powerof11 Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Tosaint and Red Nation discuss his experiences playing professional football in Finland, his current role with MyPa, his experiences playing for Canada at the U20 World Cup in Canada, the city of Edmonton as a market for professional soccer and his aspirations at the International level. Article and Podcast: http://www.rednationonline.ca/Tosaint_Ricketts_aug_27_10_feature.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 Another great pick for an interview subject. Sounds like an old prototypical MLS prospect what with his American university training and his athletic roots that didn't necessarily decide on soccer as his sport until later in life. The interview reminds me of Ademolu - just a guy riding it out on the talent he has and trying to enjoy himself while seeing a bit of the world at the same time. Nothing wrong with that. Good luck to the guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 This is a major bump but with him signing for Politehnica Timişoara I'm having huge hopes for him, I think he has a long way to grow and he's going to surprise a lot of people... he might be a mainstay on the nats before you know it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ed Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 This is a major bump but with him signing for Politehnica Timişoara I'm having huge hopes for him, I think he has a long way to grow and he's going to surprise a lot of people... he might be a mainstay on the nats before you know it Good luck to him. A late bloomer with lots of upside still - from the article: "I really don't think that I'm that close to reaching my full potential yet. Every day I am learning new things. Just watching football I am still learning. My coach told me that last year he was worried about my technical side and my touch and just last week he came up to me and said that he had never seen a player improve so much technically in just one year. And even with him saying that, I really feel like I can even get much better, as I am still learning," says Ricketts. "I'm still young to the game and I don't think it matters how old you are. If you are still young to something, then you still have something to learn and I feel like I still have so much to learn. I'm more than willing to learn and I don't think I have reached my full potential yet." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Standard Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Good to hear, hopefully gets a call up v Greece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 I had no idea he signed with another club, when did this happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Standard Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 "On 19 November 2010 Ricketts signed with the Romanian club Politehnica Timişoara for three years. At his presentation at the press conference, he said : "I'm glad I signed with Poli, to me is a step forward in my career. I can't wait to play at my new team and I can't wait to reunite "Poli" fans, which impressed me when I played here in Europa League with MyPa-47". He choose the 87 number." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havoc88 Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Wow, people wonder why players choose going to Finland/Norway over MLS? A Europa League game and now he's moved to a league/team that can get into the Champion's League, where it could happen all over again. Good for him, hopefully he's at a place where he can learn alot and keep on progressing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Wow, people wonder why players choose going to Finland/Norway over MLS? A Europa League game and now he's moved to a league/team that can get into the Champion's League, where it could happen all over again. Good for him, hopefully he's at a place where he can learn alot and keep on progressing. Europe does have the visibility advantage but I wouldn't group Finland and Norway together, there is a big difference in playing level between the leagues. Some players do manage to transfer/progress through the ranks in Europe but an awful lot stay at the first level they sign at. Leagues like Romania and Norway have a similar level to MLS but Finland is well below it. And players do transfer from MLS to Europe as well and often to better leagues than the Romanian. This is a big step up for him but it is still only to a second tier European league. The only reasons to choose Finland over MLS would be if MLS were not offering you much money or if you felt you would get more playing time/development playing in a lower level league. There is a reasonable number of Finnish players in other leagues in Europe but most transferred out of Finland at a pretty young age. The majority of Finnish players in the Finnish league stay there for the rest of their career and it will probably not be much different for the majority of North American players who would go there. Fortunately Ricketts is the exception. The following illustrates the step up in leagues well. First here is the stadium he was playing at for MYPA (the rainbow is permanent!). Their average attendance this year was 1.172 and their season high was 1.619: Timosoara's average attendance last year was 8.341 with the year's highest attendance being 25.000: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerof11 Posted November 24, 2010 Author Share Posted November 24, 2010 Some quotes from Tosaint: http://www.rednationonline.ca/Ricketts_Signs_With_Romanian_Side_FC_POLITEHNICA_TIMISOARA_november_23_10_article.