After the signings of South Korean Young-Pyo Lee and Vietnamese American Lee Nguyen, I joked on the BC Soccer Podcast a few weeks ago that all that I was now needing on my Whitecaps bingo card was a Japanese player for house.
Ask and you shall receive.
The Whitecaps announced another new signing this afternoon, midfielder Jun Marques Davidson.
The 28 year old midfielder comes to Vancouver as a free agent, having last played for Japanese J League Division 2 side Tokushima Vortis.
Davidson is a dual American/Japanese citizen, who spent a year under Martin Rennie at Carolina Railhawks in 2010. The news that he holds dual citizenship is a huge relief for Caps fans, with the squad currently well over their current allocation of international spots as it is.
He is not going to be a name known to most in Vancouver, even those of us who were watching the D2 side two years ago. He made 23 appearances that season, and scored one goal, as Rennie's Railhawks won the NASL Conference and eventually lost the USSF-D2 Championship game to Puerto Rico Islanders.
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Born in Tokyo, Davidson moved to Pasadena in California, attending the American Global Soccer School before returning to Japan to kick off his professional career in 2002 with Omiya Ardija in Division Two of the J League. In 2004, the defensive midfielder helped 'The Squirrels' to a second-place finish and promotion to Division One.
Davidson continued to play with Omiya Ardija until 2006 - making a total of 87 appearances in all competitions and scoring just 2 goals.
Upon leaving Omiya, Davidson seemed to bounce around a little. He joined Albirex Niigata in 2007 and made only a few appearances for them over three seasons, during which time he was loaned out for spells at Vissel Kobe and Consadole Sapporo.
Davidson played a total of 133 matches in the J League, scoring twice, after returning to the US to play for Carolina in 2010 before then heading back to Japan and the Vortis last year.
This isn't one of those signings that really gets you excited.
He appears to be a journeyman and bit part player at best, and not someone you would immediately think of as MLS standard. As a defensive midfielder, he certainly does fill the hole that exists in the team in that position right now, but is he really going to be a regular starter at this level? He didn't even start in all of his 25 appearances for Tokushima, coming on as sub six times.
Rennie clearly thinks highly of the midfielder though:
<i>"Jun is one of the most technically gifted players that I have coached. He's a defensive-minded midfielder with a strong pedigree of quality and experience after playing in the Japanese J League for a number of years. His passing awareness and ability to break up play in the middle is tremendous. He will be a great addition to the group."</i>
He is the kind of player we've been looking for but I don't think that he is anywhere near the end result of our search in that position.
There were a lot of critics out there who have knocked Rennie and the Caps for bringing in players from his D2 days. We've backed him fully re Knighton and Barbara, and don't know enough about Watson, but trust his judgement.
This signing though is the first one that's actually made me question whether Rennie is simply wanting to bring in players he knows, has worked with and whom he thinks will respond to his management, rather than casting his net further afield for players he doesn't know.
Is Davidson the best defensive midfielder out there? No. Is he the best available? No. Is he going to be the answer to our holding midfielder problems? We can't honestly say, but it would certainly pleasantly surprise us if he was.
You have to feel that there will more midfield moves for the Caps before the squad is finalised.
We certainly hope so.
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