Vince193 Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 (edited) Young keeper, born in 97, has been the starter for IFK Norrköping in their pre-season so far. Born and raised in Toronto and came up in the youth scene here before joining West Bromwich Albion for a little while. Has repped Estonia at youth levels and hasn't repped Canada at any level. Does the CSA know about him? We need regularly playing keepers badly, and Estonia will probably move to cap him soon if he's a starter in the Swedish top flight. Edited March 13, 2016 by Vince193 BCM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 9 minutes ago, Vince193 said: Young keeper, born in 97, has been the starter for IFK Norrköping in their pre-season so far. Born and raised in Toronto and came up in the youth scene here before joining West Bromwich Albion for a little while. Has repped Estonia at youth levels and hasn't repped Canada at any level. Does the CSA know about him? We need regularly playing keepers badly, and Estonia will probably move to cap him soon if he's a starter in the Swedish top flight. I understand players leaving Canada to go to better countries but Estonia? Really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryker911 Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Looks like he was called up for Estonia's friendlies in March. 19 years old and starting for the defending Swedish champion. Hopefully we don't lose him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympique_de_Marseille Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 1 hour ago, Vince193 said: Does the CSA know about him? We need regularly playing keepers badly, and Estonia will probably move to cap him soon if he's a starter in the Swedish top flight. He has been mentioned on the board but we've never had a thread about him. I really do hope the CSA know about him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryker911 Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 His team is also qualified for next year's champions League. BCM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazlo_80 Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 woah! Good find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oranje Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 6 hours ago, canta15 said: I understand players leaving Canada to go to better countries but Estonia? Really? It could just boil down to never being called by the CSA and Estonia called him first? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 5 hours ago, lazlo_80 said: 26 minutes ago, Oranje said: It could just boil down to never being called by the CSA and Estonia called him first? Probably. The kid was at Wexford and got passed over by TFC so likely no one at OSA/CSA bothered looking at him. Then he goes to WBA to play youth and is a starter at a level similar to MLS at 18. Crazy. nolando 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shermanator Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 It's really frustrating that Canada lacks any keepers getting first team minutes at a high level, but one who is able to start in the Allsvenskan at age 19 slips through the cracks. To me, this is a perfect example of why we cannot solely rely on the 5 Canadian clubs to find the appropriate talent in this country. If there are more clubs able to give professional opportunities to local players, perhaps Vaikla is starting at the U-20 qualifiers instead of Nolan Wirth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A_Gagne Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 5 hours ago, jpg75 said: Probably. The kid was at Wexford and got passed over by TFC so likely no one at OSA/CSA bothered looking at him. Then he goes to WBA to play youth and is a starter at a level similar to MLS at 18. Crazy. Do we actually know that TFC passed him over? Either way big loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 1 hour ago, A_Gagne said: Do we actually know that TFC passed him over? Either way big loss. They had 3 years to bring him into the fold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Before we gift him the starting spot, he is starting the pre-season Cup matches due to an injury Norrkoping's starting keeper, David Nilsson. It is a good achievement at 19 to be the backup keeper of the Swedish champions but Nilsson started every game last year and Vaikla has yet to play a game in the Allsvenskan. Also I would not call Allsvenskan a similar level to MLS, it is the 3rd best of the 4 Scandanavian leagues and while significantly better than the Finnish league a good step down from the Norwegian and Danish. MLS was around the level of Norwegian and Danish league some years ago but I think it is currently better than those leagues. The season does not start until April 2nd, so it remains to be seen whether he will get much or any playing time once Nilsson returns from injury. It is always better to keep these players in our system but I have also seen more players like this not go on to do anything in their careers as succeed, ie. maybe we should hold off on the complaining about how he slipped through the cracks until he becomes a starter and performs well. It would be good for the CSA to put out feelers to him though that they are interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yomurphy1 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 He re-tweeted a Canucks Aboard status in October so he's aware that Canada exists. Is it worth pushing someone in soccer media for an interview to see if Canada's reached out. BCM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Norrkoping was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Cup by Malmo yesterday 1-0. The whole game is online and the goal which he did not have much chance on is just before one hour and 20 minutes of the video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Would be great to get an interview with this guy @canucksabroad @matt @rednation thanks for the link @grizzly. yomurphy1 and kingvikingstad 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, Grizzly said: Before we gift him the starting spot, he is starting the pre-season Cup matches due to an injury Norrkoping's starting keeper, David Nilsson. It is a good achievement at 19 to be the backup keeper of the Swedish champions but Nilsson started every game last year and Vaikla has yet to play a game in the Allsvenskan. Also I would not call Allsvenskan a similar level to MLS, it is the 3rd best of the 4 Scandanavian leagues and while significantly better than the Finnish league a good step down from the Norwegian and Danish. MLS was around the level of Norwegian and Danish league some years ago but I think it is currently better than those leagues. The season does not start until April 2nd, so it remains to be seen whether he will get much or any playing time once Nilsson returns from injury. It is always better to keep these players in our system but I have also seen more players like this not go on to do anything in their careers as