NEW Mother of all Canucks Abroad (and domestic)

[Fussball_eh]

30 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Hey santijoes, she was not speaking Spanish, she was speaking Gallego!! You should be able to understand about 80% if you speak Spanish, and the rest you figure out as you go, as it is basically a form of Old Portuguese.

I happen to find Gallego quite beautiful, funnily enough my neighbours in Barcelona speak it, including on the same floor of my building, I live in a barrio full of immigrants from Lugo

I studied a semester in Cuba and in Mexico and my Spanish has been dying. Having said that, this comment explains why I found the commentary extremely hard to folllow!

[saintjoes]

That's why it sounded like my brasilian mates speaking argentine! lol.. fascinating. Thanks for that! 

[Toje]

 

Jordan Webb has moved to Tampines Rovers (Singapore).  He dreams of playing for Singapore in the AFF Suzuki Cup. 

http://www.espnfc.com/singapore-s-league/story/2789255/sleague-tampines-must-be-champions-says-webb

[Fussball_eh]

3 hours ago, Toje said:

 

Jordan Webb has moved to Tampines Rovers (Singapore).  He dreams of playing for Singapore in the AFF Suzuki Cup. 

http://www.espnfc.com/singapore-s-league/story/2789255/sleague-tampines-must-be-champions-says-webb

Thanks. Changed clubs on tracking sheet. As soon as one of our Singapore-Canadians play for Singapore, we are taking them off!

[Fussball_eh]

So Ottawa boy Kris Twardek has been called up by U19 of Czech Republic again. According to "Toje" he didn't even speak the language when he was first called for U17. Just want to point out that we are monitoring his progress closely. As soon as he plays for the senior team, he goes off the list.

[shermanator]

Michael Nonni is no longer with FC Edmonton (very end of the article). Have to think that's the end of the line for him. http://www.fcedmonton.com/news/2016/01/28/fc-edmonton-adds-english-defender-eckersley-to-fold

[Fussball_eh]

47 minutes ago, shermanator said:

Michael Nonni is no longer with FC Edmonton (very end of the article). Have to think that's the end of the line for him. http://www.fcedmonton.com/news/2016/01/28/fc-edmonton-adds-english-defender-eckersley-to-fold

Okay, too bad. I moved him to Unattached FC.

[Grizzly]

Some rather interesting and surprising news. Derek Cornelius who is supposed to be a very promising talent has been training for 2 years with VFB Lubeck waiting for his playing permission to play in Germany from FIFA has now finally received it. He was already training with the first team and probably would have seen action already in the 4th division had he received clearance. The problem is he was underage for signing as a foreigner but his father actually moved to Germany to work so they were trying to get it because of this reason. However, it looks like the motivation for the move was not his father's work but rather to have the son training in Germany and his father then looked for a job to allow that. Now he has approval but I suspect it is merely because he has now turned 18. At the moment, however, he is not with Lubeck but on trial with FC Terek Grozny of Chechnya in Russia. He has played some friendlies for them in Malta where they are holding their training camp. He is currently back in Lubeck for a 3 day break but will take part in Terek 2nd training camp starting in a few days. They have moved him from forward to centre back apparently. If he can stick with them it would certainly be a good move career wise though Chechnya although currently much safer than it was a decade ago is still a pretty dangerous place for an 18 year old though I imagine the team takes good care of the players.  

Here is his management on Facebook with periodic updates: https://www.facebook.com/frank.friends.sportconsulting

Training with Terek: 

And some articles in German:

http://luebeck.sportbuzzer.de/regionalliga-nord/artikel/als-innenverteidiger-derek-cornelius-kickt-schon-fuer-grosny/52471/222

http://luebeck.sportbuzzer.de/regionalliga-nord/artikel/vfb-luebeck-derek-cornelius-vor-dem-absprung-nach-grosny/52100/222

http://luebeck.sportbuzzer.de/regionalliga-nord/artikel/das-lange-tauziehen-um-derek-cornelius-er-will-doch-nur-spielen/49809/222

[Fussball_eh]

