Canada Needs Jonathan de Guzman

Posted on 2/9/2012

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Yesterday I wrote about Stephen Hart's role in Canada's World Cup qualifying, now on to the Jonathan de Guzman saga. A very talented player who spent most of his teen years and young adult life in Holland with over 100 appearances with Feyenoord and because of that gained his Dutch citizenship. 

RELATED: Watch Hart discuss Jonathan de Guzman

According to Stephen Hart, Holland does not allow you to carry two passports so Jonathan relinquished his Canadian citizenship.  Not good.  I always thought that if you were born in Canada you were always entitled to a passport.  That is not the case and there are a lot of hurdles to cross before we see Jonathan de Guzman suit up alongside his brother in a national team uniform. 

With that said, Stephen Hart has returned with assistant coach Tony Fonseca from Spain, where de Guzman now plays (for Villarreal) and he does think Jonathan is motivated to now play for Canada and begin the process of reacquiring his Canadian passport.  He no doubt feels his time trying to play for Holland has ended and if he ever wants to get to the World Cup this may be his best opportunity. 

I know a lot of Canadian Soccer fans, myself included, are not too keen after he declined all previous attempts to play for Canada and may put him in the same category as Owen Hargreaves or Asmir Begovic, but let’s be honest.  Can he help us get to where we have not been since 1986??  I was 11 years old then and I am not a spring chicken anymore.  There is nothing more I want to see than Canadian flags on cars and pubs packed with our national team jersey during the World Cup for a change.

I think as Canadian fans we need to show that he is still wanted to help motivate him in that very important decision.

Tomorrow my series continues with another would-be Canadian international, David Hoilett.