Lazar Stefanovic

[gigi riva]

20 hours ago, gigi riva said:

My family is from Treviso too 

The Village where my family is from is called Musano . half way between Treviso and Montebelluna

[shermanator]

So despite impressing with the second team and looking good in limited minutes with the first team, suddenly Stefanovic can't crack the TFC II lineup. Classic TFC development of young players...

[kacbru]

3 minutes ago, shermanator said:

So despite impressing with the second team and looking good in limited minutes with the first team, suddenly Stefanovic can't crack the TFC II lineup. Classic TFC development of young players...

They'll hold on to him tightly until he's 24 and hope to trade him for a handful of Garber bucks.  Call it a development success story. 

[dyslexic nam]

11 minutes ago, shermanator said:

So despite impressing with the second team and looking good in limited minutes with the first team, suddenly Stefanovic can't crack the TFC II lineup. Classic TFC development of young players...

And yet somehow some people think no talented young Canadians will ever choose a path that let’s them quickly play first team pro footy with a CPL team.  I just don’t get it.  

Edited April 19 by dyslexic nam

[Dominic94]

Is he injured ?

[YorkRegionFan]

On the RPB blog, someone said that he was announced as being on the bench, but was pulled the last minute.

[narduch]

The fact they are filling their reserve team with Sheffield United flame outs is pretty telling, in my opinion 

[InglewoodJack]

9 hours ago, kacbru said:

They'll hold on to him tightly until he's 24 and hope to trade him for a handful of Garber bucks.  Call it a development success story. 

He’s going to make a great tackle against Kylian Mbappe which many people will credit for being the reason San Diego wins their first MLS title in 2031 against LAFC.

[David Pinto]

TFC is short handed and play today and Wednesday. Surely the most logical answer is he is getting called up for 1 or more of those games. 

[AnonymousInsider]

Also have been starting some kid on loan from São Paulo named Ythallo, who’s 2 years older than Stefanovic. Don’t understand this whatsoever, we have younger homegrown talent losing minutes to a foreigner who isn’t better from what I’ve watched of TFC II.

[CanadaFan123]

5 minutes ago, AnonymousInsider said:

Also have been starting some kid on loan from São Paulo named Ythallo, who’s 2 years older than Stefanovic. Don’t understand this whatsoever, we have younger homegrown talent losing minutes to a foreigner who isn’t better from what I’ve watched of TFC II.

The club is a disaster from a developmental perspective. The biggest hotbed of talent in North America and they might as well be flushing their money down the toilet. 

[reggietfc]

2 hours ago, CanadaFan123 said:

The club is a disaster from a developmental perspective. The biggest hotbed of talent in North America and they might as well be flushing their money down the toilet. 

a hotbed compared to what,,,the u i5s and u 17s beat a bunch of euro teams a couple of wks ago does that mean they are going to be great players no ,i dont think the young talent anywhere in canada is that great you may find the odd one coming up.we can barely beat es hond pan at youth tourys and get embarrassed at youth WCs,that is why Canada are begging for duel nats

Edited April 20 by reggietfc

[CanadaFan123]

1 hour ago, reggietfc said:

a hotbed compared to what,,,the u i5s and u 17s beat a bunch of euro teams a couple of wks ago does that mean they are going to be great players no ,i dont think the young talent anywhere in canada is that great you may find the odd one coming up.we can barely beat es hond pan at youth tourys and get embarrassed at youth WCs,that is why Canada are begging for duel nats

Yes, our youth national teams have also sucked because they’ve relied on TFC at youth level. Look at the amount of players that have come from southern ontario in the last 10 years and tell me how many came through TFC. Millar, Osorio, Laryea, Buchanan, Johnston, Larin, Miller, Raposo, Cavallini, Stewart-Baynes… never mind if you expand that list to all of Ontario. 

Luckily people finally seem to be catching onto the fact that all the best players aren’t coming through TFC… 

Edited April 20 by CanadaFan123

[Kadenge]

1 hour ago, reggietfc said:

a hotbed compared to what,,,the u i5s and u 17s beat a bunch of euro teams a couple of wks ago does that mean they are going to be great players no ,i dont think the young talent anywhere in canada is that great you may find the odd one coming up.we can barely beat es hond pan at youth tourys and get embarrassed at youth WCs,that is why Canada are begging for duel nats

A huge part of why we "underperform" at the youth level is the lack of prep, camps, games etc. Despite that, we have qualified for several  U17 WCs and the U20s played very well to move to the final stage of qualifying. The talent is clearly there. If you look at the quality of players at the senior level btw Canada, Panama, Honduras etc it's not even close. We have btw 5-6 starters on the CMNT that came through NCAA and Staq & David did not come through MLS academies. As for duals,  look at the US, Jamaica and other nations in Concacaf.

Edited April 20 by Kadenge

[CanadaFan123]

Yeah and I fail to see what dual nationals we’re begging for? Aside from LDF and Ugbo every player is homegrown at the moment. I’d say we’re probably one of the most homegrown nations in CONCACAF easy. It’s a miracle what we’ve been able to achieve from a domestic development standpoint when the biggest club in the country has underachieved in that respect.

