Canadian Dual Nationals 2.0 Edition, Chase for the 5 stars

[Aird25]

1 minute ago, Obinna said:

For me he was one of the better players at Valour in the early days. 

Not that it really matters, but that's a far cry from being one of the better players in the CPL

[kacbru]

4 hours ago, narduch said:

Does the CSA have the money and the will to hire immigration lawyers to make this happen?

If they do have the lawyers, are they also able to coach the men's team and run the organization?

[CanadaFan123]

6 hours ago, Obinna said:

For me he was one of the better players at Valour in the early days. 

He scored a bunch of penalties but wasn’t even the best player on a poor Valour side.

[canadianbacons]

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/ryan-gauld-signs-dp-extension-with-vancouver-whitecaps

I hope this keeps Gauld in Vancouver long enough to become eligible for Canada.

 

 

[VinceA]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2iJJ82PEap/?igsh=MTg5bDB0MWV6OGo5MA==

 

Uh what? I'm assuming it's a youth camp.

[Bison44]

Is it an April fools?? 

[Kent]

I knew we should have called him up to last year's Nations League games!!! 😆

[toontownman]

No panic. He will be back, he is just going to camp to polish up on his skills.

[dyslexic nam]

Link isn’t working for me.  What’s up? 

[Vasi]

4 hours ago, VinceA said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2iJJ82PEap/?igsh=MTg5bDB0MWV6OGo5MA==

 

Uh what? I'm assuming it's a youth camp.

LFD?

[frmr]

29 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

Link isn’t working for me.  What’s up? 

 

17 minutes ago, Vasi said:

LFD?

It was about Poland calling up a 14 (I think) year old from London, Ont. 

[Vasi]

1 hour ago, frmr said:

 

It was about Poland calling up a 14 (I think) year old from London, Ont. 

Fewf. 14 is too early to tell. Look at Flores. 

[Bertuzzi44]

2 hours ago, Vasi said:

Fewf. 14 is too early to tell. Look at Flores. 

Flores is fine. I still wish we had him. He's playing at a pretty big LigaMX club, and he's only 20yr old. Could be getting Canada caps tbh.

[Obinna]

6 hours ago, Bertuzzi44 said:

Flores is fine. I still wish we had him. He's playing at a pretty big LigaMX club, and he's only 20yr old. Could be getting Canada caps tbh.

Hasn't actually played much at Tigres, maybe 10 games? I still rate Liga MX slightly above MLS, but if we can pretend they are on par for a second, would getting just 10 games with a top MLS side really move the needle for a Canadian player now a days? You pretty much have to be a starter or close enough to it.

[narduch]

Flores doesn't seem to be playing much for Tigres based in Fotmob match data. Doubt anyone would be clamoring to call him if he didn't choose Mexico. 

 

[costarg]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

Hasn't actually played much at Tigres, maybe 10 games? I still rate Liga MX slightly above MLS, but if we can pretend they are on par for a second, would getting just 10 games with a top MLS side really move the needle for a Canadian player now a days? You pretty much have to be a starter or close enough to it.

But then again, like @Bertuzzi44 says, he's still only 20, still has lots of development, upside and polishing to do.  There is still a lot of experience and skill from a pretty good academy.  I wish we still at least had the option.

[El Diego]

So obviously this 14-year-old kid playing in London was not called up to the Polish national team. Such a claim doesn't even have an air of reality to it. At my most generous I assumed he may have been called into a u15 camp (not official squad). After a short amount of searching I found this:

So yeah, he's going to a Polish national team screening -- not a squad, not even a real camp, just a screening where they get a chance to look at dual nationals, it appears.

[InglewoodJack]

1 hour ago, costarg said:

But then again, like @Bertuzzi44 says, he's still only 20, still has lots of development, upside and polishing to do.  There is still a lot of experience and skill from a pretty good academy.  I wish we still at least had the option.

How much of this is due to the fact that he had so much hype and he was already a star in the making in Mexico a year and a half ago? He had a marketing agency behind him, Arsenal prospect, all that. He was terrible in LaLiga2, and he doesn’t look too great in Liga MX.

World class club’s youth team -> poor LaLiga2 loan -> moves to a domestic club and doesn’t produce too much

Call it the Ballou Tabla dev path

[costarg]

2 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

How much of this is due to the fact that he had so much hype and he was already a star in the making in Mexico a year and a half ago? He had a marketing agency behind him, Arsenal prospect, all that. He was terrible in LaLiga2, and he doesn’t look too great in Liga MX.

World class club’s youth team -> poor LaLiga2 loan -> moves to a domestic club and doesn’t produce too much

Call it the Ballou Tabla dev path

Liam Millar also took a similar path.  I feel it often takes that one special fit with a coach and team for someone to break out.  

