG as not only a marketable star but also a key cog in helping them become a true winning team. In addition, he locks up a canadian spot on the roster which allieviates the pressure of finding quality canadians and /or having to rush a Canadian prospect through the system. it also puts less pressure on you in recuiting and paying for international talent because you can now go into that market with an eye on specific needs. Dont forget that we have seen a certain reluctance or aversion to playing in TO by American players. Signing Deguzman, solves so many potential problem. And thats why they will over pay. Think of what the potential pool of professional soccer players is in the world. Now compare that to the potential pool of professional soccer players in the world WHO ARE CANADIAN? Its no secret to any neutral observer that canada's problem in international soccer is depth and thats because proper clubs structure are a very recent thing. This is a key trump card to hold with vancouver ( and possibly Montreal) comming on board in two years. When you have the best canadians tied up, what is left for your rival in Voyageurs cup ( and getting to the Champions league)to pick up? this is not that dissimilar to the CFL where the team with teh best Canadians consistently wins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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