Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
I don't follow Canadian soccer very much, but I recall a long time ago that part of the problem is that talented Canadians would basically just defect if they could make vague citizenship ties work, in order to try and play for teams that legit have a shot at making the World Cup and or winning the World Cup. Like Hargraeves to England, for example.
Is this still a problem? Was it ever a problem and I misinterpreted?
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Yes, it was a problem - there are numerous "Canadian" players that chose other countries (Asmir Begovic and Jonathan de Guzman are other examples). Some had better ties to those countries than others.
In the last couple years we've been turning the tide a bit, had players like Junior Hoilett and Steven Vitoria finally commit to us and are actually starting to grab foreign players that have pretty loose ties to us (i.e. Scott Arfield). The Americans have had similar issues are lately have been busy grabbing a bunch of German players that have some American ancestry.