Ayo Akinola

[ChuckMe92]

32 minutes ago, harrycoyster said:

Llanez has a hamstring injury and didn't even travel to the US camp from what I can tell.

That would make a lot more sense. So someone in that US forward group got lucky.

[Beachguy]

IIRC, he turned down TFC contract offer and left to the US U17 program in the late winter. Now that the US U17 dev. program has been disbanded, where has he been training? if its TFC for sure, why would they have him?

Would he just be waiting to turn 18 to sign a Pro contract elsewhere? 

Also, I cant find anywhere on TFC website that he ever signed a pro contract, so his NCAA eligibility would seem to be intact. 

His brother is also at TFC Academy - must be a bit awkward if the older brother snubbed the team. Lots of details I'll never know but i hope it all works out for him and the team.

[harrycoyster]

38 minutes ago, Blackjack15 said:

Has Akinola ever said publicly he'd be open to representing Canada at the senior level? He seems very sold on the USMNT

No, but he does list Brampton as his hometown and accepted a Nigeria u15 call-up before deciding to go to the US camp instead. I just think he wants to play for the best team possible.

[harrycoyster]

32 minutes ago, Beachguy said:

IIRC, he turned down TFC contract offer and left to the US U17 program in the late winter. Now that the US U17 dev. program has been disbanded, where has he been training? if its TFC for sure, why would they have him?

Would he just be waiting to turn 18 to sign a Pro contract elsewhere? 

Also, I cant find anywhere on TFC website that he ever signed a pro contract, so his NCAA eligibility would seem to be intact. 

His brother is also at TFC Academy - must be a bit awkward if the older brother snubbed the team. Lots of details I'll never know but i hope it all works out for him and the team.

The US u17 program doesn't disband until December. He's still in Florida. The latest on his pro situation is that he has a pro offer from TFC on the table since 2016, but has been considering a number of European options as well. Now that Josh Sargent signed his pro deal with Werder Bremen, Ayo's bound to have a lot more eyes on him at the tournament, as he's the best US attacking prospect still available. He will likely go on a few trials after the u17 World Cup.

Edited September 21, 2017 by harrycoyster

[Blackjack15]

26 minutes ago, harrycoyster said:

No, but he does list Brampton as his hometown and accepted a Nigeria u15 call-up before deciding to go to the US camp instead. I just think he wants to play for the best team possible.

As bad as this might sound to all Canadian supporters out there; I wouldn't mind if he played his youth international career with the US (U-17, U20) and switched Allegiance to Canada post 2020 or whatever. I honestly believe it's best for his development. He also does have Nigeria as an option, but he's not supper attached to any of the 3 nations he's eligible to represent! Just doing what's best for him individually 

[Mike Thompson]

He's a good prospect without a doubt, but not one dying for! Would be a great addition but we have others ahead of him if you compare him to our national team picture. Extra depth never hurts, hopefully he stays in NA most preferably with TFC after the U-17 WC in India. 

Like @harrycoyster said; depending on his performances, he will have trials in Europe 

[Grizzly]

On 9/21/2017 at 4:08 PM, harrycoyster said:

That's very just the tip of the iceberg too. The amount of US eligible English and German youth players is dizzying. IIRC 5 players got German u17 caps last year that were US eligible.

It's the lesser thought about advantage of having 100,000 men placed on military bases in foreign countries I guess.

Germany and Italy still occupied countries 70 years after the war and 25 years after the other occupying force left. Invade and occupy the world and get a good soccer team out of it (though obviously the US is not doing that for their soccer team, rather resource exploitation and power and control). 

[jpg75]

48 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

Germany and Italy still occupied countries 70 years after the war and 25 years after the other occupying force left. Invade and occupy the world and get a good soccer team out of it (though obviously the US is not doing that for their soccer team, rather resource exploitation and power and control). 

...and the Soviets would still be occupying numerous nation states post-war if it weren't for corruption and a lack of competence in running an economy.

[Grizzly]

5 minutes ago, jpg75 said:

...and the Soviets would still be occupying numerous nation states post-war if it weren't for corruption and a lack of competence in running an economy.

