Ballou Tabla

[MauditYvon]

2 players come to my mind when I see this move. 2 guys who, aged 23, signed for an average European D2 team.

Floor : Liam Fraser

Ceiling : Patrice Bernier 

Should be fun to watch

[Stryker911]

I made a write up similar to what CPL does for literally every signing that comes to the league. Tabla's is actually quite impressive. I just copied and pasted Pacific's signing Sellouf's and changed the info for Tabls. If I was a fan of Manisa and didn't know anything about this guy I would be pretty impressed. 

Ballou Tabla has joined Manisa F.K. during the 2022/23 TFF First League season.

“Tabla is a young talent already playing close to 14 professional matches in the Segunda Divison,” says Manisa F. K. head coach Turgay Altay. “He’s an exciting wide player who plays primarily on the left. Very good on the ball, dynamic, and direct going forward. Tabla shows good quality 1v1 and will be a great addition to our attack.”

Tabla comes to the Turkey after most recently playing for Athletico Ottawa in Canada. Tabls began his career playing youth football for Montreal Impact, the professional team in his hometown. After three years in the academy there, Tabla signed professional terms in 2016 as an 16-year-old. He would go on to make 21 appearances and score two goals in the MLS over one season before moving to Barcelona in 2018. There he played for the club’s reserve team, Barcelona B. Tabla made 30 appearances during his time in Barcelona and scored three goals. Tabla. In 2018 at the age of 19 he made his international debut for Canada and has 2 caps for his country senior team. 

[Ruud]

16 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

Damn this is brutal.

not much I disagree with unfortunately.

Welcome to the New Canada 😀

[El Hombre]

15 hours ago, Bigandy said:

This wasnt said before. If you had said this, I would have agreed and most likely softened my stance at defending the CMNT. All I read though was negative slags on our depth and individual players without any acknowledgement of how much better we are than 4 years ago. 

I've been around awhile and the number of positive @Floortom posts I've read can be counted on one hand.

Corbeanu is the same age as Kone and already has 850 championship minutes.  That's actually better than I thought.

Millar is sharing the pitch with a number of Swiss internationals, a Hungarian international, a Serbian international and a number of regular youth players for countries like France at Basel, so I'm surprised that the level of play is too low there for us to consider him.

If you look at Junior's heat map over the last few games, that is pretty much the position we would want him to play against top tier opponents.

[costarg]

19 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

I've been around awhile and the number of positive @Floortom posts I've read can be counted on one hand.

Corbeanu is the same age as Kone and already has 850 championship minutes.  That's actually better than I thought.

Millar is sharing the pitch with a number of Swiss internationals, a Hungarian international, a Serbian international and a number of regular youth players for countries like France at Basel, so I'm surprised that the level of play is too low there for us to consider him.

If you look at Junior's heat map over the last few games, that is pretty much the position we would want him to play against top tier opponents.

Good stuff.  All a matter of perspective.  

[A_Gagne]

Mixed feelings about this move, mostly positive though...

If he impresses, it could be a pathway to the Turkish 1st div, which is a legit league. If he can pull that off within one or two seasons, then he'd be entering his prime and it could get him back into the national team conversation, as well as a decent money move elsewhere.

The downside risks are two fold in my mind:

1) I seem to recall Tos didn't get paid by his club playing in this league, and I'm guessing Turkish clubs get financially a little dodgy outside the first div. Turkey been in a state of hyper-inflation, so I hope he gets paid and not in Lyra.

2) Ballou seems to be a player who needs to be surrounded by the right environment. There's been a lot of insinuations over the years that there's people in his entourage bringing him down. Maybe I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover here, but 2nd div footy in a economically developing country doesn't exactly seem like the place where professionalism and having the right mentality will be emphasized, so I hope he's got the right people around him these days, who will help him take advantage of this opportunity, as opposed to let/facilitate it taking advantage of him.

