The Footie Fool

I have to see it as a positive for the maturation of the game in this country that we are now involved in conversations that the rest of the world has been having for generations – club or country?

The flash point today (to bring you up to speed in case you haven’t heard) is the now confirmed fact that TFC has made a significant offer to our favorite midfielder Julian de Guzman. First note had the deal as a short term, $4 million dollars to play 1/2 a season with TFC. That, my friends, is a Fuck Load o’ Money – the FLOM in the title.

This was followed by a post by Kristian Jack at The Score that said the TFC deal is 90% done. Additionally, Jack is reporting the deal is actually a long term 3 1/2 year deal worth $10 million dollars. That would make this deal second only to David Beckham in the MLS world. Now, while Jack says interest in Europe is drying up, I find that hard to believe. I mean, Spurs have been after De Guzman for years and now they suddenly are not interested?

At any rate, my take is right along the lines of LordBob. As a fan of the MNT, I can’t see this as a great thing. I am firmly in the country before club camp, a naive and idealistic perspective I realize but one that I hold onto.

Putting all of our national players into one MLS basket is a horrible move for the nats.

Maybe I wouldn’t feel quite this strongly about JDG’s move if TFC had a sizable presence on the MNT for the largest international soccer event on our dance card – the Gold Cup. But we all know that story.

Or maybe I would be a tad more excited if the MLS did what every other league in the world does and honoured international dates. But how willing will TFC be to release their Designated Player for a “meaningless” friendly when we can’t even get a contingent of TFC Canadians out for the Gold Cup?  Think TFC and her fans will be happy to give up JDG, DeRo, Serioux, Ali Gerba and possibly others for national duty when they are in the throes of chasing the MLS Cup?

And here is the major problem for me. TFC, the MLS, the CSA, FIFA, CONCACAF, the whole group of them are all setting up what few quality soccer players this country has for a club vs. country war that helps no one and hurts the sport.

There are not many of us soccer fans and we are already starting to turn on each other. Just read some of the comments around many of the blog posts on JDG. There is a lot of “who cares about the MNT” and this worries me. Yes, we all know the state of the MNT and the CSA. It’s easy to look upon much of the recent history of international soccer in this country and go, who cares? But to the Canadian in me, that is akin to saying that the beaver is a useless rodent. Maybe so, but dammit if that useless rodent doesn’t define who the hell I am at some crazy nationalistic level.

At any rate, we’ll know soon whether JDG will choose TFC or not. He has said he expects a deal regarding his club situation to be made by the end of the week. My take is not, but you can never underestimate the power of the buck.

And the beaver, by the way, is a fine and noble animal worthy of our respect.