Ayo Akinola

[Grizzly]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

The discussion on Akinola doesn't go on for pages because we can't figure out his eligibility due to the rules being too lax or complicated. We just don't know if he is a Canadian citizen. If you don't know that fundamental thing and just keep talking in circles it is the fault of the conversation, not the rule.

I think people just have to learn to accept that they aren't in the shoes of the player and they have to let them make their own decisions.

At this point he is playing for another country and I couldn't care less if he is a Canadian citizen or not or what happens in his career. Let's be clear about what a few mentioned earlier about arguments that Octavio would make to him to convince him to play for us, there is actually only one argument he can make: You are not good enough to play for your first choice so come play for us. I personally wish this type of player would never play for us but I am also well aware that we have to make as good a use of the corrupt, poor rules that FIFA has established to our best advantage because the other countries we compete against do the same. Thus I have held my nose and accepted that Vitoria plays for us. Nevertheless, Akinola is a US NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER. I don't care if there is a 50% chance or an 80% chance that he will eventually play for us because he will not be good enough for the US, as long as he is a current player for another national team he should not be discussed on the CANADIAN MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM FORUM. If some posters here are still interested in him, that is your right but this thread should be switched to the World Soccer forum until a time comes in which he switches nations and decides to be a member of the national team that is discussed in this forum.

I request that whoever moderates this forum switches this thread to the world soccer forum. 

Edited December 29, 2017 by Grizzly

[matty]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

At this point he is playing for another country and I couldn't care less if he is a Canadian citizen or not or what happens in his career. Let's be clear about what a few mentioned earlier about arguments that Octavio would make to him to convince him to play for us, there is actually only one argument he can make: You are not good enough to play for your first choice so come play for us. I personally wish this type of player would never play for us but I am also well aware that we have to make as good a use of the corrupt, poor rules that FIFA has established to our best advantage because the other countries we compete against do the same. Thus I have held my nose and accepted that Vitoria plays for us. Nevertheless, Akinola is a US NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER. I don't care if there is a 50% chance or an 80% chance that he will eventually play for us because he will not be good enough for the US, as long as he is a current player for another national team he should not be discussed on the CANADIAN MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM FORUM. If some posters here are still interested in him, that is your right but this thread should be switched to the World Soccer forum until a time comes in which he switches nations and decides to be a member of the national team that is discussed in this forum.

I request that whoever moderates this forum switches this thread to the world soccer forum. 

I somewhat agree. The flood of guys who may or may not be Canadian getting forum spots is dumb (remember how Matt Hedges got one when the whole thing with him was apparently started as a joke between him and Tesho). I get it for some people (eg. Cristante and pre-commit Arfield) who actively talk about the possibility of playing for Canada or youth set up guys who are uncommitted at the senior stage but there are enough of these maybe babies who don't seem interested that get their own threads (Ferreira, Gutiérrez, shit I'd even include Tomori).

Disagree that it should move to World Soccer (but think it would still be good for the site if it did), because there is that potential, but would like to see it compressed into a single "Fence Sitters" thread. Unless the player says "I am looking into playing for Canada" they shouldn't leave it. I think either move would curb the reporting on these players until some real positive Canada-related news hit regarding them and get us more focused on Canadian players (I'm 75% sure this has been the most popular thread this past week).

Edited December 29, 2017 by matty

[ChuckMe92]

Starting today, Akinola is at a US youth national team mega-camp in Florida. He's with the U19s, not the U20s, a good sign for Canada at least that he's not playing up. I've pasted the forward groups from each age group here. Forwards with foreign clubs bolded, with the notable absences of Tim Weah of Paris Saint-Germain, Josh Sargent of Werder Bremen, Jacobo Reyes of Monterrey, Konrad de la Fuente of Barcelona, Lateef Omidiji of Feyenoord, and Federico Oliva of Atletico Madrid, who are in the US program but were not included this time for club or injury reasons.

