As the calendar turns to December, winter has officially descended upon Canada, but the seasons are not changing on the football pitch.
As far as the Canadian national team are concerned, it’s been winter for over 11 years.
That’s how long it has been since Canada’s last real triumph, the 2000 Gold Cup championship.
Going by World Cup success, Canada are set to permafrost, having only qualified for FIFA’s showpiece once, in 1986.
It’s been a long and arduous slog. But this week there were finally signs that spring might be coming.
News broke Tuesday that two of Canada’s great talents who were feared to be lost to rival countries may have Canada back in their line of sight.
In an interview with Canadian sports network The Score, Toronto FC and Canada midfielder Julian de Guzman revealed that his younger brother Jonathan, who renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2008 in favour of the Netherlands, was pondering a switch back to the Red and White.
“I’ve been talking to my brother a lot about his international chances of playing for Canada, and this is the first time he’s felt more motivated to represent Canada,” Julian de Guzman said.
“He’s actually given me the word to pass on to the coaches and the staff to really look into his chances of regaining his Canadian passport.”
And if that wasn’t enough to send Canadian soccer fans into dreamland, Julian de Guzman had more.
“The funny thing is, at the time I talked to him (Jonathan) and he felt strongly about playing for Canada, he had asked me for Junior’s contact number,” he said.
“His idea was to join forces and jump on board with the Canadian national team for the next round, knowing that it would be a very important round for the national team.”
The ‘Junior’ he is referring to is Junior Hoilett, the 21-year-old Blackburn Rovers winger, considered one of the best young players in the English Premier League.
Jonathan de Guzman, 24, is currently an attacking midfielder at Villarreal in Spain. He moved to the Netherlands when he was 12, and has represented the Dutch Under-21 and Under-23 sides, but never at the senior level.
If he wants to play international soccer any time soon, it’s going to be wearing red, not orange.
If de Guzman does decide to switch to Canada, there would be some bureaucratic obstacles to overcome.
In 2008, he gave up his Canadian passport when he became a Dutch citizen. Repatriation is a painstaking process, and Dutch law is known for being unkind to dual nationality seekers.
Canadian national team coach Stephan Hart is travelling to Europe to meet with de Guzman in January or February to suss out his international intentions and hopefully, to help sort out some of the complicated citizenship issues he would be facing if he attempts to play for Canada.
Hoilett is a different case. There would be no citizenship issues were the Canadian-born midfielder to declare for Canada or for Jamaica, his father’s home country. So far, Hoilett has been quiet on his international future, repeatedly saying he was only focused on his club situation.
Hoilett is playing at a level which would more than qualify him to play for both Canada and Jamaica. Aside from those two countries, he does have the option to attempt to gain English citizenship through residency, but it’s unclear if he’s willing to wait the requisite few years to make this a reality. Even if he were to gain citizenship, his place in the England squad would by no means be assured.
The addition of Hoilett and Jonathan de Guzman to the Canada’s national team is a halcyon scenario, and one that would put it right behind the US and Mexico in the race for the third-best team in CONCACAF. With at least three, and possibly four teams from the region qualifying for World Cup 2014, Canada would suddenly be a chance.
That said, you couldn’t blame Canadian fans for approaching the situation with a healthy dose of pessimism.
In the past decade, when Canada has been in a two-horse race for a player’s loyalties, more often than not, it has come in second. Owen Hargreaves picked England, Asmir Begovic picked Bosnia and Herzegovina, Teal Bunbury picked the United States and in 2008, Jonathan de Guzman picked the Netherlands.
It doesn’t take the world’s biggest cynic to look at de Guzman’s recent comments and chalk them up to an ambitious yet realistic player returning with his tail between his legs after initially turning his back on his home country, rather than a player with a sudden injection of patriotism. Regardless, it may not matter if he’s unable to sort out his complicated citizenship issues.
As for Hoilett, his father and agent David Sr. is Jamaican, and there is plenty of speculation that he’d prefer his son to suit up for the Reggae Boyz rather than Les Rouges.
Canada begins its third round World Cup qualification group in June, and needs to finish in the top two of a group including Honduras, Panama and Cuba. Having Hoilett and de Guzman in the side would make it the favourite to advance, but realistically, Canada should be satisfied if even one of these two ends up wearing its national jersey.
For Canada, cautious optimism is the only way to approach the situation for now. Winter hasn’t ended just yet.
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