Ballou Tabla

[A_Gagne]

One big question I have is what the  Impact/MLS got for the transfer? %future transfer revenue? Transfer fee that increases if he signs a first team contract? 

[BuzzAndSting]

33 minutes ago, Free kick said:

 

I am way past this line of thinking. I used to think it was about pride in the jersey and the country you represent and all that stuff.  But the reality is that it is not.  Its about career and fame. Why else did they call up Davies for the gold cup?  It couldnt have been on his performance with the whitecaps because they never play him.  And when he does, he never scores.  

It was because he has options, just like Tabla.  And he could do the same thing. 

Because he’s talented and can score goals, just like he did.

[Northvansteve]

48 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Because he’s talented and can score goals, just like he did.

Every player has options. Davies chose Canada because he has huge integrity and pride. And is thankful for the country that gave him and his family a home. Class.

[MtlMario]

14 hours ago, David C. said:

I just hope that Tabla remembers and appreciates that it was his time in Canada that give him the opportunity that he got from Barca.

I bet when he got on that PLANE TO SPAIN he turned around and said "Thank you SUCKERS"

Edited January 26, 2018 by MtlMario

[Bertuzzi44]

Does Tabla have any connection to Canada now? Relatives that live in Canada still or something?

Edited January 26, 2018 by Bertuzzi44

[Unnamed Trialist]

6 hours ago, A_Gagne said:

One big question I have is what the  Impact/MLS got for the transfer? %future transfer revenue? Transfer fee that increases if he signs a first team contract? 

Barça paid 3.4 million euros to Valladolid for Arnaiz, who is 22, and proven in Spanish 2nd division. We paid 1.5 m € for Lozano, that fee went to Olimpia of Honduras, he was on loan at Tenerife where he was scoring regularly in 2nd div. These guys were signed to bolster the team and keep it in Segunda, so the youngsters could develop alongside them. 

I would guess, as I do not know (yet, hope to find out) that we paid between 800 thousand and a million for Ballou. Someone should canvas folks at Panellinios Montreal to see if they are picking up any sort of development fee, and the transfer could be calculated back from that. But I have asked to speak to someone in the club, let's see if they want to say anything.

Edit:  since you asked, I am quite sure the fee will increase if Ballou plays a minimum of games for Barça B, over a certain period, and there might be a boost if he gets first team minutes inside the term of his contract. Some goals are often easily reachable in these transfer deals, as way of also spreading out the fee payment over a few seasons: Impact will get it, very likely, but not all in this fiscal year.

An interview with the coach of Barça B today in Sport, but he does not go into detail on Ballou, perhaps because it was not made official until late yesterday. Quarter page articles on the player in the Catalan sports dailies today.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Unnamed Trialist

[Unnamed Trialist]

7 hours ago, Shakmur said:

I've seen him play a lot, and imo he's been overhyped. He wows people with his skills, but his head is shit. He constantly takes very poor decisions on and off the pitch. Maybe they'll coach some brains into him.

This is a good observation. To learn proper decision-making he is probably in the best academy system. At Barça if you make the wrong decision on the field you can get jeered immediately by fans, they expect you to pass to a human foot and be in the right position pretty well always. I mean, people were even murmuring last night in the Cup match because the 2nd keeper, Cillessen, was not as sharp with his 40 meter passes as Ter Stegen. The whole idea of not risking a pass and just booting it out is bothersome. 

In MLS it is just the opposite, for me the entire league is a lesson in poor decision-making, as a general rule. Whitecaps are a classic example, talent trying to overcome an incapacity to make simple passes and be in the right position in offence and defense. 

I was at the last Barça B home game, and we had Miranda, born in 2000, playing left back, and he was over his head, mostly positioning stuff, he did not know when to go, when to stay, covered defensively poorly. He's a bit rough still, is tall and strong and attacks okay, but is not ready for Spanish 2nd. And there were these older guys in front of me on his case the whole time "you gotta play with more balls", "you're getting beaten by the wing", "the pass has to go one-two, control and go". To a guy still in high school. 

I have seen players meet the challenge and raise their game, and many who have not. Some do not have the head for it, a few really do. But hey, a lot of those who don't stay with Barça still end up playing top flight or 2nd tier in Spain, or elsewhere. An example: Adama Traore, now at Middlesborough, last year at Villa. Adama was a way better player than Ballou at his age. If Ballou can end up like that, a Championship journeyman, then all power to him.

 

[Moldy9]

9 hours ago, Free kick said:

 The NT must have known about the kid for some time now.   So why not do like Switzerland does and cap players, who have multiple citizenship,  as soon possible even if they are not ready. And use the meaningless games in the gold cup and WCQ (the ones where Canada is already eliminated) or as a late sub in a meaninful game, to cap them.  They did this for Alphonso Davies or even Jamie Peters.  But why do it for only for Alphoso Davies?   Davies has great promise and yes, was great at the gold cup.  But we have only seen littles bits and pieces of both of these kids so its really hard to tell.  

