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The other side of the Asmir Begovic story


jonovision

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quote:Originally posted by Canuck Oranje

Maybe not the best place to post this but I've had comments made to me by people who should know that lead me to ask this question?

Does the CSA pay the full cost of players who choose to play for Canada? All the time? I can't verify either way but I wouldn't take the comments by our national association at face value.

Let's just say that I sense that the difficulties in playing for Canada sometimes are more than just travel logistics and releases from clubs.

I would be interested in finding out what others have been told. And no. this is not from an arrogant or self-absorbed veterin of the national team.

You need to ask the question differently .. for example ask, does a professional player in contract recieve a Carded athelete payment from Sport Canada based on the CSA recommendation ?

So could a player earning $300,000 a year playing for TFC or Bolton still be paid by Sport Canada a tax free stipend of $20,000.00 per year ?

Then ask, when called up does a player recieve a per diem that is the same all other team members, or are payments and per diems negogiated on and individual basis ?

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First of all, my source wasn't referring to Begovic.

Second, I'm interested in the whole issue of who pays what when a player attends national team camps and/or national team games. And I would be equally shocked if a professional athlete received carded athlete payments especially when development costs are being paid by the professional club he plays for. In my books, it would be the same as an NHL hockey player receiving payments because he happens to be in the national team pool.

quote:Originally posted by Trillium

You need to ask the question differently .. for example ask, does a professional player in contract recieve a Carded athelete payment from Sport Canada based on the CSA recommendation ?

So could a player earning $300,000 a year playing for TFC or Bolton still be paid by Sport Canada a tax free stipend of $20,000.00 per year ?

Then ask, when called up does a player recieve a per diem that is the same all other team members, or are payments and per diems negogiated on and individual basis ?

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quote:Originally posted by BringBackTheBlizzard

Are you referring to the fact that Fernandes was born in Edmonton and raised in East Vancouver? Much more comparable with the likes of Lensky and Hargreaves in that regard than to Begovic, in my opinion. He also has actually made it as a regular starter at a very high level, while it's still more a case of projected potential at this point where Begovic is concerned.

I was under the impression that the CSA rejected Fernandes from the U-20's due to character issues and then he went to Portugal.

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^^^I see where you are coming from now. All I remember clearly of that saga is the "You Haters!" posts of his idiot friends from East Vancouver on the old Network54 board. Could be wrong but I think a prominent poster on here who lives in Barcelona may have got in touch with him at the time. Might be some interesting posts on that buried away in the Voyageurs board archives.

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I think its sort of unfair to say the CSA rejected Fernandes.

I believe it was the coaching staff that did that.

To be fair, our best ever U-20 run was with the keeper that was selected ahead of Fernandes.

Marcello Lippi continues to reject calling Cassano, but I don't hear anyone in Italy blaming the FIGC. But in Canada we love to hate the CSA so its always their fault.

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as the months go by fernandes probably will not be active with portugal(he has dropped down the pecking order) so you never know..he may get the desire to play international football and canada could be that option right in time for the next cycle of WCQ. as for asmir...he took the chance to go to the world cup and at least he probably will have a good seat on the bench to watch bosnia's best chance ever blow up right in front of his face (although I really don't want to see portugal qualify either).

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quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack

Is Fernandes injured? I've noticed that he is now the 3rd choice keeper on a rather bad Bochum. If he isn't injured, there is no wonder he doesn't get called by Portugal.

He would fit perfectly into Canada's keeper picture. Another keeper that doesn't really play. How many of those do we have?

I have not heard anything about him being injured although when you are 3rd choice keeper news reports are not very frequent. He definitely wasn't injured when he lost his starting job at the start of the year. Apparently Bochum was not satisfied with his inconsistent performances last season and gave his backup, Heerwagen, the starting position. Heerwagen played well but then got injured and Fernandes got to start. Despite Bochum losing 3-2, Fernandes still got a pretty good rating from Kicker. Nevertheless, Bochum decided to give the 3rd string keeper, Luthe, a chance and he played 3 very strong games (4 if a DFB Cup game is counted). Heerwagen has since returned and played 3 games (one good, one average and one poor performance). Regardless things don't look very promising for him at Bochum presently and I doubt he will have much chance in the near future in the Portugese setup.

Fernandes got into the Portugal setup at a time when they were very weak at the keeper position and probably before he had done anything to merit a call to a top national team. This is in stark contast to the fact that he had for quite some time been meritous of a call to Canada especially when we were playing weak teams like Luxembourgh. Portugal is stronger at the keeper position than earlier and also has some strong young keepers coming up so I think Fernandes would be wise to consider a switch back to Canada if he wants to continue an international career.

Most of the guys who have switched to other countries I wouldn't want to see come back. I might be able to hold my nose if JDG2 came back because we need that type of player and his brother plays for us but the rest I don't think deserve to wear our colours. Fernandes on the other hand always said he wanted to play for Canada. While we all know that such statements have not meant much in the past from certain players, he was never given the chance to prove it true or false. At the time he made his decision it was a decision not between Portugal and Canada but between Portugal who wanted him and no international career as it seemed Canada was not interested in him and had possibly blacklisted him (ie. it didn't look like if he waited it out he would get his chance). Maybe he would have chosen Portugal anyway but at the time he made his decision Canada was not an option so I don't blame him for his choice. Although he is not playing right now I think we would still be getting a keeper at Hirschfeld's level and a bit younger and a definite competitor for the starting position.

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