The amount of loyalty Ali Gerba inspires in some fans is one of the biggest enigmas in Canadian soccer. It is perhaps only rivalled by the mystery of why so many clubs are willing to part ways with a player that does score goals. Normally, the ability to put the ball in the net allows clubs to overlook other shortcomings.
Yet – and not to belabour it, but it is so bizarre that you need to see it on paper to truly believe it – this is a player with this career path:
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Impact-Miami Fusion-Pittsburgh Riverhounds-Toronto Lynx-Impact-Lynx-Impact-GIF Sundsvall-IFK Gothenburg-Odd Grenland-AC Horsens-FC Ingolstadt 04-Milton Keynes-Toronto FC-Impact.
That’s 15 switches* and 11 different clubs in 10 seasons (in fairness, two were loans). Each of those experiences had one thing in common – Gerba.
Yet, today he was on Montreal sports radio talking about how unfairly he’s been treated by the Impact, who released him yet again last month.
Gerba said that he thought he was “a lock” to make the jump to MLS with the club last year and claims that he is the victim of a personal attack by someone in the organization. He didn’t name who.
He claimed that he was in shape and that the Impact coaching staff would have been happy to have him on the team. As when he left Toronto FC and blamed the TFC coaching staff for his failure, Gerba is passing the buck.
What’s surprising is how much of a free pass he is given. Gerba has a cult of personality that somehow allows him to rarely be challenged. The interviewer today – Tony Marinaro – wasn’t even pretending to be balanced. Gerba was never challenged. The Impact management was not painted in a positive light.
As stated, the ability to score tends to make people look the other way. However, in Gerba’s case, teams might not be willing to look the other way much longer.
Gerba might need to look in the mirror (for once) to understand why.
*I managed to get a question to Gerba during the interview. When asked why he'd been released 15 times in his career, Gerba claimed that wasn't the case. In fact, he's been released twice, he said, and both times were after a coaching change and a knee injury. Gerba claimed that each switch was because he had played so well as to be sold to a higher bidder.