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2017/12/29/17/28/20171229-news-ynt-first-ever-us-soccer-mens-ynt-summit-brings-153-players-together-in-single-camp

U20s:

FORWARDS (8): Jonathan Amon (FC Nordsjaelland/DEN; Summerville, S.C.), Simon Becher (Oakwood Academy; Brooklyn, Conn.), Shaft Brewer (RB Leipzig/GER; Sacramento, Calif.), Griffin Dorsey (Indiana University; Evergreen, Colo.), Justin McMaster (Wake Forest; Atlanta, Ga.), Chris Nicola (Pateadores; Vancouver, Wash.), Nebiyou Perry (AIK/SWE; New York, N.Y), Justin Rennicks (Indiana University; Hamilton, Mass.)

U19s:

FORWARDS (6): Ayo Akinola (Toronto FC; Brampton, Ontario), Matt Hundley (Colorado Rapids; Littleton, Colo.), Zyen Jones (Atlanta United FC; Clarkston, Ga.), Josh Penn (Sockers FC; Naperville, Ill.), Jeremy Rafanello (Philadelphia Union; Delran, N.J.), Sebastian Soto (Real Salt Lake; Casa Grande, Ariz.)

U18s:

FORWARDS (8): Justin Butler (Bayern Munich/GER; Augsburg, Germany), Quincy Butler (Sacramento Republic F.C.; Sacramento, Calif.), Cameron Harper (Pateadores; Newport Beach, Calif.), Jalen Hawkins (Bayern Munich/GER; Regensburg, Germany), Jake LaCava (Barca Academy/ESP; Gouverneur, N.Y.), Ulysses Llanez (LA Galaxy; Lynwood, Calif.), Axel Picazo (Philadelphia Union; Austin, Texas), Stefan Stojanovic (Sockers FC; Chicago, Ill.)            

U17s:

FORWARDS (10): Gianluca Busio (Sporting Kansas City; Greensboro, N.C.), Aboubacar Camara (Philadelphia Union; Philadelphia, Penn.), Cade Hagan (Sockers FC; Naperville, Ill.), Andres Jasson (New York City FC; Greenwich, Conn.), Diego Lopez (FC Golden State; Chino, Calif.), Alfonso Ocampo Chavez (Seattle Sounders FC; Fresno, Calif.), Joshua Pynadath (Ajax/NED; Amsterdam, Netherlands), Giovanni Reyna (New York City FC; Bedford Corners, N.Y.), Wasswa Robbins (Atlanta United FC; Atlanta, Ga.), Ray Serrano (Seattle Sounders FC; Graham, Wash.)

U16s:

FORWARDS (6): Andres Cardinas (Weston FC; Doral, Fla.), Tyler Freeman (Sporting Kansas City; Shawnee, Kan.), Selmir Miscic (Philadelphia Union; Royersford, Pa.), Ricardo Pepi (FC Dallas; McKinney, Texas), Dante Sealy (FC Dallas; Frisco, Texas), Dantouma Toure (Players Development Academy; Trenton, N.J.)

 

The hottest forward among those called up to the camp is winger Jonathan Amon, who's been starting for the third-place team in the Danish Superliga. The US has also acquired two new German-Americans from Bayern Munich, including one who has played for DFB youth teams. Include Weah, Sargent, Reyes, de la Fuente, Omidiji, Oliva, a few others, and you've got an overview of the current '99-through-'03 US forward pool.

[jpg75]

...and then watch Akinola break into the USMNT in a few years lol

[Bison44]

Not to be a dick or anything, but who cares??  This is alot of talk for a kid who has never pulled on a CDN jersey and seems to be getting deeper and deeper into the US program every day.  Are we seriously going to study all the u-15 to -20 US forward prospects in case he might not be good enough for them and chooses us in 4-5 years??  I think I am going to read up on the youth kids that actually have gone to CDN camps.

[harrycoyster]

53 minutes ago, jpg75 said:

...and then watch Akinola break into the USMNT in a few years lol

If Akinola ends up being one of the 3 or 4 best attackers the US has in the 98-02 age group I'll be genuinely shocked. Not that Akinola isn't a great prospect...just that what I've seen of Amon, Sargent, Weah, Reyna, Pynadath, and DeLaFeunte is next level ability. And that's not including two Bayern Munich youth players, two Barcelona players, two Schalke players, and one at each of RB Leipzig, Augsburg, AZ, Darmstadt, Flamengo, Monterrey, and Fiorentina.

