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Jonathan De Guzman will he play for Canada?

December 26th, 2007 | By: Kyle | 9 Comments »

Jonathan De Guzman

Jonathan De Guzman the current Feyenoord Rotterdam midfielder in the Dutch Eredivisie has quite the decision to make in the coming years. No it’s not whether he should continue to play soccer, or what should he do after soccer. It has nothing to do with that, but it does have to do with which nation he chooses to represent.

He has two choices, either Canada or Holland, both offer their own glory, now you may ask how he got these choices, and here is why. Jonathan De Guzman, brother of Julian De Guzman who is currently playing for the Canadian national team, grew up in the Canada for the first 12 years of his life. He then left and went to Holland to get a better soccer knowledge base in the Feyenoord youth system (The Dutch are known for developing many quality soccer players with limited resources (people)). He spent six years in the youth system, as Feyenoord would not allow him to move up to the professional squad until he turned 18.

Once he turned 18, up he went to Feyenoord and has spent the last 2 and a half seasons playing some pretty productive soccer for a young midfielder. With six goals in 14 games for Feyenoord this season, only the Dutch international Roy Makaay is ahead of him with 9 goals so far this year. He has played so impressively that rumour has it Chelsea is going to offer Feyenoord 8 million pounds for him to transfer to their team by the scout Piet de Visser who is a former coach and now scout for Chelsea who has discovered the talents of such players as Ronaldo, Alex and Romario to name a few.

So it looks like Jonathan has quite the bright future ahead of him and quite a decision for him in the coming years where both the Dutch and Canadian national teams may start calling his name to come play for them. Now this to me is a perfect test to show that Canadian soccer is growing and getting better by making sure a player of his talent isn’t lost to another football nation, such goes the Owen Hargraves saga (though I will admit he probably made the best decision since he does play in the starting lineup for England).

In the end it is simple math, does Jonathan want to try his luck for the Holland team that has a lot of young depth in it at the moment, but will qualify for most major tournaments, or will he come home to his birth roots where he will be assured a starting position and try his luck at bringing Canada to the World Cup in 2010 and even further beyond, and as well get the chance to play with his brother Julian.

Maybe all Canadian soccer fans should begin sending him some mail, and hopefully Dale Mitchell has been doing his homework and has been working on Jonathan, maybe send him a beavertail or two, that might get him to come home.

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Comments

By Sam | December 26th, 2007 at 10:11 pm

I have fits in my sleep because of this. The way he’s evolving now, it’s obvious he has what he needs to crack the Oranje squad. But if Canada is going to overcome its current state, we need to get these players involved and we need to be able to keep our talent close to our vest. Julian De Guzman is an amazing and underrated player, and if we have Jonathan, by the next world cup we’d have one of the best midfield packages in the world (De Guzman x2, DeRo, Hutch, Brennan etc). Let’s hope he has his head screwed on straight.

Posted from Canada

By Kyle | December 27th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

I should mention he is now 5 behind Makaay after the two goals Makaay scored yesterday.

Posted from Canada

By King Guzman | December 27th, 2007 at 4:58 pm

Kyle and Sam,

I was born in Rotterdam, and therefore a huge Feyenoord fan…From the beginning (2 years ago) I knew Jonathan would be the biggest player ever! Yesterday I went to de Kuip (Rotterdam Stadium) and I thougt; this canadian/dutch little man is the greatest, the way he handles a ball and oversight, damn, he is even better than Crijyf! He is really understimated, he never takes any credit for being such a great player. I hope he is going to play with Robin van Persie in dutch national team, tho’s two pffffffffffffffff! Anyway if chose to play for Canady I understand. The most important is that remains at Feyenoord. He is the KING 33 for life!

Sander (Holland)

Posted from Netherlands

By Luke | December 28th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

King Guzman… Better than Cruif?? What are you smoking?? haha. No chance. I think that he’d struggle to break into oranje. Undoubtably though, he is a big talent.