43 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

Some rather interesting and surprising news. Derek Cornelius who is supposed to be a very promising talent has been training for 2 years with VFB Lubeck waiting for his playing permission to play in Germany from FIFA has now finally received it. He was already training with the first team and probably would have seen action already in the 4th division had he received clearance. The problem is he was underage for signing as a foreigner but his father actually moved to Germany to work so they were trying to get it because of this reason. However, it looks like the motivation for the move was not his father's work but rather to have the son training in Germany and his father then looked for a job to allow that. Now he has approval but I suspect it is merely because he has now turned 18. At the moment, however, he is not with Lubeck but on trial with FC Terek Grozny of Chechnya in Russia. He has played some friendlies for them in Malta where they are holding their training camp. He is currently back in Lubeck for a 3 day break but will take part in Terek 2nd training camp starting in a few days. They have moved him from forward to centre back apparently. If he can stick with them it would certainly be a good move career wise though Chechnya although currently much safer than it was a decade ago is still a pretty dangerous place for an 18 year old though I imagine the team takes good care of the players.  

Here is his management on Facebook with periodic updates: https://www.facebook.com/frank.friends.sportconsulting

Training with Terek: 

And some articles in German:

http://luebeck.sportbuzzer.de/regionalliga-nord/artikel/als-innenverteidiger-derek-cornelius-kickt-schon-fuer-grosny/52471/222

http://luebeck.sportbuzzer.de/regionalliga-nord/artikel/vfb-luebeck-derek-cornelius-vor-dem-absprung-nach-grosny/52100/222

http://luebeck.sportbuzzer.de/regionalliga-nord/artikel/das-lange-tauziehen-um-derek-cornelius-er-will-doch-nur-spielen/49809/222

Wow, thanks for this!

[jpg75]

I believe Cornelius was one of the highly rated 97's from the 2013 U17 player pool that chose not to sign with TFC academy. Good for him that he was getting high level training in Europe, too bad Andrew Gordon couldn't do the same.

[Fussball_eh]

14 hours ago, jpg75 said:

I believe Cornelius was one of the highly rated 97's from the 2013 U17 player pool that chose not to sign with TFC academy. Good for him that he was getting high level training in Europe, too bad Andrew Gordon couldn't do the same.

I hope his German club gets a development fee from the Russian 1st division club. He trained there for 2 years without playing a single game!

[jpg75]

According to transfermarket he has a contract with  Lubeck until June 2017:

http://www.transfermarkt.com/derek-cornelius/profil/spieler/328609

So if that is true Lubeck will get a transfer fee, not development fee. If he was not signed they would get nothing because he was never signed officially by the club. 

Cornelius turned 18 in November so the signing was recent.

[shermanator]

Aird to Vancouver for the 2015 MLS season, confirmed by Rangers:

http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/aird-heads-vancouver/

Edited January 29, 2016 by shermanator

[Fussball_eh]

2 hours ago, jpg75 said:

According to transfermarket he has a contract with  Lubeck until June 2017:

http://www.transfermarkt.com/derek-cornelius/profil/spieler/328609

So if that is true Lubeck will get a transfer fee, not development fee. If he was not signed they would get nothing because he was never signed officially by the club. 

Cornelius turned 18 in November so the signing was recent.

Thanks.

59 minutes ago, shermanator said:

Aird to Vancouver for the 2015 MLS season, confirmed by Rangers:

http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/aird-heads-vancouver/

Moved him to Domestic Canadians tab, yay!

[Grizzly]

19 hours ago, Fussball_eh said:

I hope his German club gets a development fee from the Russian 1st division club. He trained there for 2 years without playing a single game!

 

16 hours ago, jpg75 said:

According to transfermarket he has a contract with  Lubeck until June 2017:

http://www.transfermarkt.com/derek-cornelius/profil/spieler/328609

So if that is true Lubeck will get a transfer fee, not development fee. If he was not signed they would get nothing because he was never signed officially by the club. 

Cornelius turned 18 in November so the signing was recent.