Again, that's just in his four year age bracket.

[harrycoyster]

15 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Not to be a dick or anything, but who cares??  This is alot of talk for a kid who has never pulled on a CDN jersey and seems to be getting deeper and deeper into the US program every day.  Are we seriously going to study all the u-15 to -20 US forward prospects in case he might not be good enough for them and chooses us in 4-5 years??  I think I am going to read up on the youth kids that actually have gone to CDN camps.

Sure. I've done a bunch of research on our best prospects recently. But honestly, it's a pretty tall task. The game tape just doesn't exist for all but a few players and even for those that make youth national teams, we only really get to see ~3 games a year. Akinola is visible, so naturally he's one of the CMNT prospects that gets the most talk. 

[Bison44]

Gack....how is he a CMNT prospect when he is continually going to US camps and playing for US youth teams?  Why am I perpetuating this thread??  I am going to read up on that Lithuanian keeper Vaikla that has some sort of tie to Canada, we think.  (I'm really not going to do that...)  

[harrycoyster]

Just now, Bison44 said:

Gack....how is he a CMNT prospect when he is continually going to US camps and playing for US youth teams?  Why am I perpetuating this thread??  I am going to read up on that Lithuanian keeper Vaikla that has some sort of tie to Canada, we think.  (I'm really not going to do that...)  

I've said repeatedly that I'd be okay with condensing all of the dual-nationals playing for other countries into a single thread. Akinola is a player worth talking about as he is 1) a top prospect on a Canadian MLS team who grew up in Canada and 2) he has a better chance of playing for Canada at the senior level than half our current u17/20 kids.

[matty]

33 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Gack....how is he a CMNT prospect when he is continually going to US camps and playing for US youth teams?  Why am I perpetuating this thread??  I am going to read up on that Lithuanian keeper Vaikla that has some sort of tie to Canada, we think.  (I'm really not going to do that...)  

Vaikla is a guy I wish we'd close the book on. He's all but a lock to be a future top 2 for Estonia's net and has never seemed interested in playing for Canada.

[Vince193]

22 minutes ago, matty said:

Vaikla is a guy I wish we'd close the book on. He's all but a lock to be a future top 2 for Estonia's net and has never seemed interested in playing for Canada.

I feel that the CSA doesn't even know about Vaikla.

[Kent]

1 hour ago, harrycoyster said:

I've said repeatedly that I'd be okay with condensing all of the dual-nationals playing for other countries into a single thread. Akinola is a player worth talking about as he is 1) a top prospect on a Canadian MLS team who grew up in Canada and 2) he has a better chance of playing for Canada at the senior level than half our current u17/20 kids.

Single thread might be a bit much, but a single Topic as someone has suggested earlier (not sure if it was this thread or a different one) would be a welcome change in my opinion. Move the thread for a given player to the CMNT section if/when they make a switch. That way I personally would...

A ) Not spend my time reading about players I'm frankly not that interested in one way or the other.

B ) Would see the threads once they actually commit to Canada and my interest would be born/rekindled.

[ChuckMe92]

Also should be noted that midfielder Noah Verhoeven, a Surrey native who has made his pro debut for Whitecaps 2 in the USL, is on the US U20 squad in the link above. Don't know much of anything about him other than that he once was called up for Canada's U15s then later accepted a US U18 callup. Another seemingly promising player who has a very realistic chance of being with Canada in the long run.

[matty]

1 hour ago, Vince193 said:

I feel that the CSA doesn't even know about Vaikla.

fully possible they didn't know about before he moved to west brom. if they didn't know about him between there and sweden then shit on a stick

[BrennanFan]

A mod needs to move this thread.

Unfortunately we don't have mods anymore.  We should get mods.

[CNMNTPERUELIGIBLE]

5 hours ago, matty said:

Vaikla is a guy I wish we'd close the book on.

