Ballou Tabla

[MtlMario]

As far as I am concerned it should be an HONOR and PRIVILEGE to play for your country,and if you have to THINK about it before excepting just means that it not that much of honor and privilege to him and it's exactly the opposite, that we should be HONORED and PRIVILEGED to have him. That's all.

Edited April 22, 2017 by MtlMario

[farrelld]

Interview with Zambrano from Montreal's 98.5 channel (starts around 23 minutes in. English and French) http://www.985sports.ca/lecteur/audio/octavio-zambrano-est-notre-invite-il-est-confiant-361724.mp3

Talks about Tabla and how he thinks he will eventually chose Canada and has even offered to speak to Tabla's father about the decision.

[Dominic94]

I think we will get him.

[shamrock]

Me too, if only because time is on our hand here. He could wait till he reaches 25 or something to see if he could have a shot, or start playing International games immediately. Easy choice IMO. 

[kohanz]

On 4/22/2017 at 8:42 AM, MtlMario said:

As far as I am concerned it should be an HONOR and PRIVILEGE to play for your country,and if you have to THINK about it before excepting just means that it not that much of honor and privilege to him and it's exactly the opposite, that we should be HONORED and PRIVILEGED to have him. That's all.

I'm not a fan of black & white narratives like this. Life is inevitably more complex than that with a lot of grey areas. I do think that the "right" choice for Tabla is to play for Canada, but just don't enjoy this kind of rhetoric.

[MtlMario]

I didn't think being a little patriotic was rhetoric, but everyone has a right to his opinion.

[MtlMario]

And by the way,the coach told him about the same thing when he spoke to him like giving back a little to the country that welcomed him and his family. I don't know if that's grey black or white.

[MtlMario]

6 hours ago, kohanz said:

I'm not a fan of black & white narratives like this. Life is inevitably more complex than that with a lot of grey areas. I do think that the "right" choice for Tabla is to play for Canada, but just don't enjoy this kind of rhetoric.

You have Team A with players who Canada being first choice vs Team B with players that are only there because it's either good for their career or their first (or sometimes second) choice country doesn't want or need them. Which team do you think would give it their all when everything is on the line? Which team would you like to have watching your back in a dark alley? That's what i"m trying to get across. Ask some of the older players what it meant to them to play for Canada. Sorry that I don't know how complex life can be.

[kacbru]

Do you really think players "try" more or less depending on their jersey?  These are professionals.  I don't doubt that it means a heck of a lot to play for your country, but I doubt it impacts on the level of effort that any player puts in to win a game or influences their "compete" level or any other BS intangibles Don Cherry talks about.     

[lazlo_80]

2 hours ago, MtlMario said:

You have Team A with players who Canada being first choice vs Team B with players that are only there because it's either good for their career or their first (or sometimes second) choice country doesn't want or need them. Which team do you think would give it their all when everything is on the line? Which team would you like to have watching your back in a dark alley? That's what i"m trying to get across. Ask some of the older players what it meant to them to play for Canada. Sorry that I don't know how complex life can be.

I suppose the team i'd want protecting me in a dark alley would be the one that was better at self defense or mixed martial arts, but I guess it's hard to tell if they've taken any kung fu lessons just by which team they decided to play for, so i guess we're in a bit of a stalemate with respect to that one. Are weapons included? I mean if weapons are allowed I'd want whichever team had more weapons too. Ooh, and if any of them had attack dogs, that would probably be handy as well.

[kohanz]

3 hours ago, MtlMario said:

You have Team A with players who Canada being first choice vs Team B with players that are only there because it's either good for their career or their first (or sometimes second) choice country doesn't want or need them. Which team do you think would give it their all when everything is on the line? Which team would you like to have watching your back in a dark alley? That's what i"m trying to get across. Ask some of the older players what it meant to them to play for Canada. Sorry that I don't know how complex life can be.

It's really just this statement that I disagree with:

if you have to THINK about it before excepting just means that it not that much of honor and privilege to him and it's exactly the opposite, that we should be HONORED and PRIVILEGED to have him.