Posted from Australia

By Kyle | December 29th, 2007 at 1:09 am

I will admit everyone is entertained to their own opinion on this matter, though since I can only watch what Johan Cruijff did on youtube, or old games that were recorded I don’t know how well I can compare the two. De Guzman looks like a fantastic talent and I’m hoping that Canada gets him, as much as I am a big Oranje supporter, and they do so well to get talent by the way they develop their youth, Canada needs the big superstar even more, our midfield will become one of the best in North America, and would be on par with anyone else midfield with him on it. Hirschfeld has proved himself with Rosenborg, so we have a good goalie as well, just need to work on getting a couple of proficient strikers and team Canada would look good, I figure with Hume on defense we will be adequate, and very dangerous in qualifying, but this is me hoping that we get Julian first, if he is as good as Cruijff it would be amazing, he is even mentioned in the same breath is amazing as is already.

Posted from Canada

By Jason | December 29th, 2007 at 11:54 am

Could anyone blame him if he went Oranje? Being a Canadian with Dutch grandparents I have loyalties to both sides, but frankly I’m sure it would be nice to be on a team that at least gets into tournaments.

Of course the Canadian team on the field would benefit from his presence, and the brothers story line would be a good hook, but the CSA is in such a shambles right now, I would hate to see their incompetence squash his chances to perform at the international stage.

By Taco | December 29th, 2007 at 4:07 pm

I was just googling to see if anyone in Canada had ever heard of this guy, cause I wasn’t sure.. I’m a feyenoord fan so I’ve seen this guy play a few times and he’s obviously very good. I wouldn’t compare him to Cruijf as I’ve never seen him play and his name’s used a bit too often. Anyone with just a little talent will be compared to cruijf or zidane or whoever these days. I doubt he’ll be famous like cruijf is in any case. But about the whole canada/holland issue, I’m inclined to think he should chose Canada. I just can’t see him doing well in the dutch squad. We’ve got so many good midfielders on his position it’s becoming a problem. V/d Vaart(HSV), Sneijder(Real Madrid), Seedorf(AC Milan) and van Persie(Arsenal) all posses great qualities, and compared to them I don’t think De Guzman is all that special.. I mean he’s pretty much on the same level, or he will be in a few years when he’s playing at a bigger club, but I doubt he’d be able to beat competition like that and convince the coach to choose him, especially with van Basten’s indeciciveness about the midfield right now. On the other hand I don’t see the Dutch team winning any prizes in the near future, so it might not even make much difference if it’s him or some other guy playing in the end. If he chooses Canada I think he’d definiately be in a position where he could mean the difference between qualifying and not qualifying. He’d have a whole nation cheering for him that way. Of course they might still suck and not qualify.. That would be really disappointing and he obviously really wants to play at a World Cup. So you know, it’s difficult. I’ll always be a fan though, no matter where he goes.

Posted from Netherlands

By Eros | December 29th, 2007 at 10:25 pm

We in Canada have heard of this guy, his brother plays for our National Team, so yes we have heard of Jonathan, and we have seen interviews on our sport channels of his brother, trying to get an idea of what Jonathan is thinking. And what his brother says its pretty clear, Jonathan wont play for Canada unless, the Canadian Soccer Association changes things around, and becomes a real federation, and they spend some money. Unless changes are made, he will play for the Dutch. He is a great player, and he should play for his country, Canada, no matter how Canada plays, you dont play for a country only to make it to the World Cup, or because you have a chance to win, you play for YOUR COUNTRY! FOR YOUR PRIDE!!!

Posted from Canada

By Brad | February 2nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm

I agree to a certain point with Eros. Did anyone see the piece on Rogers Sportsnet here in Canada on Jonathan this morning? He said basically the decision between Holland and Canada wasn’t even on his mind right now (bull). Also said the 2 motivations would be to play for Holland to have a chance to play in World Cups and Euro championships or play for Canada and get to play with his brother. Craig Forrest then went on to say that unless Canada does well in the early WC qualifiers and is in a position to make it to South Africa then we probably won’t see Jonathan for a while or at all playing for Canada. Doesn’t sound like Jonathan has a lot of loyalty to Canada. I don’t want to see him play for us only because we’re about to qualify for the WC, I want to see him here to HELP us qualify for the WC. Who’s with me?

Posted from Canada

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