 

5 hours ago, Vince193 said:

I feel that the CSA doesn't even know about Vaikla.

Does he really have a lot of upside in his game??.... Estonia Fifa ranking is pretty s**tty as well, yet they are 5 spots higher than us (lmfao, no surprise there)... I am hopeful that will change very soon and maybe in the next year or so will surpass them in the FIFA rankings by a fair margin (hopefully anyways)... I don't see why not giving the momentum that CANMNT somewhat build during 2017  unlike any other years in recent memory... Not that I go judging by Fifa rankings, but as a lot of us here would agree they are S*****T... Complete S***T in fact, very inaccurate assessment of the overall quality of national teams save for maybe the top 5, perhaps? Lots of over and under rating indeed, though, that's a whole other debate... I'll be checking some of his clips out, but his chances of making it far with Estonia are not very high at all, be it for WC or even Euros... They have never made it to. a WC or Euro based on Wikipedia, bu then again, for like a long period of time they were part of USSR or whatever, but since becoming independent never have had any success... He's got much more opportunities  to shine in being part of an emerging and improving football system and a system that seems to FINALLY be getting its act together to undergo unprecedented growth.... S***T choice imo

 

[El Hombre]

13 hours ago, BrennanFan said:

A mod needs to move this thread.

Unfortunately we don't have mods anymore.  We should get mods.

Sounds like somebody is volunteering...

[smiddy]

Can someone do a check on these mods citizenship status?

[El Hombre]

9 minutes ago, smiddy said:

Can someone do a check on these mods citizenship status?

I'd offer to moderate, but I'm holding out to keep my eligibility to moderate the American Outlaws board.

[Grizzly]

3 hours ago, El Hombre said:

I'd offer to moderate, but I'm holding out to keep my eligibility to moderate the American Outlaws board.

I suggest we ban you to posting on the World Soccer Forum even if Harry Coyster probably still holds out hope that the American Outlaws forum will reject you and you will eventually end up being a moderator here! 

[Bison44]

Not to be a dick or anything but EL Hombre's posts lately havnt lived up to the hype from past years.  He is getting older (not a prospect anymore) and probably has levelled off technically.  I like the ambition of holding out for a bigger forum, but I dont think he has the raw athletic talent they look for on the Outlaw board.  In the end I dont think he will make the american forum so he might as well just declare for us, or fill out his one time switch, whichever he needs to do.  Does anyone know if he spent his teenage years in Canada, or when he potentially immigrated?? How many passports does he have etc.  We need to get into the minutia of this pronto, we dont want another one slipping through our fingers.  

[jpg75]

6 hours ago, El Hombre said:

I'd offer to moderate, but I'm holding out to keep my eligibility to moderate the American Outlaws board.

Whore.

[jpg75]

On 02/01/2018 at 11:32 AM, harrycoyster said:

If Akinola ends up being one of the 3 or 4 best attackers the US has in the 98-02 age group I'll be genuinely shocked. Not that Akinola isn't a great prospect...just that what I've seen of Amon, Sargent, Weah, Reyna, Pynadath, and DeLaFeunte is next level ability. And that's not including two Bayern Munich youth players, two Barcelona players, two Schalke players, and one at each of RB Leipzig, Augsburg, AZ, Darmstadt, Flamengo, Monterrey, and Fiorentina.

Again, that's just in his four year age bracket.

It was a joke.

But on a serious note i hope i don't need to explain to you that most of the top 16-18 year olds now won't be the top 20 year olds a few years from now. Those kids look like "next level ability" now, but most of them won't make it to their clubs first team. That Amon kid starting in Denmark impresses me more than a kid in a big academy.

[El Hombre]

11 hours ago, jpg75 said:

Whore.

I was raised by an American family, it just happened to be in Ontario.

 

Hater.

[Jith12]

18 hours ago, El Hombre said:

I'd offer to moderate, but I'm holding out to keep my eligibility to moderate the American Outlaws board.

You have over 1 likes. Therefore you are cap-tied to us. The Outlaws can go find another Hombre.