Julian De Guzman, You Can’t Come Home Again
If you haven’t heard the latest report of Julian De Guzman’s potential free transfer to Toronto FC, you’re either a basketball fan who accidentally searched for Martin Nash instead of Steve Nash or living under a rock.
The Toronto fans who blamed Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment for not spending money on Toronto FC never had much of an argument and now have even less of one, for the contract (De Guzman confirmed on It’s Called Football this morning that he had received an offer from Toronto) would, according to Ives, make Julian De Guzman the second-highest paid player in Major League Soccer. He’s probably not the second-best player in Major League Soccer – I’d place Donovan, Keller, probably Blanco, and frankly probably De Rosario ahead of him – but there’s no doubt he’d instantly make Toronto an MLS Cup contender, particularly if the cap hit only required them to jettison role player Carl Robinson.
So if I were a Toronto FC fan, I’d be gung-ho for this deal. But I’m not a Toronto FC fan. I’m a Canada fan and this is a Canada blog, and while I always want Toronto FC to do well in MLS the national team comes first.
And as a national team supporter, I’m leery.
We know that De Guzman has offers on the table from La Liga and the 1.Bundesliga, both high-end European leagues. MLS is a couple steps below the German first division, so right away one of Canada’s best players would be moving to a markedly inferior league for the sake of money and sentiment. This might be forgiven if it would conspicuously increase the profile of the game in Canada, but De Guzman, for all his success in Spain, isn’t the most high-profile Canadian footballer. Dwayne De Rosario, to pick one, has always been much better-known to casual North American fans, who embrace flashy offensive stars much more readily than steady defensive midfielders who play a continent away and have never achieved much with the national team.
De Guzman would, of course, be famous simply because of his being Toronto FC’s designated player, and the soccer-savvy world would be thrilled with the signing, but they’re not the ones who we have to convince in order to grow the game here.
Second, as we’ve seen Toronto’s commitment to the Canadian game is questionable at best. During World Cup qualifying, Toronto’s endless complaining about having to give up players to a national team like every other club in the world filled the sports pages. And during our continental championship, Toronto refused to give up a single key player, deigning to toss us the scraps of Kevin Harmse (who they were ten minutes from trading) and Ali Gerba (who had just signed and needed to play his way into shape).
Now, Toronto FC is a business. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has a responsibility to its shareholders, not to Canadian football. Blaming a corporation for being selfish is overlooking every principle that makes our economy work, so I can’t fault Toronto FC for their antipathy towards the national team. But when I’m cheering for the Canadian national team, I pretty much have to hope every Canadian national player of consequence avoids Toronto like Chris Cummins was just diagnosed with swine flu.
So, Julian De Guzman, since I bet you’re reading this: signing with Toronto would be good for your pocketbook and it’s always great to be playing at home. But it would be bad for you as a player and it would be bad for your country. Come get your big payday when you’re old and grey and MLS is more your level, but for now, stick to Europe. I hear that La Liga paycheques aren’t too bad anyway, and I’d much rather meet women from Cadiz than Scarborough.
July 6th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I’m just covering what Duane has. I have NO new info. Thanks for the link, but this is a really a Duane and Ives story
July 6th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Hey, did I have any new info up there? I have a natural sympathy for those who simply use the raw data provided by others and provide their own insightful analysis towards it!
July 6th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Ok, sounds fair to me.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:15 am
[...] Lord Bob at The Maple Leaf Forever does not want De Guzman to come back to Canada at this [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 8:43 am
La Liga paycheques aren’t bad…when you actually get them.
Outside of the big two La Liga is struggling. MLS would offer him more stability. You can never blame a man for making a sacrifice to take care of his family for life…
I’m not going to touch your TFC doesn’t care about the national team argument other than to say that it cares the same amount as any club team in the world cares about its national team — and no less than the Whitecaps and Impact will care for it when faced with the prospect of losing 1/4 of their core for a month during the season.
I would rather JDG stay in Europe. I preference would be for the Spurs rumour to be true, but my information says Spain. I’ve pegged him for Espanyol. Today I received a tip that suggested that Villareal and Sevilla were still very much in the mix. Even as a TFC fan I’d be pissed if JDG turned down Villareal for TFC….