The first two articles in German talk about this issue a bit. I would think he would need to be under contract to Lubeck to get his playing permit but not sure if that would be a professional, amateur or youth contract. 4th division in Germany is considered amateur by the Germans even though all the players are paid (never understood the reasoning for this, it seems very arbitrary, German 3rd division was previously considered amateur until they made it nationwide and some of the 4th division players are quite well paid) but not sure if FIFA recognizes it as amateur. Anyway the articles say Terek officially asked permission for him to be released for the trial and the club agreed. Both articles mention a development fee not a transfer fee but state it would be in the 5 figure range. I imagine it would also include a percentage of sell on fee. It also states that Lubeck would be pleased with getting a fee out of the whole process despite the 2 year battle over the playing permit and him leaving having never played a game. His agent is from Tajikstan and apparently has a link to Terek hence the trial but is based in Lubeck and previously played for their 2nd team so I imagine he is well connected in VFB and will make sure they get adequately compensated for their efforts. Also while the German articles make a big deal about him being converted to defender from forward, the Terek website mentions that they have a lot of injuries in defence now so it is not clear whether he is playing there because they want to convert him or just because they are lacking in healthy defenders. I will post some info on the friendlies and a video on the Canucks Abroad thread.

[shamrock]

Dunno if he'd be better of in Chechnia than Lübeck, although surely he'll get paid more. Btw Terek Grozny is as dodgy a club as they get, headed by Ramzan Kadyrov. A very controversial "hero of the Russian Federation" considered a criminal by many.

But whatever. The whole controversy in Lübeck apparently was about him transferring internationally as a youth. Which is prohibited (and for good reasons as well). They made the case that he moved to Germany with his dad for other reasons, dad getting a job there. But he earned less than in Canada and his sister and mom stayed in Canada. Now finally he's allowed to pay for them, and he'd bail. I really doubt this is the way he should go about with this, why not play for the small club in a nice country and take the time to develop. He's just 18. 

[shermanator]

Caleb Clarke has signed with SpVgg Unterhaching in the German 4th division. They were in the 3. Liga last year but were relegated.

https://twitter.com/Haching1925/status/694145206963343360

[Fussball_eh]

7 hours ago, shamrock said:

1 minute ago, shermanator said:

Caleb Clarke has signed with SpVgg Unterhaching in the German 4th division. They were in the 3. Liga last year but were relegated.

https://twitter.com/Haching1925/status/694145206963343360

 

Yeah, they are a traditional club from a district in Munich. They made waves when they got promoted all the way to the Bundesliga. Good move for him. He already knows the league and was successful there with FCA II.

[Grizzly]

14 hours ago, shamrock said:

Dunno if he'd be better of in Chechnia than Lübeck, although surely he'll get paid more. Btw Terek Grozny is as dodgy a club as they get, headed by Ramzan Kadyrov. A very controversial "hero of the Russian Federation" considered a criminal by many.

But whatever. The whole controversy in Lübeck apparently was about him transferring internationally as a youth. Which is prohibited (and for good reasons as well). They made the case that he moved to Germany with his dad for other reasons, dad getting a job there. But he earned less than in Canada and his sister and mom stayed in Canada. Now finally he's allowed to pay for them, and he'd bail. I really doubt this is the way he should go about with this, why not play for the small club in a nice country and take the time to develop. He's just 18. 

From a footballing perspective he is almost certainly better off with Terek than Lubeck. Different players do well in different environments and sometimes players move up too fast too soon but for the most part any player wants to get to as high a level of club as soon as possible. The Russian Premier League is somewhere between the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga in playing level and Terek is a solid mid-table club so fairly similar level of play to a lower table 1st Bundesliga club or top 2nd Bundesliga club. No one would think he should stay with Lubeck if he was transferring to a similar level club within Germany. And as for him bailing from Lubeck, Terek asked permission to trial him, he was given permission to go and Lubeck will likely receive a good fee for him. He is doing nothing against the wishes of the club and this happens all the time the only difference here being that he had trouble getting FIFA permission to transfer and play for Lubeck. Had he played in Lubeck youth teams for 2 years and transferred without playing a single first team game no one would find it unusual at all.