Overall though, I'm hopefully that he'll make the most of this opportunity, score some goals and get his career back on track, because let's face it, he was seriously trending towards being the the next Hansen Boakai, this is at least a step forward and away from that general direction.

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 hours ago, A_Gagne said:

Mixed feelings about this move, mostly positive though...

If he impresses, it could be a pathway to the Turkish 1st div, which is a legit league. If he can pull that off within one or two seasons, then he'd be entering his prime and it could get him back into the national team conversation, as well as a decent money move elsewhere.

The downside risks are two fold in my mind:

1) I seem to recall Tos didn't get paid by his club playing in this league, and I'm guessing Turkish clubs get financially a little dodgy outside the first div. Turkey been in a state of hyper-inflation, so I hope he gets paid and not in Lyra.

2) Ballou seems to be a player who needs to be surrounded by the right environment. There's been a lot of insinuations over the years that there's people in his entourage bringing him down. Maybe I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover here, but 2nd div footy in a economically developing country doesn't exactly seem like the place where professionalism and having the right mentality will be emphasized, so I hope he's got the right people around him these days, who will help him take advantage of this opportunity, as opposed to let/facilitate it taking advantage of him.

Overall though, I'm hopefully that he'll make the most of this opportunity, score some goals and get his career back on track, because let's face it, he was seriously trending towards being the the next Hansen Boakai, this is at least a step forward and away from that general direction.

Your point 2 especially. He's psychologically fragile or needy, I'm no expert and not giving a diagnosis. He needs support.

[costarg]

6 hours ago, A_Gagne said:

Hansen Boakai

Now there's a name i haven't seen or heard mentioned in a while!  Whatever is happening with him these days?  Is he still kicking a ball somewhere or working in some factory somewhere?  I had such high hopes, the kid has (had?) talent.

To think, Ballou's path has been a roller coaster, but Boakai just hit a wall.  I understand that it can and does happen, but I have such a hard time wrapping my head around it.  Soo much talent, how can anyone not suck it up and just do what they're told and focus for a year or two.  A guy with that talent can easily cruise once he's at least established himself.  But to throw in the towel so soon, is just soo sad.  

Gonna go google him now......

[A_Gagne]

2 hours ago, costarg said:

Now there's a name i haven't seen or heard mentioned in a while!  Whatever is happening with him these days?  Is he still kicking a ball somewhere or working in some factory somewhere?  I had such high hopes, the kid has (had?) talent.

To think, Ballou's path has been a roller coaster, but Boakai just hit a wall.  I understand that it can and does happen, but I have such a hard time wrapping my head around it.  Soo much talent, how can anyone not suck it up and just do what they're told and focus for a year or two.  A guy with that talent can easily cruise once he's at least established himself.  But to throw in the towel so soon, is just soo sad.  

Gonna go google him now......

Jaime Peters

Jacob Lensky

... might as well add them to your wonderkid flame-out google search.

[VinceA]

39 minutes ago, A_Gagne said:

Jaime Peters

Jacob Lensky

... might as well add them to your wonderkid flame-out google search.

I don't get Peters end. He leaves Ipswich at 25 and then just...doesn't find a new club? He didn't even drop any divisions he just didn't keep playing pro. Seems very random and I don't know if anyone really knows what happened other than he had a trial with Vancouver and has played semi-pro recently.

[yothat2]

3 hours ago, costarg said:

Now there's a name i haven't seen or heard mentioned in a while!  Whatever is happening with him these days?  Is he still kicking a ball somewhere or working in some factory somewhere?  I had such high hopes, the kid has (had?) talent.

To think, Ballou's path has been a roller coaster, but Boakai just hit a wall.  I understand that it can and does happen, but I have such a hard time wrapping my head around it.  Soo much talent, how can anyone not suck it up and just do what they're told and focus for a year or two.  A guy with that talent can easily cruise once he's at least established himself.  But to throw in the towel so soon, is just soo sad.  

Gonna go google him now......