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havoc88 Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Europe does have the visibility advantage but I wouldn't group Finland and Norway together, there is a big difference in playing level between the leagues. Some players do manage to transfer/progress through the ranks in Europe but an awful lot stay at the first level they sign at. Leagues like Romania and Norway have a similar level to MLS but Finland is well below it. And players do transfer from MLS to Europe as well and often to better leagues than the Romanian. This is a big step up for him but it is still only to a second tier European league. The only reasons to choose Finland over MLS would be if MLS were not offering you much money or if you felt you would get more playing time/development playing in a lower level league. There is a reasonable number of Finnish players in other leagues in Europe but most transferred out of Finland at a pretty young age. The majority of Finnish players in the Finnish league stay there for the rest of their career and it will probably not be much different for the majority of North American players who would go there. Fortunately Ricketts is the exception. I think I was referring more to perception than playing level necessarily - I don't think many would know (or see) the difference between MyPa and Tromso. As well - do you think Ricketts would have been able to make the move so quickly if he had been in MLS? Many of these deals are not on the table indefinitely, and as was noted the case with Poli, they need the striker now to close in on the title. Basically you need to be worth $5+ million for MLS to make a deal as quick as this one went down. IMO this is the attraction of going to somewhere like Finland - it might not be a step up from MLS but the contract flexibility is much greater because it's the club not the league who make it happen, as we've seen with Ricketts. And as he noted in the article - he's gone from playing his new team in Europa League, to now being 1 point out of Champion's League. Now he's in a position where he could end up playing a team bigger than his new one (like Hutchinson), where he'll be exposed to them with the potential to move up again. All I'm saying is this chain of progression, especially at 23, is very difficult if you start you career in MLS as you need to be extremely valuable for the league to consider moving you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obinna Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Another great pick for an interview subject. Sounds like an old prototypical MLS prospect what with his American university training and his athletic roots that didn't necessarily decide on soccer as his sport until later in life. The interview reminds me of Ademolu - just a guy riding it out on the talent he has and trying to enjoy himself while seeing a bit of the world at the same time. Nothing wrong with that. Good luck to the guy. While I understand where your comming from, I think his career may transcend simply enjoying himself and seeing the world. He has made quite the jump and I am actually surprised it came even at all, let alone this quick. Romania is likely on par with Turkey, and Josh's move there has really rejuvinated his career. Now look at Ricketts, four years younger, making the same kind of move, and perhaps even to a bigger club, as Timişoara will challenge for that Europa League spot every year, and occasionally challenge for Champions League. Like you and everyone else, I am also very excited about his move, and wish him luck and hope he can get into the team there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 I was worried that they might see Tosaint as more of a project signing but it seems the manager wants to throw him in right away and sees him as a pretty important player. Ricketts really needs to grab this opportunity with both hands, if he does he is going to go far as others have said he might find himself in the Champions League with a few MNT caps this time next year if he does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted November 25, 2010 Share Posted November 25, 2010 I love the fact that the minute we get wind of him signing, here we have this article with decent quotes and informative writing, much like we would usually only get with a hockey player or pointyball player here. Love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Out of contract after not getting paid by Bucaspor apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob.notenboom Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Wow Dub. How deep did you have to dig to find this thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarnado1555362291 Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob.notenboom Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Threads like this are great examples of the power of this board in terms of a repository of information on the Nats. Nowhere else can you find this information all in one place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Little google trick: site:<url> <search terms> gets you site-specific results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Threads like this are great examples of the power of this board in terms of a repository of information on the Nats. Nowhere else can you find this information all in one place. Yes, as I'm sure most of you have noticed, I'm trying to get player threads for all new Canadian professionals that are updated with transfers, significant milestones and the like. As a message-board nerd it's great to be able to trace the careers of players back years, especially the feelings of the fans on the player as time goes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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