As for Kadyrov it is difficult to know what to believe about him given that our media's reports on him are just as much an exercise in propaganda as the Russian ones. Even if he is guilty of the criminal or human rights abuses he is accused of, he is still the best thing that has happened to Chechnya since the end of the Soviet Union. The war in Chechnya is pretty much over and the islamist radicals have largely been defeated (unlike in neighbouring Dagestan). There are a small number still in the mountains and a lot of the rest are either fighting for ISIS or in exile in Turkey (where they are protected by another Islamic dictatorship though one that we like). Grozny is largely safe and rebuilt. It would not be my first choice of a city to move to that is sure but the life of most citizens (ie. the ones whose family members are not in the mountains or fighting with ISIS) is much better under Kadyrov than it has been at any time since the fall of the USSR. I have personally never visited Chechnya but I met several Chechens in Russia and most supported him and even those who did not thought he was better than the alternative. I suspect I have spoken to a lot more Chechens than you have. I am not saying Kadyrov is a nice guy either but he seems to be doing a lot better job dealing with islamic revolutions than the US and the West are doing in places like Iraq, Syria or Libya and with nowhere near the level of killing or brutality committed by "our side". Maybe one day he will deserve to be brought before a human rights/war crimes tribunal but if he is I certainly hope Merkel, Harper and especially Obama are there with him (and probably Trudeau as well once it becomes apparent what the Saudis are doing with the APCs we are selling them).

As for Germany being nice, as someone who has lived in both Germany (in fact was born there) and Russia let me say Germany is certainly safer to live in than Russia or Chechnya (although Russia is not nearly as dangerous as we are led to believe, living in the US was actually much more dangerous but Germany is really safe crime wise), nicer would definitely not be the word I would use. 

[shamrock]

7 hours ago, Grizzly said:

As for Kadyrov it is difficult to know what to believe about him given that our media's reports on him are just as much an exercise in propaganda as the Russian ones.

No it's not. Western media aren't under control like Russian media. Can they be biased? Sure, but that's fundamentally different.

 

7 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Grozny is largely safe and rebuilt. It would not be my first choice of a city to move to that is sure but the life of most citizens (ie. the ones whose family members are not in the mountains or fighting with ISIS) is much better under Kadyrov than it has been at any time since the fall of the USSR.

So the people living under Kadyrov say he's ok, while the rest of them fled to the mountains or ISIS...maybe think about that for a second.

 

7 hours ago, Grizzly said:

I suspect I have spoken to a lot more Chechens than you have.

If you have spoken to one, I guess you're right. But hey, what knowledge is there to be gained from books, while you can also speak to one person (or two)? Seriously. There's not a person in the world who would go and live there if not for a huge paycheck.  The level is higher, obviously, but I wouldn't recommend the Russian league to any 18 year old player. And Terek would be the last club a player should to. For someone who's on the high ground when it comes to a shady club like Lok Leipzig, I think you're very easy on Terek Grozny. 

[Grizzly]

^ You remind me of the joke:

"People in Russia are brainwashed by their state tv"

"How do you know"

"I heard it on the BBC"

The western media is not only incredibly biased but also very controlled though the manner of control is not exactly the same as it is in Russia. I have lived in 4 countries, Germany, Canada, Russia and the US. The television is biased and controlled in all 4 countries with the US being by far the worst. Print media is more free in all countries than the television including Russia though still controlled as well. I am sure you must watch a lot of Russian tv and read a lot of Russian newspapers to be able to compare. Or is your source of information on Russian media our media?

Where did I say there was no knowledge to be gained from books? However, if you are going to get knowledge from books you should read a wide variety of books with different viewpoints not just ones that present one side. I myself have read a lot about Chechnya from all viewpoints (I used to even read the Islamic rebels website). Not to mention I have actually been in Russia during several key events of the conflict such as the Beslan school siege (not only a horrible crime but a horrible strategic blunder by the rebels, killing children does not get you support anywhere and lost them a lot of their own local support) and the black widow plane bombings. But if you really want to know the truth about an issue it is even better to actually talk with people from the place that have actually experienced the events first hand. That is not to say that everything they are going to say is true or not biased but at least it is first hand. I can also guarantee that these same people who don't have the opinion we want to hear or better said those who control our media want us to hear are not going to be interviewed on our tv or in a western documentary about Kadyrov.