But i agree with the comments wondering why we are giving a mAture USL’er heavy minutes in the gold cup and not using those games or minutes to cap tie plyers like this. Switzerland does this regularly.

Well said Free Kick. I think this is a good idea and a solution for those Vs wanting blood on the hatchet for players like Ballou’s lack of loyalty to the program and/or country.

We know CSA are great at fumbling the ball from time to time and need improving on multiple levels like hooking up a live stream from the center of the universe for a WCQ ... anyways my point is they need to be more aggressive and treat it as business. We can’t keep affording to develop youth with tons of potential and possibly the next star just to lose them to a more prominent NT. Seriously it’s business, I know some Vs might say “oh the poor player” , but sorry not sorry, they use us so should CSA.  CSAs approach should be we are not a door mat and if they catch wind said player wants to go IC, ENG or whatever then fine CIAO ADIOS good luck with their program now byeee don’t waste our time. You want to get playing time at camps? U-17, U-20? Well guess what we got a WCQ (or the new NT League) vs Belize/St Lucia/El Salvador etc, you’re getting called up and will show your commitment by wearing the red.  

If we don’t do anything we will definitely keep losing potential talent. At least this way you protect your investment. Many (promising) players get capped/called in their teens. Mike Owen played in 98 WC as a teen and Fat Ronaldo was on the bench for 94 WC

8 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Because Davies is a proud Canadian who accepted a call up and Tabla refused.

Agree somewhat, Davies VS Tabla was a result of circumstances .

1. He grew up in Edmonton instead of Montreal. A bit more love for anything Canada here in big sky wild rose AB then what’s in my home province, la belle province, QC. 

2. He would’ve had to choose Liberia (war forced his parents out) or Ghana (family in refugee camp, was a baby) having no ties or love to those countries. Now if one of those countries were instead IC with a star like Double D who was his idol and for some magical reason they played together at VW do you think Davies would still wear red. I’m happy he chose us but I think in his case the puzzle pieces fit. 

Anyways Davies capped at 16/17 for Canada will be OZs legacy. Hart did well when he capped Cavallini at the Slaughter of San Pedro Sula. Good luck Herdman let’s hope like his name he can herd our next stars to the maple leaf. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Moldy9

[ChrisinOrleans]

I'm very happy for Ballou. This is a guy that came up from FC Montréal, earned his way into the XI partant of l'Impact de Montréal, and is now with Barca B in Spain. That says wonderful things about the ability of Montréal to turn out talented players. Hopefully, we'll turn out a few more in the next few years. The fact that l'Impact netted 7 figures for him, well, that's just icing on the cake! That'll hopefully go into developing new players at that shiny new training facility in the East end of MTL.

I couldn't be happier for the man. Hopefully, he'll make a triumphant return to Montréal one day, Patrice Bernier style; but if he doesn't, I'm happy I got to see him play in la belle ville when he was an up-and-comer. 

I'm not torn up if the MNT doesn't ever cap him. He needs to do his own thing for a while. Hopefully, he succeeds on the pitch in Spain. Why can't everyone here be happy about a success story?  

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Moldy9 said:

Anyways Davies capped at 16/17 for Canada will be OZs legacy. Hart did well when he capped Cavallini at the Slaughter of San Pedro Sula. Good luck Herdman let’s hope like his name he can herd our next stars to the maple leaf. 

So you are exempting Herdman from even trying to get Ballou back in the fold? I mean, whatever failures you had before have to be redressed now by the new team. Are they onto this?

Or you are thinking, like me, that if he gets one of Herdman's famous, handwritten love letters on red and white parchment, he'll just throw it in the corner, one less page to read.

 

[Kent]

1 hour ago, Moldy9 said:

Well said Free Kick. I think this is a good idea and a solution for those Vs wanting blood on the hatchet for players like Ballou’s lack of loyalty to the program and/or country.

We know CSA are great at fumbling the ball from time to time and need improving on multiple levels like hooking up a live stream from the center of the universe for a WCQ ... anyways my point is they need to be more aggressive and treat it as business. We can’t keep affording to develop youth with tons of potential and possibly the next star just to lose them to a more prominent NT. Seriously it’s business, I know some Vs might say “oh the poor player” , but sorry not sorry, they use us so should CSA.  CSAs approach should be we are not a door mat and if they catch wind said player wants to go IC, ENG or whatever then fine CIAO ADIOS good luck with their program now byeee don’t waste our time. You want to get playing time at camps? U-17, U-20? Well guess what we got a WCQ (or the new NT League) vs Belize/St Lucia/El Salvador etc, you’re getting called up and will show your commitment by wearing the red.  

