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Nana Attakora


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It is too bad he had to sign in a poor league that is at best NASL level but on the other hand the money is probably as good or better than he would have got in MLS.

You sure about that? I heard rumblings that he was offered six figures by both TFC and San Jose.

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Well there's no guarantee he starts in Finland either...but yeah, that is true, according to rumors it WAS more about getting to be a top 4 defender, and getting playing time to Nana in Union Berlin. Perhaps Finland will work out well for him, we'll see!

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Discussion of MLS and its crazy rules aside, good for Nana. If he still has the talent we've seen from him, this is a great move to reboot his career. At this point, he has to restart in a league like Finland. In due time, hopefully he gets offers from bigger clubs. He's 23, at a stage where he still has time, but not much of it. I wanted to see him do something this transfer window, and he did.

If I remember right, he had personal issues of some sort before he left TFC. Obviously, its none of my business what they are, but hopefully they've been settled and he can get back on track.

Best of luck Nana!

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You sure about that? I heard rumblings that he was offered six figures by both TFC and San Jose.

No not sure about that but "rumblings" does not seem very sure either. I would think if he was offered 6 figures for MLS it would only be slightly over 100 000. I would think in either Finland or MLS he would be somewhere in the 80 000 to 120 000 range.

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only good things for him. and this move is much better than being in mls. he has way more eyes on him and has a shot at playing in europa or champions league as well (although this years seems out of the question). he will get a break, catch on - someone will believe in him and he will show everyone what he's got. this guy is a great talent and will prove it to everyone.

Yeah go youtube some games in of the top tier in Finland. You'll be shocked. Crowds are much smaller than even FC Edmonton gets, I'm talking like stadiums of 3000, 5000 that are only 1/3 filled. That's not ALL of them and not all the time, but I bet that's pretty close. It's way more dismal than you assume just because it's a Europe league does NOT make it better than MLS. I hate those kinds of assumptions, it's a step down from MLS, with much less exposure than you are assuming as well. Sorry, but true. If he goes on trial elsewhere in Europe, it's based of his ability during that trial, not what they saw in Finland, which is the same as if he trialled without it. As he did with Union Berlin...passing the trial, rejecting the contract.

MLS is on the up, people need to start realizing that, and I think people in Europe are starting to realize the football over here is improving faster than people in North America are.

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Yeah go youtube some games in of the top tier in Finland. You'll be shocked. Crowds are much smaller than even FC Edmonton gets, I'm talking like stadiums of 3000, 5000 that are only 1/3 filled. That's not ALL of them and not all the time, but I bet that's pretty close. It's way more dismal than you assume just because it's a Europe league does NOT make it better than MLS. I hate those kinds of assumptions, it's a step down from MLS, with much less exposure than you are assuming as well. Sorry, but true. If he goes on trial elsewhere in Europe, it's based of his ability during that trial, not what they saw in Finland, which is the same as if he trialled without it. As he did with Union Berlin...passing the trial, rejecting the contract.

MLS is on the up, people need to start realizing that, and I think people in Europe are starting to realize the football over here is improving faster than people in North America are.

Amen to that to all of that. And in addition, to what you see from the infrastructures etc on those youtube videos of Finland action, take a close look at the quality of play. From what i saw in those same youtube videos I would say CSL would be a better comparaison. Never mind MLS or NASL.

Edited by Free kick
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To throw out a little more to compare, Massimo Mirabelli, a decent goal scorer from SC Toronto (CSL) looks like he's a good goal scorer in the Finnish 3rd tier. Interestingly, because SC Toronto were/are a relatively strong CSL team, I don't think he was the consistant starter but he might be in Finland.

edit: although it's his first season, hopefully he'll climb up the ranks.

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He is going to be playing in a league that is barely even fully pro and which is not even on the radar in mainstream European soccer terms. Finnish teams usually don't make it past the qualifiers in Europa and Champions League terms. This is a big step down from MLS. If he was genuinely offered a contract by Union Berlin he should have taken it.

when i started my thread about simeon jackson with rushden in the what... 5th tier of soccer in england people laughed and told me he would never make the epl. if i was to go back onto big soccer i'm sure i could prove it. slowly people started to seethings differently and now he is in the epl and is a part of our cant as well.

although they play different positions, nana has the ability that maybe only david edgar might have at RB (from this generation). i really don't care what others think. he is a great talent and he will prove it. and i will be happy when he returns to the cmnt.

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Finland has been a good stepping stone for Canadian players recently and the level of play is around the NASL. However, Finland is far superior because the ease of player moment within Europe while NASL players and teams have to deal with restrictive roster rules in MLS.