. he's def moved on to being in the entertainment business  ... shame his career didn't work out. Didn't even land in the USL or MLS next 

[Bigandy]

12 hours ago, costarg said:

Now there's a name i haven't seen or heard mentioned in a while!  Whatever is happening with him these days?  Is he still kicking a ball somewhere or working in some factory somewhere?  I had such high hopes, the kid has (had?) talent.

To think, Ballou's path has been a roller coaster, but Boakai just hit a wall.  I understand that it can and does happen, but I have such a hard time wrapping my head around it.  Soo much talent, how can anyone not suck it up and just do what they're told and focus for a year or two.  A guy with that talent can easily cruise once he's at least established himself.  But to throw in the towel so soon, is just soo sad.  

Gonna go google him now......

Boakia never had the mentality to make it. Sure he had some talent, but it wasnt so much that he didnt need to work on his development properly. I am not surprised that he hit a wall and fizzled out.

[A_Gagne]

11 hours ago, VinceA said:

I don't get Peters end. He leaves Ipswich at 25 and then just...doesn't find a new club? He didn't even drop any divisions he just didn't keep playing pro. Seems very random and I don't know if anyone really knows what happened other than he had a trial with Vancouver and has played semi-pro recently.

Looked fat, unmotivated, rumour mill was that he liked to party.

[CanadaFan123]

2 hours ago, A_Gagne said:

Looked fat, unmotivated, rumour mill was that he liked to party.

Some great veteran role models in Canada soccer around that time. 

[dyslexic nam]

5 hours ago, A_Gagne said:

Looked fat, unmotivated, rumour mill was that he liked to party.

Sounds familiar…

[Bison44]

9 hours ago, A_Gagne said:

Looked fat, unmotivated, rumour mill was that he liked to party.

Sounds like me now....

[CanadaFan123]

Hanson Boakai definitely has to be the most overrated prospect we’ve had. The guy never played at a good level his entire career … his claim to fame was playing NASL at 16 but he was never even a starter for Edmonton. Didn’t even make our u20 team IIRC. Hard to call him a “has been” when he never was. The best club he was ever attached to was Inter Turku ffs. 
 

At least guys like Lensky and Peters played, and even did well, at good levels. 
 

A guy like Tyler Attardo has already had a better career than Boakai.

Edited January 28, 2023 by CanadaFan123

[Big_M]

by playing cyprus d2 and french d4-5..right

[narduch]

On the bench for the match against Denizilspor

[MauditYvon]

In at the 62 (still 1-1, 74’)

[Brethers8]

On 1/27/2023 at 4:40 PM, A_Gagne said:

Looked fat, unmotivated, rumour mill was that he liked to party.

He had a good game whenever I saw him play for Ipswich, had Arshavin in his pocket when they made league cup semi finals in the first leg. Then Paul Jewell took over the team and he never played again. This would happen with every new manager that came in.

I used to see him about in town on a night out a lot.

[nolando]

On 1/27/2023 at 8:40 AM, A_Gagne said:

Looked fat, unmotivated, rumour mill was that he liked to party.

 

[narduch]

Was an unused sub today 

[Unnamed Trialist]

I see no one caught that their match last weekend was postponed, or cancelled, because the away rival was a team affected by the earthquake.

He's near Izmir, they were fine.

[yothat2]

On 1/27/2023 at 8:05 PM, CanadaFan123 said:

Hanson Boakai definitely has to be the most overrated prospect we’ve had. The guy never played at a good level his entire career … his claim to fame was playing NASL at 16 but he was never even a starter for Edmonton. Didn’t even make our u20 team IIRC. Hard to call him a “has been” when he never was. The best club he was ever attached to was Inter Turku ffs. 
 

At least guys like Lensky and Peters played, and even did well, at good levels. 
 

A guy like Tyler Attardo has already had a better career than Boakai.

he trialed in Spain, Germany as an 16 - 17 year old. Heard from an guys alphonso inter/team Alberta team that Hanson had talent .. but the not the same work ethnic. at professional level it will catch up too you. Heard he was immature..