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Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Jonathan de Guzman

Canada keeps ending up at or near the top of global quality of life but no argument seems strong enough to convince some of our sporting superstars not to defect to other countries.

Nationalism may be fading as a social construct but since so many of the major global sporting competitions are based on nationality it makes a big difference to nations when individuals swap sides. For Canada this has been a strangely persistent trend in recent years and it begs the question ... why?

Lennox Lewis famously maintained his amateur boxing status for four more years after losing to Tyrell Biggs in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In 1998 in Seoul he captured a heavyweight gold medal for Canada before promptly declaring himself a British national for whom he went on to become the heavyweight champion of the world.

Some might point out that Lewis was born in London, England and only moved to Canada when he was 12 so perhaps Greg Rusedski is a better example. After turning professional in 1991 and shooting to the top of the Canadian men's tennis national rankings, Montreal-born Rusedski chose to adopt British citizenship in 1995 and has had a long and successful professional career including losing in the final of the 1997 US Open Championship.

Finally we move to the subject closest to my heart. Professional football or soccer as Canadians like to call it. Owen Hargreaves moved from Calgary, Alberta in 1997 at age 16 to train with FC Bayern Munich, the traditional powerhouse club of the German Bundesliga. By 2001 he was a regular in their starting line-up and faced a choice of national teams. With British born parents he chose to represent England and got his first cap against Holland in a friendly in the summer of 2001. Once a player plays an international match for a country they can never again play for another country so Hargreaves was fated to never wear the Canadian read-and-white. I followed this process closely at the time and was tremendously disappointed with the choice of the Alberta-born player who could have been the pivot around which a whole host of new emerging Canadian players could form a competitive international squad.

Interestingly Hargreaves star has waned in the hyper-competitive English midfield and he looks unlikely to get a call-up for the national side in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. In fact he has not been called up for any international matches since September, 2005. With the wealth of emerging talent in England that might be his last international match ever which is what makes his choice not to be part of an emerging Canadian threat all the more frustrating.

Finally we arrive at the present and another round of this seemingly unending cycle of Canadian sporting heroes looking to shores afar. This time the subject is Toronto-born Jonathan de Guzman, a tremendously talented 18-year-old midfielder for Feyenoord Rotterdam in the Dutch Eredivisie. Apparently he is currently applying for Dutch citizenship and without any international caps will have his choice of national sides. His brother, Deportiva de la Coruna midfielder Julian de Guzman already has 13 international caps for Canada and is a linchpin of our fledgling side, ranked 85th in the world.

But in the notoriously weak CONCACAF World Cup qualifying group (Trinidad & Tobago qualified for Germany 2006) one can only imagine what it would have looked like with Hargreaves and Julian de Guzman planted in front of the back four as holding midfielders, and Jonathan de Guzman nestled in front in a floating role behind Fulham striker Thomas Radzinski. With Tottenham wing-back Paul Stalteri overlapping on the left Canada surely could have posed a serious threat for years to come. With Hargreaves already gone it is crucial for the future that the younger de Guzman join his brother in the midfield to provide attacking threat.

So why might it not happen? These words from Jonathan's father hint at an explanation:

"Between Julian and myself, we don't push Jonathan in one direction or another," their father said. "He is a proud Canadian who would love to represent Canada, but how much sacrifice can you make for your country when you could have a chance to win the World Cup for Holland and participate in it."

A common complaint of all of the defectors is that they were underappreciated in Canada's sporting context, by fans and officials alike. It does seem a bit bizarre that Hargreaves was cut from the Canadian national junior side shortly before departure and that de Guzman has not yet featured for the national side. Seems we should be getting these types of players who are training in top-class European academies on to the field in red-and-white when they are 16 or 17 to give them crucial experiences at a young age. And after all with our host of abysmal recent results what have we got to lose?

Or maybe we should reflect on Jamaica who have provided Canada with countless Olympic heroes over the years including sprinters Donovan Bailey and Ben Johnson and most recently bobsledder Lascelles "Pusher" Brown who just one month after gaining Canadian citizenship helped Canada to a silver medal in the Turin Winter Games 2006 after pushing much-maligned Jamaican sleds from 1999 to 2004.

But what seems clear is the least we can do is let our sporting stars who are working outside of Canada know how much we appreciate their successes. If you are a Canadian who'd like to see one of the world's top young footballing talents lead our nation to future success send an email to klantenservice@feyenoord.nl with the subject ATTN: Jonathan de Guzman expressing your desire for him to suit up for Canada. Also contact the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) on how much you'd like them to overtly express Canada's desire for Jonathan to join his brother in our midfield. If and when Jonathan makes a decision I'll post it in comments here.

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