Quite frankly, I don’t care where Nana is playing right now just as long as he is playing. If he has a good season and finds himself in a better league next year that is positive for him and the MNT. Depth is one of the biggest problems with the MNT, we all thought Jazic was finished but with Klukowski without a club and De Jong injured he came up and did a good job for us. Nana has the talent to be a contributor for the MNT, so I hope he can find himself back in the fold.

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when i started my thread about simeon jackson with rushden in the what... 5th tier of soccer in england people laughed and told me he would never make the epl. if i was to go back onto big soccer i'm sure i could prove it. slowly people started to seethings differently and now he is in the epl and is a part of our cant as well.

although they play different positions, nana has the ability that maybe only david edgar might have at RB (from this generation). i really don't care what others think. he is a great talent and he will prove it. and i will be happy when he returns to the cmnt.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning Nana's abilities, and I absolutely agree that he has the talent to move to higher leagues. where I was arguing was where you said moving to finland was a good move because it gives him more exposure, because that is a bit of a fallacy, is all. Nana may move up to bigger and better things later, but it won't be because he got noticed in Finland. As I said in my previous post, it will be because he does well on trial.

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Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning Nana's abilities, and I absolutely agree that he has the talent to move to higher leagues. where I was arguing was where you said moving to finland was a good move because it gives him more exposure, because that is a bit of a fallacy, is all. Nana may move up to bigger and better things later, but it won't be because he got noticed in Finland. As I said in my previous post, it will be because he does well on trial.

but he will have more exposure in europe. it's a heck of a lot easier for scouts to move about over there to see players and if by some chance haka can turn things around next year, they could make a champions or europa league appearance and if they do that is greater exposure than any mls teams will get.

anyway, as was pointed out - it's all good. just saying he is a very good player and deserves better than what some people have made him out to be.

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Finland may not be a better league than MLS pure play wise but thats just part of the picture. The coaching and player development areas may be strong, the salaries for the player are proabably better and the contracts are less restrictive. On top of that if its a meh European league it still gets scouted more and still has the ability to be on a bigger stage of CL or Europa league playing big clubs in competitive games and if it is a mediocre league the player will stick out easier and allow the player to move to a stronger league easier than MLS. Also the seasons should overlap with all the other leagues in Europe as opposed to NA which has a different revolving schedule.

MLS as a league is getting stronger, but European leagues still have advantages mainly in mobility which in the long run is a big factor in player development. Just look at players on MLS, its difficult to move clubs within the actual league, in Europe players have a lot more power and can agitate for moves within their own league or to lots of other clubs in Europe in MLS its much more difficult contractually.

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I respectfully disagree about the opportunities of upward mobility from Finland as opposed to MLS. I think it's no greater exposure, in fact worse, as MLS is more often televised with high production values. Sure you can puddle jump in Europe relatively easily, but there's 30, 40 leagues that scouts are checking out before they hit up Finland to check out their talent.

As for paid higher? False. Average salary in Finland was 24.4k euros in 2010, that's the latest I could find. In 2011 to compare, MLS's average salary rose by 12% from 138k US per player in 2010. Even if you take away the DPs, you'd still find that Finland guys are paid less, actually.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/2011/05/09/mls_salaries/

As for the coaching and development being necessarily better there? Well if you check out finnish teams, they are full of finnish players. And Finland's national football team doesn't even have many of THEIR guys playing in this league (and that's a team ranked no higher than Canada by FIFA, with all the advantages of ranking from being a UEFA team.) And most of the guys on the finnish football team, if coming from finland, aren't playing in much higher leagues than norway or sweden Tiers 1 and 2 combined. AKA same levels as say, Hirschfeld, Ricketts, and Ledgerwood.

So I don't really see how you can say development is necessarily better there either, I think you are assuming without looking at the facts. Europe is not necessarily better...I don't argue this just to be petty, I'm really trying to help you guys see the light on this, if possible!

And Attakora's contract as well, was only restrictive in the sense that San Jose owned his rights...in MLS only. You'll find that most of the contracts for MLS are done that way...you can still transfer abroad rather easily, they are only restrictive in the sense that they don't want you jumping ship to other teams in MLS without compensation. It was Attakora who turned down Union Berlin, he wasn't restricted from doing so.

Compare that directly to Toissant Ricketts' situation in Romania, who WAS restricted from going to a 2Bundesliga team from a European contract. So it's a fallacy that MLS contracts are more restrictive than European ones as well, especially once you factor in ridiculous transfer fee requests.

Edited by madmonte
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I wasn't saying that development is better in Finland, I'm sure in many cases its not, but it could be at some clubs. The best Finnish players do move on I'm sure, but it could still have decent coaches and development programs, not saying thats the case but I don't think we can rule it out either, I don't really have much info on the league if someone did maybe they could shed more light.