If he even has to "think" about the decision of which country to represent, rather than it being an automatic, zero-thought decision, he is all of a sudden a diva with an ego? It just reeks of "If you're not with us, then you're with the terrorists" type of thinking. I mean, presumably, because he hasn't publicly decided yet, that means he has thought about it or is still currently thinking about it - is he already in your bad books?

Edited April 27, 2017 by kohanz

[BradMack]

Zambrano straight up said it was Ballou's dad that wanted him to play for Ivory Coast, I could be wrong but I think Hoilett's dad was trying to Push Jamaica on Jr.... I believe I read that somewhere back in the day. Jr always addressed himself as a Canadian though and I truly believe he always wanted to play for us. But his dad is his agent so they are close. Zambrano said that he offered to talk to Ballou's dad and is just waiting on the response. I think this is makes it a little less black and white for me... I want him to play for Canada too and think he should because the Country has given him a lot. But at the same time it would be difficult because you wouldn't want to dissapoint your father, and also he's got Didier in his ear probably telling him to play for Chelsea and the IC. Didier can make things happen in the IC and probably at Chelsea too. 

[MtlMario]

13 hours ago, kohanz said:

It's really just this statement that I disagree with:

if you have to THINK about it before excepting just means that it not that much of honor and privilege to him and it's exactly the opposite, that we should be HONORED and PRIVILEGED to have him.

If he even has to "think" about the decision of which country to represent, rather than it being an automatic, zero-thought decision, he is all of a sudden a diva with an ego? It just reeks of "If you're not with us, then you're with the terrorists" type of thinking. I mean, presumably, because he hasn't publicly decided yet, that means he has thought about it or is still currently thinking about it - is he already in your bad books?

He's not in my bad books yet but we'll see what everyone thinks after he makes his decision. I'm 60/40 of him choosing us.

[matty]

15 minutes ago, MtlMario said:

He's not in my bad books yet but we'll see what everyone thinks after he makes his decision. I'm 60/40 of him choosing us.

I'd say more like 80/20

[MtlMario]

Hope you are right.

[Kent]

I'm of the belief that a person's love of a country doesn't have to be monogamous. FIFA rules (which I'm not against) force monogamy in terms of the country you represent at the senior level.

I'm sure Jonathan De Guzman doesn't hate Canada. He probably loves Canada, but also loves Netherlands, which is a country that gave him a lot as well. Players in situations like this have to make a choice, and have to live with it for the rest of their lives. I'm sure it can be difficult. Yes, of course I'd like for everyone to choose Canada, but I've tried to stop judging players that choose other countries. There are a million different ways to feel ties to a country, and it's a mess to try to sort it all out, especially for a person to sort it all out for someone else based on speculating the details of those ties, and how much value a person should give to each. Details like, where were you born? Where is your heritage from? Where did you grow up? Where did you learn to play? Where did you get your opportunity? Where are your friends? Where is your family? Where do you go to be home with family? It's possible to have a different answer to each of those questions, or even multiple answers to all of them with the exception of the place of birth.

[Kent]

Article on Tabla.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/04/27/who-montreal-impact-homegrown-ballou-jean-yves-tabla

Snippet from near the end of the article.

"Given the bright start to his MLS career, Tabla has a possible dilemma ahead of him on the international stage. If he receives interest from both Canada and Ivory Coast at the senior level, which country will he choose? He's shined on the youth stage for Canada but has the history and emotional ties to Ivory Coast, too, to say nothing of the cost-benefit analysis of which country could offer him the most opportunities and best chance at success on the world stage. 

New Canadian national team head coach Octavio Zambrano is well aware of Tabla's situation, and wants to convince him as soon as possible to play for Canada.

“Tabla is a kid that we need to bring into the national team immediately," Zambrano said when interviewed by RDS podcast Loin de s’en foot. "There’s no more time to wait. This is the country that has given this player the opportunity to shine and really succeed. Obviously, he’s Ivorian by birth and has ties you can’t ignore. I don’t want to pressure him. He has a golden opportunity in this country, that may not present itself in another country: in my view, for his future, playing for the Canadian national team would be much more advantageous.” "

[Big_M]

He won't get anywhere near ivory coast senior team. On top of all the quality players they have, four more who played in france youth teams have just committed. They play in serie a,b1,ligue 1,liga with 3 of the 4 being starters in those leagues. And there will be more. Those players got much higher quality training, Tabla played 1-2 years in a pro academy...