Maybe they would be, that is not my point. The Soviet Union collapsed and their army left Eastern Europe for a variety of reasons which are more complex then your summary but regardless of why they ended their occupation, it did end. On the other hand the US occupation of Europe and most of the rest of the world did not end. Depending on the estimate you believe the US has between 700 and 1400 military installations in countries outside of the US, while Russia is in 2nd place at 10 to 14 foreign bases. The one super power era of western capitalist democracy instead of bringing a more peaceful world brought about a more violent one. It should have led to sovereign free countries trading peacefully instead it led to increased military intervention and occupation of any country who resisted American hegemony and who did not submit to all the various financial and political tools to make states obey. When Russia was too weak to be the enemy and provide an excuse to wage war on other countries, they came up with the War on Terror which became a war of terror inflicted by the West on much of the rest of the world. Indeed our actions during this time like the expansion of NATO and wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Rwanda, Yemen and many more showed that the Soviets were actually right in their assessment that they needed a buffer against western military expansion and aggression and that Gorbachov made a huge error in withdrawing his troops without requiring likewise from the US. The end of the Cold War was an opportunity for our western countries to show that we truly did believe in democracy, human rights, fair trade, rule of law but instead we showed we were interested only in corporate profits and hegemony and did not care how many people we had to kill or oppress to achieve that.

[jpg75]

Survival of the fittest, America (Fuck yeah!) won and the Commies lost. Sucks, but them's the breaks.

Ok, but seriously what the hell does Rwanda and Yugoslavia have to do with US hegemony? Ethnic violence turned to Genocide seems like a pretty reasonable reason to intervene.

Speaking of Afghanistan, how did the Taliban get into power in the first place? Oh yeah...

[harrycoyster]

58 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

Indeed our actions during this time like the expansion of NATO and wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Rwanda, Yemen and many more showed that the Soviets were actually right in their assessment that they needed a buffer against western military expansion

[harrycoyster]

53 minutes ago, jpg75 said:

Survival of the fittest, America (Fuck yeah!) won and the Commies lost. Sucks, but them's the breaks.

Ok, but seriously what the hell does Rwanda and Yugoslavia have to do with US hegemony? Ethnic violence turned to Genocide seems like a pretty reasonable reason to intervene.

Speaking of Afghanistan, how did the Taliban get into power in the first place? Oh yeah...

Seriously. If anything the US didn't respond fast enough to Rwanda, and including Afghanistan makes the exact opposite point. The current world order is fucking sweet! We have the greatest military power in the history of the world as our friendly Southern neighbor, and get to enjoy all the cultural and economic benefits without any of the costs or ridicule. Canada won the geopolitical lottery. 

Edited September 23, 2017 by harrycoyster

[Grizzly]

3 hours ago, harrycoyster said:

Seriously. If anything the US didn't respond fast enough to Rwanda, and including Afghanistan makes the exact opposite point. The current world order is fucking sweet! We have the greatest military power in the history of the world as our friendly Southern neighbor, and get to enjoy all the cultural and economic benefits without any of the costs or ridicule. Canada won the geopolitical lottery. 

Yes that is for the most part true, we won the geopolitical lottery. We aren't very sovereign but we get to participate in and reap the profits of the crimes of our neighbour to the south and we have a high standard of living to show for it. Even better when they do something really bad we pretend not to participate but still help them on the sly and if things really go wrong we blame them for it so in the end we can claim to be the good guys even when the US are clearly being the bad guys. Life is good if you don't give a shit about the 90% of the world that lost the geopolitical lottery who we are exploiting and the millions we keep in poverty or kill. 

By the way there are over 300 000 heavily armed often nuclear armed US troops in over 150 countries around the world, not the 100 000 you originally claimed. If we are such forces for good setting an example for the world why is our military in every corner?

As for the rest of the debate about the countries mentioned I decided to make a separate thread to avoid cluttering this one up too much. I dealt with Rwanda first, will deal with the other countries later.
 

 

[Ansem]

3 hours ago, harrycoyster said:

The current world order is fucking sweet! We have the greatest military power in the history of the world as our friendly Southern neighbor, and get to enjoy all the cultural and economic benefits without any of the costs or ridicule. Canada won the geopolitical lottery. 

are you for real?

Edited September 24, 2017 by Ansem

[harrycoyster]

19 minutes ago, Ansem said:

are you for real?

Very much so. But hey, I'm a realist...feel free to lecture me on theoreticals. Though I must say I'd rather talk Canadian soccer.