Romania is a league with a poor track record, we can't extrapolate that to all other european leagues, if you are going to play in Romania or Turkey you better calculate in the fact that players can easily get stiffed.

I don't think that Europe is necessarily better, in many cases its not better, but the fact is Europe is very diverse in regards to leagues, and we've seen many players go over to europe and start in a little known league or little known club and move up quickly to some of the best leagues in the world. In this case going to Finland is probably a bit of a step down in league for sure, but for Nana who seems to be not in demand in MLS moving to a league like this is probably the right choice as long as he has an agent and an eye to using this as a stepping stone. Also in terms of career its not necessarily what we believe, even if lots of people in NA have a bias towards Europe if scouts and leagues in Europe have a bias towards Europe then playing in Europe offers you an advantage, it could be just based on Eurocentric snobbery by scouts etc, but it still means more opportunities for those players proving themselves in lesser European leagues.

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I think it's no greater exposure, in fact worse, as MLS is more often televised with high production values. Sure you can puddle jump in Europe relatively easily, but there's 30, 40 leagues that scouts are checking out before they hit up Finland to check out their talent.

I'm pretty sure clubs from England, Germany, Denmark, etc., usually have in-country scouts (meaning Finnish scouts living in Finland) in all of the European leagues to identify potential talent. They haven't got 4 guys flying to 30-40 countries in the world every few days to identify all of the talent in each league.

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In this case going to Finland is probably a bit of a step down in league for sure, but for Nana who seems to be not in demand in MLS moving to a league like this is probably the right choice as long as he has an agent and an eye to using this as a stepping stone. Also in terms of career its not necessarily what we believe, even if lots of people in NA have a bias towards Europe if scouts and leagues in Europe have a bias towards Europe then playing in Europe offers you an advantage, it could be just based on Eurocentric snobbery by scouts etc, but it still means more opportunities for those players proving themselves in lesser European leagues.

Sorry vill, even if I was quoting you, some of what I was saying was directed at other posts, not yours, kinda generally talking a bit! That said, I agree that it's a good move for Nana right now, he just needs to get somewhere playing.

I'm pretty sure clubs from England, Germany, Denmark, etc., usually have in-country scouts (meaning Finnish scouts living in Finland) in all of the European leagues to identify potential talent. They haven't got 4 guys flying to 30-40 countries in the world every few days to identify all of the talent in each league.

Point conceded. And in that case, the same could be said for scouts in the USA and Canada just as easily.

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Just watched a Finnish match, before this all I'd seen were extended highlights. I need to say, this level isn't bad at all and to compare it to NASL is a pretty big insult. The players are technically good and move the ball really well. I'm watching Nana's new team being spanked 4-0 right now, good for him at least.

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Just watched a Finnish match, before this all I'd seen were extended highlights. I need to say, this level isn't bad at all and to compare it to NASL is a pretty big insult. The players are technically good and move the ball really well. I'm watching Nana's new team being spanked 4-0 right now, good for him at least.

Link to watch live? Is Nana in the mix?

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when i started my thread about simeon jackson with rushden in the what... 5th tier of soccer in england people laughed and told me he would never make the epl. if i was to go back onto big soccer i'm sure i could prove it. slowly people started to seethings differently and now he is in the epl and is a part of our cant as well.

Perhaps worth bearing in mind that a broken clock still provides the correct time twice a day. I can dig up old threads where the usual suspects predicted great things for players who didn't ultimately make it. It is not reasonable to expect every Canadian player who gets a contract in the English 5th tier (I think Keegan was posting about him before you did when he was playing at an even lower level than that, for what it's worth) to make it to the Premiership. Occasionally they do, but that doesn't mean the next guy will.

Not sure what that has to do with Nana Attakora, however. Simeon Jackson was an unknown who moved over to England to stay with his grandmother at the age of 15 and then slowly worked his way up through the divisions. In contrast, Attakora has already played at a high level and has had trials with clubs like Reading and Hibs (from what I remember) on the strength of that in addition to Union Berlin. I suspect he has wound up in a complete backwater like Finland not because of a lack of talent (anybody who saw him play for TFC could see he has some ability defensively even if his distribution was less than spectacular) but because a lot of people within the sport have been advised to steer well clear because of his attitude. It's very much the last chance saloon for him now because a relegation struggler in Finland is about as low as you can go and still have something that more or less resembles a fully pro setup. Hope it works out for him.

Edited by BringBackTheBlizzard
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It is not reasonable to expect every Canadian player who gets a contract in the English 5th tier (I think Keegan was posting about him before you did when he was playing at an even lower level than that, for what it's worth) to make it to the Premiership.

Wasn't me because I didn't join until 2008 and I remember coming here and reading about him in 2006 and 2007.

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  • 3 months later...

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