Oh, and Carl Robinson isn’t a role player. He’s very much a core player that commands a lot of respect in the room. I’d be surprised if he were moved (I’m not sure he would have to be. TFC still has the allocation to make this work).
July 7th, 2009 at 8:47 am
I’m with you about the dubious benefits to the nats. And my gut says it is more likely he will stay in Europe. He himself has said that he wants to stay in Spain. But $4 mil for 1/2 a season could be pretty dang persuasive, especially coming off money problems with Deportivo. Not sure how that contracted mess eventually played out and if he is still owed big $$$ from the club. And I think he would still be eligible for a move back to Europe in January.
Suddenly JDG moving to TFC doesn’t seem quite as far fetched as it did a few weeks ago.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Duane: I didn’t mean to sound quite so spiteful towards TFC as I think I did. I fully expect the Impact in particular to do the same thing when they get into MLS, and nobody would be happy to lose De Rosario and Serioux at minimum during a stretch of key matches. I tried to make it clear that I don’t blame TFC, but at the same time we have to bear in mind that if De Guzman played in Toronto, the chances that he would get to national team matches would go down and there’s no way to get aroud that.
You (and Clint) are right about the money, though. The money is the big issue, and it’s the only reason we’re even having this conversation.
(Also, I now have a sure-fire formula for instant comments: tell players not to come to TFC! Now I see how Bill Archer got where he is. The power is intoxicating!)
July 20th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I thank you for your insight and enthusiasm for Canadian Football(soccer).
I will have to point out a number of things that you did not cover. Julian De Guzman is a born and raised product of Toronto Football, and your share-holder attitude is a prime example as to why Toronto sports teams are so unsuccessful with winning results, and toronto sports fans are so divided. Off topic, did you know a TFC or Canada jersey costs $119.00 +tax, and an average of $40.00 for a fan to put a favorite players name on the T-shirt. Keep them share holders happy eh? Instead of the supporter patriotic.
Support and motivation from fans OLD AND NEW are key factors to progress and team growth. Having the players push themselves that little bit harder are fueled by support. Hometown/grown talent should be embraced and welcomed with no other approach what so ever other than exhausted effort to bring them aboard. When rules are in place by leagues in any sport, team management has to exhaust all resources to provide fans with a successful weekly outcome by using the full of those rules to the teams advantage. Win.
There are many factors that come into play as to why our Canadian national soccer squad has not been a successful team over the years. Funding, not enough exposure and matches against quality Countries to improve our teams style of play. In europe, country does come first before club, no questions. The support of the smaller countries there is electric, win lose or draw, sell out crowds help chant their countries to fight until the final whistle.
Here where I live in Toronto, all the 2nd generation products of immigrants from every corner of the world who love football, do not go and support our Canadian National Soccer Team play. Jamaicans, scots, greeks, italians, turks, the list goes on and on. Those soccer fans won’t hesitate to support their parents home country when they are in town, expected, but those soccer fans (WITH CANADIAN CITIZSENSHIP) refuse to watch Canada play when the “once upon a time in the old country” teams aren’t around… It is our duty as football fans and CANADIANS to go and support Canada and use our voices together to demand change from the CSA. Canadian media NEVER interviews CSA reps on live television to discuss their Key Performance Indicators.
Progress is happening, slowly but surely. We as fans are just too timid, and feed into the “share-holder” attitude too much instead of fitting the mold of the true football supporter. Who gives a ____ about the shareholder, we want a chance to go to the football park in droves of supporters, lose our voices when we cheer the ball into the net, and witness the game in the finest form with some home grown talent while we are wearing. reasonably priced Top with De Guzman #6 hot off the press on your back!
A proper prime time tv program on Canadian Tv investigating the KPI’s of our games progress and interviews from ideological minds of the game with a great point of view for the future would improve the game’s quality here, not leaving MLSE to provide us with the false hope. They do nothing more then over price, and overwhelm the consumer imagary of success that never come. Their bottom line is missing any form of peripheral vision. Us fans hungry for championships are in the background.
IM
March 31st, 2010 at 4:59 pm
[...] Experience last year was bad then, boy, you ain’t seen nothing yet. In direct defiance of one of my articles from last year, Julian De Guzman looks talented as hell but useless in the FC’s setup and [...]