Edit: Ugbo I believe still played in Canada at youth level 

Edited April 20 by CanadaFan123

[costarg]

4 hours ago, David Pinto said:

TFC is short handed and play today and Wednesday. Surely the most logical answer is he is getting called up for 1 or more of those games. 

Gawd, i hope you're right.

[reggietfc]

13 minutes ago, costarg said:

Gawd, i hope you're right.

he wasnt called up for tonight.i wonder if they  are moving him or he is asking for a move?

[AnonymousInsider]

If they are planning to sell him, or he wants to leave, I really hope he ends up in a good European system. Would be better for his development (than TFC) and considering he’s one of our top prospects I wouldn’t consider it out of the realm of possibility for him to land in Belgium or the Netherlands or someplace like that. Then I think we could see him break into the senior team by 2026.

[RS]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Yes, our youth national teams have also sucked because they’ve relied on TFC at youth level. Look at the amount of players that have come from southern ontario in the last 10 years and tell me how many came through TFC. Millar, Osorio, Laryea, Buchanan, Johnston, Larin, Miller, Raposo, Cavallini, Stewart-Baynes… never mind if you expand that list to all of Ontario. 

Luckily people finally seem to be catching onto the fact that all the best players aren’t coming through TFC… 

At the risk of being called a shill by some people on here, it's rather wild to place the blame on TFC for our youth national teams sucking. I'd say the same if that accusation was levelled at any other single club in this country by the way, because it's not a single club problem.

Simply put: TFC should never have all the best players come through its system. (Southern) Ontario is far too big for a single club to handle, which is why we need more professional clubs creating academies (preferably free to play), but I don't know how economically viable that is. Regardless, we simply need more high-level opportunities for our young players (and our pro age players) in this country.

All of that said, it has to be acknowledged that TFC can easily be doing better. Although I don't know how valid this Stefanovic (over?)reaction is, it does speak to a wider problem.

[reggietfc]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Yes, our youth national teams have also sucked because they’ve relied on TFC at youth level. Look at the amount of players that have come from southern ontario in the last 10 years and tell me how many came through TFC. Millar, Osorio, Laryea, Buchanan, Johnston, Larin, Miller, Raposo, Cavallini, Stewart-Baynes… never mind if you expand that list to all of Ontario. 

Luckily people finally seem to be catching onto the fact that all the best players aren’t coming through TFC… 

lol...what do want tfc to do have 1000 players in the academy ...do all the great players in spain come out of barca and RM..half of the acad kids are from other countries

[InglewoodJack]

GTA is undeniably a hotbed of talent. I don’t know if you can point to another metro area in North America that produces that much talent, especially once you consider some of the dual nationals we’ve lost over the year as well. What we do with those players afterwards is a different story, but I’m not sure the US can draw as much talent from a single city/metro like we can from Toronto. 

[costarg]

46 minutes ago, RS said:

At the risk of being called a shill by some people on here, it's rather wild to place the blame on TFC for our youth national teams sucking. I'd say the same if that accusation was levelled at any other single club in this country by the way, because it's not a single club problem.

Simply put: TFC should never have all the best players come through its system. (Southern) Ontario is far too big for a single club to handle, which is why we need more professional clubs creating academies (preferably free to play), but I don't know how economically viable that is. Regardless, we simply need more high-level opportunities for our young players (and our pro age players) in this country.

All of that said, it has to be acknowledged that TFC can easily be doing better. Although I don't know how valid this Stefanovic (over?)reaction is, it does speak to a wider problem.

I believe its more of a quality vs quantity thing.  I don't think @CanadaFan123 is implying all the best players should be coming out of TFC, I believe he's implying TFC is the best placed to be successful, but they're not.  To feel disappointed and say they've failed to spot and develop to expectations is an accurate assessment.

25 minutes ago, reggietfc said:

 ...do all the great players in spain come out of barca and RM..half of the acad kids are from other countries

Not all of the great Spanish players come out of the RB and Barca systems, but a respectable good percentage do.  Hence the comments.

[RS]

2 minutes ago, costarg said:

I believe its more of a quality vs quantity thing.  I don't think @CanadaFan123 is implying all the best players should be coming out of TFC, I believe he's implying TFC is the best placed to be successful, but they're not.  To feel disappointed and say they've failed to spot and develop to expectations is an accurate assessment.

That's a reasonable take, but the post I responded to explicitly says our youth national teams suck because of TFC's lack of success at the youth level.

That way more specific than "TFC should be doing better," which we all agree with.

[CanadaFan123]

4 hours ago, RS said:

At the risk of being called a shill by some people on here, it's rather wild to place the blame on TFC for our youth national teams sucking. I'd say the same if that accusation was levelled at any other single club in this country by the way, because it's not a single club problem.

Simply put: TFC should never have all the best players come through its system. (Southern) Ontario is far too big for a single club to handle, which is why we need more professional clubs creating academies (preferably free to play), but I don't know how economically viable that is. Regardless, we simply need more high-level opportunities for our young players (and our pro age players) in this country.

All of that said, it has to be acknowledged that TFC can easily be doing better. Although I don't know how valid this Stefanovic (over?)reaction is, it does speak to a wider problem.

I’m not placing the blame on TFC to be clear. Canada is its own mess and they’ve relied on TFC (and other MLS academies) instead of scouting appropriately. 

Edited April 20 by CanadaFan123