If we don’t do anything we will definitely keep losing potential talent. At least this way you protect your investment. Many (promising) players get capped/called in their teens. Mike Owen played in 98 WC as a teen and Fat Ronaldo was on the bench for 94 WC

Agree somewhat, Davies VS Tabla was a result of circumstances .

1. He grew up in Edmonton instead of Montreal. A bit more love for anything Canada here in big sky wild rose AB then what’s in my home province, la belle province, QC. 

2. He would’ve had to choose Liberia (war forced his parents out) or Ghana (family in refugee camp, was a baby) having no ties or love to those countries. Now if one of those countries were instead IC with a star like Double D who was his idol and for some magical reason they played together at VW do you think Davies would still wear red. I’m happy he chose us but I think in his case the puzzle pieces fit. 

Anyways Davies capped at 16/17 for Canada will be OZs legacy. Hart did well when he capped Cavallini at the Slaughter of San Pedro Sula. Good luck Herdman let’s hope like his name he can herd our next stars to the maple leaf. 

Wait, so we should have capped him earlier right? Same is true for Tomori I assume? And of course this is all with the assumption they would have accepted the calls at that time that they are now rejecting. So with this logic that means we would have to be calling up Tabla, Tomori and Davies (any others? Gutierrez? What other dual nationals did we have during World Cup Qualifying?). Probably there could have been 6 or 7 guys that we would be putting on the field before they are ready and throw away our World Cup 2018 chances even earlier than we already lost it.

I am not against cap tying, but we have to be a little bit reasonable. We shouldn’t be resorting to cap tying reserve team players during World Cup Qualifying.

I liked the part about many teens getting capped with your example being from 20 years ago. And of course, WE DID TRY TO CAP TIE TABLA AS A TEEN!!! Not to mention the fact that Michael Owen had already scored 19 goals in the Premier League, including an 18 goal season. Tabla hadn’t yet signed a contract with the Impact first team.

[MtlMario]

12 minutes ago, Kent said:

Wait, so we should have capped him earlier right? Same is true for Tomori I assume? And of course this is all with the assumption they would have accepted the calls at that time that they are now rejecting. So with this logic that means we would have to be calling up Tabla, Tomori and Davies (any others? Gutierrez? What other dual nationals did we have during World Cup Qualifying?). Probably there could have been 6 or 7 guys that we would be putting on the field before they are ready and throw away our World Cup 2018 chances even earlier than we already lost it.

I am not against cap tying, but we have to be a little bit reasonable. We shouldn’t be resorting to cap tying reserve team players during World Cup Qualifying.

I liked the part about many teens getting capped with your example being from 20 years ago. And of course, WE DID TRY TO CAP TIE TABLA AS A TEEN!!! Not to mention the fact that Michael Owen had already scored 19 goals in the Premier League, including an 18 goal season. Tabla hadn’t yet signed a contract with the Impact first team.

How many players are called to WCQ and GC and never get on the pitch? Having a couple of young dual nationals on the team and playing a few minutes isn't going to THROW AWAY OUR WC CHANCES. If they're so good they shouldn't be such a liability. I say cap tie as many duals as possible. What do we have to lose (except losing them to another country that needs them much less than us.) We are here to support OUR CDN national team(supposedly) and not here to be HAPPY when players that where in our national youth system go and play for OTHER countries. That is my opinion and sticking with it. GO CANADA GO.

[MtlMario]

.....and when would we cap tie players if not WC or GC.  In friendlies???????????????????

[BuzzAndSting]

So for those arguing that we should have cap tied BT earlier let's look at the timeline, and of course this is under the assumption that he would have accepted a call to the MNT at any point before OZ started talking to him. 

Nov 10 2015 - BT signs with FC Montreal.

Nov 13 2015 - CanMNT beat Honduras 1-0 in Vancouver.

Nov 17 2015 - CanMNT tie El Salvador away 0-0.

Mar 25 2016 - CanMNT lose 0-3 in Vancouver

Mar 29 2016 - CanMNT lose to Mexico 0-2 away.

Sep 2 2016 - CanMNT lose to Honduras away 1-2.

Sep 6 2016 - CanMNT beat El Salvador 3-1 in Vancouver.

Oct 20 2016 - BT signs first professional contract.

July 7 2016 - GC begins, OZ states that BT has refused a call up to the MNT.

So when should we have called him? When would have you cap tied him? Before November 2015, when he was still an amateur play club soccer as a 15 year old?

Edit: Fixed dates.

 

Edited January 26, 2018 by BuzzAndSting

[BuzzAndSting]

9 minutes ago, MtlMario said:

.....and when would we cap tie players if not WC or GC.  In friendlies???????????????????

Not possible.

[Moldy9]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

So you are exempting Herdman from even trying to get Ballou back in the fold? I mean, whatever failures you had before have to be redressed now by the new team. Are they onto this?