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, costarg said:

But then again, like @Bertuzzi44 says, he's still only 20, still has lots of development, upside and polishing to do.  There is still a lot of experience and skill from a pretty good academy.  I wish we still at least had the option.

Me too. I just don't think he's panning out to be the can't miss prospect we thought he was, although he still might get there.

Making 10 apperances (and scoring 1 goal) in your debut season for Tigres is nothing to scoff at for a 20 year old, but again, it wouldn't scream "call up" for a 20 year old to be doing similar at LAFC or Inter Miami, let's say.

And the fact he hasn't been back with Mexico, a team that actually plays and gives caps to A LOT of domestic players, speaks volumes. They've cap-tied him now, no more easy call ups. Same situation with Mitrovic and (one could argue) the same with Tabla for Canada. The narrative has been his career fell off a cliff, and in some ways it did, but the fact of the matter is that we locked him down and his club play hasn't yet warrented a return. 

[InglewoodJack]

46 minutes ago, costarg said:

Liam Millar also took a similar path.  I feel it often takes that one special fit with a coach and team for someone to break out.  

He still has time to go on the Millar path for sure, though if I remember correctly, Millar was playing regularly for Kilmarnock at the same age? I won't claim that I watch enough Marcelo Flores to know if he plays like Millar- obvious skill, hasn't always worked out consistently at the club level, or if he just is a plain old bust. He's still 20, so same age cohort as Nathan Saliba, JMR, Kobe Franklin, and other guys that are only close to being close to getting into our national team convo, but I do think it's not a great sign for him that his minutes have decreased as the MX season(s) have gone on, and IIRC, the same thing happened at Oviedo too.

I do think the narrative would've been different if he didn't do the whole dual national song and dance thing. This kid had an interview with ESPN to discuss his national team choice and did months of will he/won't he song and dance, and we all were hoping he'd pick us, however, I guess in hindsight deciding your national team future and making the decision process super public before you've even broken into your first senior squad is a bit of a premature decision (if LDF is reading this thread, please ignore).

[costarg]

40 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

He still has time to go on the Millar path for sure, though if I remember correctly, Millar was playing regularly for Kilmarnock at the same age? I won't claim that I watch enough Marcelo Flores to know if he plays like Millar- obvious skill, hasn't always worked out consistently at the club level, or if he just is a plain old bust. He's still 20, so same age cohort as Nathan Saliba, JMR, Kobe Franklin, and other guys that are only close to being close to getting into our national team convo, but I do think it's not a great sign for him that his minutes have decreased as the MX season(s) have gone on, and IIRC, the same thing happened at Oviedo too.

I do think the narrative would've been different if he didn't do the whole dual national song and dance thing. This kid had an interview with ESPN to discuss his national team choice and did months of will he/won't he song and dance, and we all were hoping he'd pick us, however, I guess in hindsight deciding your national team future and making the decision process super public before you've even broken into your first senior squad is a bit of a premature decision (if LDF is reading this thread, please ignore).

Ya, you're totally right.  Flores' dad studied the Kardashians playbook on marketing.

Edited January 26 by costarg

[El Hombre]

5 hours ago, Obinna said:

Hasn't actually played much at Tigres, maybe 10 games? I still rate Liga MX slightly above MLS, but if we can pretend they are on par for a second, would getting just 10 games with a top MLS side really move the needle for a Canadian player now a days? You pretty much have to be a starter or close enough to it.

That's an interesting comparison.  From what I can see he has 206 minutes in those 10 games.  Doesn't really compare to some of his age cohort that play midfield/forward in MLS:

Priso - 1287

Cambridge - 287

Marshall-Rutty - 1318

Thompson - 618

Kerr - 1388

Saliba - 1981

And it looks even worse when comparing to players that are 3 or 4 years older:

Ahmed - 1371

Raposo - 1792

Choiniere - 2961

Shaffleburg - 1940

I don't think Flores would be in many 23-man squads at this point if he stuck with us.

[Bertuzzi44]

I'm not saying Flores is some sort of soccer God or what not, I'm just saying he still has potential.

And since we've called 24yr old 2nd tier belgium and dutch league players to the CMNT, calling a 20 yr old LigaMX player wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.

But yeah, doesn't matter now. I just like to push back at homer "that guy sucks" narratives when players choose another nation. 

[Canadian Chuck]

Phoenix Lisowski, a Canada-USA-Poland tri-national according to his IG bio, was recently called up to a Poland youth national team ID camp. Looks like a winger, probably a 2009. This seems to have been hosted by Poland's federation but located in the USA. Players from that camp will be a long-shot for the main Poland youth national teams, of course

He is holding Canadian flags in one of his IG pics so he's clearly open to Canada

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2qAtUdOHpF/

Edit: this is the same camp as the one mentioned by @El Diego above

Edited January 30 by Canadian Chuck