As for the people in the mountains they are not refugees of Kadyrov, those are radical Islamic fighters similar to the ones we claim to be fighting in Iraq/Syria. Their families live in government controlled areas but the mountains are hard to control so that is where the remaining militants are based. I don't doubt life is not great for relatives of militants in Chechnya some of whom may be guilty themselves but others who are innocent of any crime but considered guilty by association. Many of the militants have gone to fight for ISIS since the battle in Chechnya is mostly quiet now and they do not have much chance of victory and Syria seemed more promising of success. And since you told me to think for a second, maybe you should think for a second that me having to explain this all to you indicates you really do not know much about Chechnya or Kadyrov. Kadyrov himself was a Chechen rebel in the first Chechen War which had a mix of causes and idealogies from nationalism, historical mistreatment of Chechens by Russia/USSR, to islamism and also to a large criminal/warlord element. By the time of the 2nd Chechen War Kadyrov's father was Chief Mufti and changed sides in part due to the increasing radicalization of the fighters due to the money and influence of Saudi Arabia (with the US undoubtedly in the background) and the influx of radical foreign jihadis. If Kadyrov was on our side we would call him a moderate.

Again I am not saying he is a nice guy or not guilty of some of the things he is accused of but at the same time one has to look at what the alternatives are whether life has improved for the average resident of Chechnya under him. Grozny would be pretty low on my list of cities I would choose to live in but it is 100 times better than it was 10 years ago. Saddam Hussein was not a nice guy either nor is Ghaddafy or Assad but Bush/Obama are responsible for far more deaths in these countries than they were so lets put things in perspective. These are complex conflicts and what we do in the West is cry about lack of democracy and human rights violations and then go in and make life worse for the people there and steal their oil and natural resources. And if Cornelius should not play for Terek because of Kadyrov shouldn't the players of  AC Milan, Arsenal, Hamburger SV, New York Cosmos, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid also stop playing for their teams because they are sponsored by a dictatorship significantly more brutal than Kadyrov (for example, I haven't heard of public stonings yet in Chechnya and in fact the death penalty is prohibited in Russia). How about Leverkusen's players with the horrid past of Bayer and some pretty shady dealings by this company in the present? How about teams with sponsors linked to the German arms exports industry, your "nice" Germany is the world's third largest exporters of weapons? Stuttgart, for example, whose sponsor Daimer/Mercedes-Benz is a major weapons manufacturer of such lovely things as cluster bombs and has also been involved in numerous cases of corruption and illegal dealings. 

As for LOK Leipzig, I hate them because they are the rival of my team, a significant proportion of their fan base is neo-Nazi and I have personally been at games where they displayed banners glorifying the Nazi Rudolf Hess and saying that LOK fans were murderers and fascists. And all of this in as you say "nice" Germany. However, I never said JLL should not play for LOK or criticized him for doing so when it seems to have furthered his career and indeed on occasion I do go on the hated LOK website to see how he is doing and post updates here.

 

 

 

[Fussball_eh]

Guys it's an interesting discussion, but for this thread my suggestion would be to keep politics out of if for the most part.

[shamrock]

29 minutes ago, Fussball_eh said:

Guys it's an interesting discussion, but for this thread my suggestion would be to keep politics out of if for the most part.

Yes I'd really like to get into this some more, cause I do believe strongly that Germany is a nicer place to stay than Chechnia, (especially for a young football player) but you are right. This is not the place to to it. 

 

Edit: I would like to say this (my original point), if you are a young player, you shouldn't be looking at were you get the biggest paycheck, or what's the biggest club. I don't know a lot of players that were 18 when playing in Russia, before they transferred to, say the EPL or Spain or whatever. If it was me (or if I was advising a player), first become a big player at a small club. That will give you some credit when you do make that leap to a bigger league. Grozny will chew him up and spit him out. 

Edited February 2, 2016 by shamrock

[Fussball_eh]

Fury signed two Canadians. http://www.ottawafuryfc.com/news/2016/02/02/fury-bolster-2016-squad-with-pair-of-canadians

Also, there is this: 

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Fussball_eh

[shamrock]

Mozzi didn't play much under Dalglish in Austin, so I'm a bit surprised he'd go to Ottawa.