succeed, ie. maybe we should hold off on the complaining about how he slipped through the cracks until he becomes a starter and performs well. It would be good for the CSA to put out feelers to him though that they are interested. Not to get completely off topic, not sure I agree with this assessment of the leagues. Its fair to say many would rank the Scandinavian leagues in such order; Den, Swe, Nor, Fin. Also - I really wish I could confidently agree that the MLS is a better league than Allsvenskan, but can not. I encourage those interested enough to use a simple, yet opinioned, comparison method of watching two average league games back to back. MLS certainly has the DP hype around 2-3 / team, and increasingly better infrastructure but if focus on the overall level Edited March 14, 2016 by hamiltonfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince193 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 6 hours ago, Grizzly said: Before we gift him the starting spot, he is starting the pre-season Cup matches due to an injury Norrkoping's starting keeper, David Nilsson. It is a good achievement at 19 to be the backup keeper of the Swedish champions but Nilsson started every game last year and Vaikla has yet to play a game in the Allsvenskan. Also I would not call Allsvenskan a similar level to MLS, it is the 3rd best of the 4 Scandanavian leagues and while significantly better than the Finnish league a good step down from the Norwegian and Danish. MLS was around the level of Norwegian and Danish league some years ago but I think it is currently better than those leagues. The season does not start until April 2nd, so it remains to be seen whether he will get much or any playing time once Nilsson returns from injury. It is always better to keep these players in our system but I have also seen more players like this not go on to do anything in their careers as succeed, ie. maybe we should hold off on the complaining about how he slipped through the cracks until he becomes a starter and performs well. It would be good for the CSA to put out feelers to him though that they are interested. I'd argue it is stronger than the Norwegian league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzAndSting Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 9 hours ago, jpg75 said: They had 3 years to bring him into the fold. Are we sure he ever wanted to play at TFC? Perhaps this is a similar situation to Kris Twardek where the player and his family wanted out of Canada ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 6 hours ago, hamiltonfan said: Would be great to get an interview with this guy @canucksabroad @matt @rednation thanks for the link @grizzly. something seems to be in the works...check his twitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohanz Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) Confirmation that the Estonian FA reads this forum? Edited March 14, 2016 by kohanz Brethers8 and Ivanovski94 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCM Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 On 13/3/2016 at 2:46 AM, Stryker911 said: Looks like he was called up for Estonia's friendlies in March. 19 years old and starting for the defending Swedish champion. Hopefully we don't lose him. I'm giving Stryker911 credit for breaking this news days earlier... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Until a few years ago it was Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland. I am not sure what is going on with Norwegian football but the slip is only in the last few years, as is the Swedish rise, though far from levels it was at until the 80s, very strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSem Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Hey, I'm a Swedish sport journalist and just found out about this thread. First and foremost, it's really nice seeing there's an active(?) debate forum about Canadian football and discussions about potential players. Now, I haven't talked to him, but as far as I understand the situation - playing for the Estonian national team is his first choice. They were there and showed great interest in him in a very young age, and he's been capped plenty of times for the youth national teams. As said, he joined IFK Norrköping in the summer of 2015, mid season, and without playing any games (he was the second choice behind David Mitov Nilsson), Norrköping won the league very surprisingly. The Swedish league is better than Norwegian nowadays, with having Malmö being able to qualify to the Champions League groupstage two years in a row. Norrköping will qualify in the Summer and even though much depends on the lottery of opponents, I'd say they have good chances of at least getting to the Europa League group stage. David Mitov Nilsson is Norrköping's first choice by a mile, and when he's healthy he will play both national and international games. He was though injured last month when there was four domestic cup games, in which Andreas Vaikla were the keeper and did a really good impression to me and several others here in Sweden. He's still a bit immature but that's understandable due to the lack of professional football he have had. David Mitov Nilsson have opened of leaving Norrköping if he receives the right contract by a club in a bigger league, and in that case, Vaikla's Norrköping's first choice all of a sudden. However if Mitov Nilsson leaves in the Summer, I'd say there are chances Norrköping will look for a signing for the qualification. Due to his perfomance in the domestic cup in late February and March, Vaikla recieved a call up to the Estonian national team by Swedish manager Magnus Pehrsson (of course that mattered), but didn't play a single minute in the caps agaisnt Norway and Serbia. That means there is still a slot for Canada, but as it looks now, it looks like his focus is on Estonia. If it's a big loss for you? I don't know, he's talanted but I'd say he may be an avarage goalkeeper that might be able to be first choice goalkeeper for both Estonia and Canada, but he won't be a super star. I honestly don't think you'd be missing out that much, without knowing how your keeper situation looks like at the moment. Addona, BradMack, jpg75 and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertuzzi44 Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Our keeper situation is pretty dire, and I'd say one injury away from panic-inducing. Our first-choice keeper isn't playing many minutes at his club. Same goes for our #2, who is 36 years old.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottawafan74 Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 On March 14, 2016 at 1:44 PM, BuzzAndSting said: Are we sure he ever wanted to play at TFC? Perhaps this is a similar situation to Kris Twardek where the player and his family wanted out of Canada ASAP. You meant to say where the OSA/CSA didn't feel like going to scout Twardek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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