[Ansem]

2 minutes ago, harrycoyster said:

Very much so. But hey, I'm a realist...feel free to lecture me on theoreticals. Though I must say I'd rather talk Canadian soccer.

i won't lecture you, i'll just get mad arguing over double standards

[Macksam]

17 hours ago, Grizzly said:

It should have led to sovereign free countries trading peacefully instead it led to increased military intervention and occupation of any country who resisted American hegemony and who did not submit to all the various financial and political tools to make states obey. 

There is good evidence of this, but it's not always the case.... otherwise the US would have pressured the EU along time ago into creating a coalition with them and invade Switzerland, which could be deemed a radical state lol, albeit a great radical country.

[Kent]

Let me know when we get back to Akinola on this thread.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

Let me know when we get back to Akinola on this thread.

I'm sure someone will

[Grizzly]

15 hours ago, Macksam said:

There is good evidence of this, but it's not always the case.... otherwise the US would have pressured the EU along time ago into creating a coalition with them and invade Switzerland, which could be deemed a radical state lol, albeit a great radical country.

I answered this in the other thread

[harrycoyster]

Akinola mentioned on the TopDrawerSoccer Show today as being in contact with multiple European teams. He also started and played the first half of a scrimmage between the US u17s and the Al Nasr u21s in Dubai today, which is a promising sign in terms of playing time for the World Cup. 

[ChuckMe92]

Happened to come across this article. Ayo is indeed eligible for Nigeria, and their FA are almost certainly aware of him. http://allnigeriasoccer.com/read_news.php?nid=24727

However, I wouldn't particularly worry about Nigeria from Canada's perspective. Nigeria's forwards are better than the US's. Don't get me wrong, the group of Wood, Weah, Sargent, Carleton, Wright, Llanez, Reyes, de la Fuente, Ferreira, and others, plus plausible dual-national recruits like Siebatcheu (France U21), Tillman (Germany U19), Shashoua (England U18), and Malone (Germany U17), looks promising for the US's future at forward. But except for Wood, those guys are still mostly prospects playing for youth national teams and for club academies/reserves, and inevitably some will not pan out at senior level. Nigeria currently has young-ish forwards at Chelsea, Arsenal, two at Leicester, Watford, Wolfsburg, CSKA Moscow, Girona, Anderlecht, Gent, Hannover. Not really prospects, but players for their senior national team and for those clubs' senior teams. And of course Nigeria has promising youth prospects as well, and their own dual-national pipeline from Europe, particularly from England youth teams. If Akinola doesn't make it with the US, he's very likely not making it with Nigeria.

Edited October 1, 2017 by ChuckMe92

[Blackjack15]

The U-17 FIFA World Cup starts 5 days from now (where Akinola will play) with Colombia vs Ghana playing the first game followed by India vs USA 

 

[Obinna]

11 hours ago, ChuckMe92 said:

Happened to come across this article. Ayo is indeed eligible for Nigeria, and their FA are almost certainly aware of him. http://allnigeriasoccer.com/read_news.php?nid=24727

However, I wouldn't particularly worry about Nigeria from Canada's perspective. Nigeria's forwards are better than the US's. Don't get me wrong, the group of Wood, Weah, Sargent, Carleton, Wright, Llanez, Reyes, de la Fuente, Ferreira, and others, plus plausible dual-national recruits like Siebatcheu (France U21), Tillman (Germany U19), Shashoua (England U18), and Malone (Germany U17), looks promising for the US's future at forward. But except for Wood, those guys are still mostly prospects playing for youth national teams and for club academies/reserves, and inevitably some will not pan out at senior level. Nigeria currently has young-ish forwards at Chelsea, Arsenal, two at Leicester, Watford, Wolfsburg, CSKA Moscow, Girona, Anderlecht, Gent, Hannover. Not really prospects, but players for their senior national team and for those clubs' senior teams. And of course Nigeria has promising youth prospects as well, and their own dual-national pipeline from Europe, particularly from England youth teams. If Akinola doesn't make it with the US, he's very likely not making it with Nigeria.

Yup. Nigeria is scary going forward, and they are young. I think Victor Moses is the oldest from that list and I think he's around Junior's age, perhaps a year younger.

[Brethers8]

They've also got Abraham as a potential striker should he decide to switch from England