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Gabriel Boakye


Dub Narcotic

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LB, born in 1998 in Richmond Hill. Came up through Oakridge SC and Toronto FC Academy. Played under an academy contract for TFC2 in their inaugural year of 2015 but then seemed to disappear this year. According to Canucks Abroad, he has signed a deal with Energie Cottbus. Been in camps at U-15, U-17 and U-20 levels. 

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On 10/25/2016 at 6:13 AM, Dub Narcotic said:

LB, born in 1998 in Richmond Hill. Came up through Oakridge SC and Toronto FC Academy. Played under an academy contract for TFC2 in their inaugural year of 2015 but then seemed to disappear this year. According to Canucks Abroad, he has signed a deal with Energie Cottbus. Been in camps at U-15, U-17 and U-20 levels. 

Remember that Energie was a decent club, looked up what they've been up to recently, demoted to the 4th division. Yikes.

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12 hours ago, Northvansteve said:

I have always been very impressed with Boakye and see him as one of our top FB prospects. Hoping this is a positive move to get him more playing time (like Adekugbe).

Yeah, I wasn't sure where he disappeared to last year. I thought he easily deserved a USL contract. @Vince193 I was shocked about Cottbus' fall too. They've had a lot of Canadian players over the years.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Under 19 league in Germany runs with relegation and promotion - one of the many reasons Youth Development there is amongst the best in the world. Although the first team at Cottbus has had a few tough years and is at the moment in 4th tier, the U19 team at Cottbus plays at the U19 Bundesliga 1 level and in fact won their divisional Cup last year.  Cottbus has a rich history of developing and selling many of their top young Academy players to bigger Clubs.  Playing teams such as the Bremens, Wolfsburgs and such, the young players in the top tier U19 Division are constantly in the spotlight no matter where their first team sits.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wide in the midfield is a natural spot for a fast and aggressive FB depending on the intent of the coach and of course formation.  Best example is a 3 at the back system which requires end to end engines there.  Players still defend here in the same way in transition.  Modern game the FB must be able to attack so this can be of more experience benefit to the player as it were.  Can only guess on intent but as it relates to Cottbus U19, it appears by their record, attacking Help may be the reason.

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  • 8 months later...

I'm surprised at the fall of Energie Cottbus. 4th division in Europe's top leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy etc.) are all still (in my opinion) better than the USL. I could be wrong but I personally believe it's tougher. I've seen him play and he's a beast. Hopefully he can reach the potential he has because he really can be beneficial to Canada in the future. 

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19 hours ago, TFC2017 said:

I'm surprised at the fall of Energie Cottbus. 4th division in Europe's top leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy etc.) are all still (in my opinion) better than the USL. I could be wrong but I personally believe it's tougher. I've seen him play and he's a beast. Hopefully he can reach the potential he has because he really can be beneficial to Canada in the future. 

It is actually more surprising the Cottbus ever played in the 1st Bundesliga than that they are in the 4th division right now. They are not that big of a club but they were very well managed and had good coaching after reunification when a lot of bigger clubs were not. They were very innovative which is why a lot of Canadians played for them, they looked for players in countries where the teams with more money were not looking. They were also smart enough to invest the money they made in 1st Bundesliga in expanding and renovating their stadium and upgrading their training facilities. Still Cottbus is a city of barely 100 000 people and they were not one of the traditional big teams in East Germany (mostly played in East German 2nd division). When you are a team like that it only takes a couple of seasons of hiring a poor coach or making some mistakes or having some bad luck to drop down quite a bit. Every East German team in the 3rd Bundesliga now is a bigger club than Cottbus though there are a few smaller clubs from West Germany that have money from sponsorships but not many fans (the population of the town of Lotte where Straith plays would easily fit in Cottbus' stadium and attendance at their last game was below 2000). Even in the North East section of the 4th division they are traditionally only the 5th biggest team after Chemie, LOK, Dynamo Berlin and Babelsberg. They have better attendance than those teams now but that is because their recent history is one of playing in top divisions not going bankrupt and playing in low divisions and they also don't have to deal with having Red Bull in their city like the Leipzig teams.

Cottbus is about 90% likely to win the North East division, none of the other teams are competitive with them. They will have to win a 2 game playoff against one of the winners of the other divisions though so that will be the harder part of them trying to promote. If Boakye manages to break through and get playing time and can establish himself than promotion may be good for him but if not it might hurt his chances. I am not sure if the 4th divisions in the countries you mention are that much better than USL though I think the top few teams in each division like Energie are probably better than any USL teams. Germany breaks down into 5 leagues at 4th division level and I think some of the other countries you mention break down into even more teams. I think most of the teams in the North East 4th division are around USL level and a couple of the poorer ones like Luckenwalde are probably even below USL level. Chemie has quite a few players earning semi-pro wages and going to university or holding another job which I suspect is similar to many USL players and a lot of the other teams in the division are similar. I think there are some other advantages to choosing a European 4th division over USL such as better coaching and facilities, more chance of moving up the ladder either through promotion or transfer but I don't think the average playing level is that much better except when the top teams play. Still since Boakye is playing for a strong club with a very good chance of promoting and likely a very good training staff throughout the club due to playing at a high level recently, Cottbus is probably a good place for him to be right now.

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  • 8 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

He is still technically eligible to play for my country of Ghana yes I am Ghanaian-Canadian however since Gabriel has played for Canada all throughout youth level he most likely will end up playing for Canada at senior level

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  • 7 months later...

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