Or you are thinking, like me, that if he gets one of Herdman's famous, handwritten love letters on red and white parchment, he'll just throw it in the corner, one less page to read.

 

I’m not saying he shouldn’t try especially considering he has the rep for being a charmer but I think it will fall on deaf ears. 

[Moldy9]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

Wait, so we should have capped him earlier right? Same is true for Tomori I assume? And of course this is all with the assumption they would have accepted the calls at that time that they are now rejecting. So with this logic that means we would have to be calling up Tabla, Tomori and Davies (any others? Gutierrez? What other dual nationals did we have during World Cup Qualifying?). Probably there could have been 6 or 7 guys that we would be putting on the field before they are ready and throw away our World Cup 2018 chances even earlier than we already lost it.

I am not against cap tying, but we have to be a little bit reasonable. We shouldn’t be resorting to cap tying reserve team players during World Cup Qualifying.

I liked the part about many teens getting capped with your example being from 20 years ago. And of course, WE DID TRY TO CAP TIE TABLA AS A TEEN!!! Not to mention the fact that Michael Owen had already scored 19 goals in the Premier League, including an 18 goal season. Tabla hadn’t yet signed a contract with the Impact first team.

I’m not saying captie everyone but if we know a guy has potential and can be a star they should consider doing it for against a minnow qualifying match. They tried calling him up when he already had DD in his ear. 

[Moldy9]

1 hour ago, BuzzAndSting said:

So for those arguing that we should have cap tied BT earlier let's look at the timeline, and of course this is under the assumption that he would have accepted a call to the MNT at any point before OZ started talking to him. 

Nov 10 2015 - BT signs with FC Montreal.

Nov 13 2015 - CanMNT beat Honduras 1-0 in Vancouver.

Nov 17 2015 - CanMNT tie El Salvador away 0-0.

Sep 2 2016 - CanMNT lose to Honduras away 1-2.

Sep 6 2016 - CanMNT beat El Salvador 3-1 in Vancouver.

Oct 20 2016 - BT signs first professional contract.

July 7 2016 - GC begins, OZ states that BT has refused a call up to the MNT.

So when should we have called him? When would have you cap tied him? Before November 2015, when he was still an amateur play club soccer as a 15 year old?

 

 

Floro probably wouldn’t have but an attempt could’ve been made against El Salvador’s B team or El Salvador in Vancouver when we needed goals. Just saying.  BT was worth the callup considering he showed promise. Maybe at the time it wasn’t an afterthought or maybe they thought it was in the bag. Anyways it’s a good lesson for the future when we have a dual that shows he can be a star. 

[MtlMario]

1 hour ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Not possible.

Exactly my point!!!!

[MtlMario]

Anyhow I'm done talking about this guy, even though there is a 1% chance he will play for us.

[jpg75]

18 hours ago, Oranje said:

Also,  @Unnamed Trialist being in Spain gives a cost effective avenue for this. @jpg75 going to spearhead this?

I guess so. I've got an extra V's shirt i can donate to send him...what about a twitter post or FB post as congrats?

[jpg75]

Something like...

Jean Yves, the Voyageurs, Canadian Soccer's Supporters group would like to congratulate you on your move to FC Barcelona! We're confident you'll find great success in your new challenge and look forward to seeing you lead Canada to many World Cups. ??⚽

[BuzzAndSting]

40 minutes ago, Moldy9 said:

Floro probably wouldn’t have but an attempt could’ve been made against El Salvador’s B team or El Salvador in Vancouver when we needed goals. Just saying.  BT was worth the callup considering he showed promise. Maybe at the time it wasn’t an afterthought or maybe they thought it was in the bag. Anyways it’s a good lesson for the future when we have a dual that shows he can be a star. 

So you would have been in favour of the CanMNT calling a 16 year old playing youth soccer for an amateur club in Montreal and actually giving him minutes in a WCQ?

[Oranje]

22 minutes ago, jpg75 said:

Something like...

Jean Yves, the Voyageurs, Canadian Soccer's Supporters group would like to congratulate you on your move to FC Barcelona! We're confident you'll find great success in your new challenge and look forward to seeing you lead Canada to many World Cups. ??⚽

I was thinking more along the lines of having @Unnamed Trialist show up at Barca B and sing him a song, like a “Transfer-gram”. Your idea works too though

Edited January 26, 2018 by Oranje

[Unnamed Trialist]

12 minutes ago, Oranje said:

I was thinking more along the lines of having @Unnamed Trialist show up at Barca B and sing him a song, like a “Transfer-gram”. Your idea works too though

I like the idea that Oranje thinks I am that good a singer.

I am thinking going to games with the Canadian flag and his name on it, very simple, as I am crappy doing these things. My flag is old, very old, however. I remember I took it out when Ben Johnson won gold, yes, that old.