[Floortom]

6 hours ago, Big_M said:

He won't get anywhere near ivory coast senior team. On top of all the quality players they have, four more who played in france youth teams have just committed. They play in serie a,b1,ligue 1,liga with 3 of the 4 being starters in those leagues. And there will be more. Those players got much higher quality training, Tabla played 1-2 years in a pro academy...

He's not close right now. I don't think anyone would deny that. Maybe he's betting on himself in 5 years though - if he gets an IC call he takes it otherwise he settles in Canada

edit: "beefing" = betting

Edited April 27, 2017 by Floortom

[A_Gagne]

4 hours ago, Floortom said:

He's not close right now. I don't think anyone would deny that. Maybe he's beefing on himself in 5 years though - if he gets an IC call he takes it otherwise he settles in Canada

Please define: "beefing"  

but yeah, I get your point and think that's probably how it will go. I.e. the Jr. Hoilett scenario.

[Moldy9]

I too believe at this moment Ballou not considered for CI as there are many others with a better resumé. 

With VW visiting MTL this weekend maybe this will be the beginning of a rivalry between the prodigies Davies and Tabla and will be a factor of Ballou choosing to play for Canada. 

They are both Cdn Africans, about the same age, are friends and were roommates. 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/teenage-talent-set-clash-whitecaps-davies-faces-impacts-tabla/

"I'm his friend," Tabla said Thursday. "But it's my team against his team.

"We will try to get the three points. He's a good young player like me. I'm happy for him. We played with the national team and he was my roommate. We had time to talk a lot."

He didn't say if they discussed playing together on Canada's senior national team one day, perhaps because that is still up in the air in both cases. Davies, a native of Liberia who grew up in Edmonton, has permanent residency in Canada but is not yet a citizen, while Tabla, of Montreal, is yet to decide whether to represent Canada or his native Ivory Coast in international play.

[Obinna]

Super excited to see Davies square off against Tabla this weekend. 

I don't think it will happen because, well Piatti, but it would be awesome to see Tabla start at LW for Montreal and line up against Davies in his customary RW role. What a battle that would be!

[Obinna]

Here is more on the french youth internationals who recently committed to IC:

http://africanfootball.com//news/704233/Wilmots-convinces-two-more-youngsters-to-commit-to-Ivory-Coast

http://www.kingfut.com/2017/04/04/cornet-fofana-ivory-coast/

Boga is 20 and plays for Granada in La Liga (on loan from Chelsea), while Gbamin is 21 and plays for Mainz in the Bundesliga. The other two play for Lyon and Udinese respectively and are both 21 if I recall correctly. 

The kid from Lyon is Cornet and has 8 goals in 40 for the French side, and looked great against Hutchinson and Beskitas last week in their Europa League quarter final tie. IIRC he played in that left-sided inverted winger role.

I was very impressed with him to the point I searched him up during the game and saw he wasn't yet capped for France and thought how wonderful it must be to have so much depth that such a young talented player can't get into the senior team.  

At any rate, he is with Ivory Coast now, and his inclusion the competition Tabla would have in order to be selected for the Ivory Coast at the moment.

He is a few years younger than Cornet (and others), but Cornet already has over 100 pro games under his belt with Lyon and Metz. It is really hard to imagine Tabla building his resume up to that in 3 years, which is good news for us. He'd have to tear up MLS and probably get sold into Europe AND do well there to get noticed by coach Wilmots (former coach of Belgium btw).

Edited April 28, 2017 by Obinna

[Kent]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

It is really hard to imagine Tabla building his resume up to that in 3 years, which is good news for us.

Sigh... I hate being a Canada soccer fan.

[Obinna]

Just now, Kent said:

Sigh... I hate being a Canada soccer fan.

Yup comes with the territory. Multiculturalism is our gift and our curse.