Mo Farsi

[MtlMario]

12 hours ago, The Real Marc said:

Sure! Happy to help.

1. He is third choice, at very very best, for Canada in his position.
2. He has a familial, cultural, emotional attachment to Algeria. His first professional experience, albeit brief, was in Algeria.
3. His time spent playing professionally in Canada is actually fairly limited. He was not involved in Canadian pro clubs until CPL.
4. I think this is the real one: Canada didn't call him immediately once he started playing for the Crew. His rise was a bit slower than others but I'm sure he's thinking that other players like Johnston or Bombito or Ahmed or Waterman or Koné were called in more quickly once starting in MLS. Heck didn't we call in Zator while he was still in the CPL? We didn't call Farsi, by the looks of it, until his second year with the MLS Crew.
5. He was approached by Algeria, it seems? A nice touch.
6. Once we called him, we can't guarantee him game time. He could be a three cap wonder.
7. He was annoyed at his experience with the Canada u23s where he wasn't a starter. 
8. Algeria may provide better exposure with the games across the Atlantic, European scouting, and connections to teammates based in France as opposed to our games against Central American and Caribbean teams chock a block with MLSers of which he already is.
9. He is not young and can't wait forever to choose - both nations will leave him behind if he dilly dallies.
10. If we had asked him to choose five years ago, he'd have probably preferred to play for Algeria. (International futsal doesn't count.)

So a mélange of legit reasons, toss up reasons, and phoney I-need-a-chip-on-my-shoulder-to-justify-this reasons. Want to hold the CSA responsible for anything? Sure, we could play more games. I would have called him earlier. But we're also not the Canada of auld that can throw any cat on the field - we have competition and expectations of results.

We've pulled a few depth pieces our way, like Ugbo and Tani, it's inevitable we lose a few back.

We've lost so many foundational pieces - Hargreaves (the absolute worst of the bunch with his the cut me from the youth team whining), Begovic (a snake but we flubbed too), Jonathan De Guzman (such a tease).

I don't like the decision but I can give it some respect. He was called. He said no. He's been upfront and clear. We hope he gets one cap. We move on.

 

A good summary but you forgot one thing he and probably others do not feel Canadian even if they are born and raised here. And I'm not only talking about Algeria I've seen it with other nationalities all too often unfortunately.☹️

[Aird25]

13 hours ago, The Real Marc said:

Sure! Happy to help.

1. He is third choice, at very very best, for Canada in his position.
2. He has a familial, cultural, emotional attachment to Algeria. His first professional experience, albeit brief, was in Algeria.
3. His time spent playing professionally in Canada is actually fairly limited. He was not involved in Canadian pro clubs until CPL.
4. I think this is the real one: Canada didn't call him immediately once he started playing for the Crew. His rise was a bit slower than others but I'm sure he's thinking that other players like Johnston or Bombito or Ahmed or Waterman or Koné were called in more quickly once starting in MLS. Heck didn't we call in Zator while he was still in the CPL? We didn't call Farsi, by the looks of it, until his second year with the MLS Crew.
5. He was approached by Algeria, it seems? A nice touch.
6. Once we called him, we can't guarantee him game time. He could be a three cap wonder.
7. He was annoyed at his experience with the Canada u23s where he wasn't a starter. 
8. Algeria may provide better exposure with the games across the Atlantic, European scouting, and connections to teammates based in France as opposed to our games against Central American and Caribbean teams chock a block with MLSers of which he already is.
9. He is not young and can't wait forever to choose - both nations will leave him behind if he dilly dallies.
10. If we had asked him to choose five years ago, he'd have probably preferred to play for Algeria. (International futsal doesn't count.)

So a mélange of legit reasons, toss up reasons, and phoney I-need-a-chip-on-my-shoulder-to-justify-this reasons. Want to hold the CSA responsible for anything? Sure, we could play more games. I would have called him earlier. But we're also not the Canada of auld that can throw any cat on the field - we have competition and expectations of results.

We've pulled a few depth pieces our way, like Ugbo and Tani, it's inevitable we lose a few back.

We've lost so many foundational pieces - Hargreaves (the absolute worst of the bunch with his the cut me from the youth team whining), Begovic (a snake but we flubbed too), Jonathan De Guzman (such a tease).

I don't like the decision but I can give it some respect. He was called. He said no. He's been upfront and clear. We hope he gets one cap. We move on.

 

Thanks for the summary. I imagine many of those things could be said about a bunch of players that have represented Canada. So i guess my question is what's different in this scenario

I also think we lack talent in that position and he could be a valuable addition that we've lost. We only called 3 fullbacks last time out and they all play different positions too

Edited August 16 by Aird25

[Ottawafan]

16 hours ago, Ed_S said:

 I don't have a problem with his choice. We are very deep in that position and North African football is making a bit of a splash. Morocco's keeper was born in Montreal although moved to Morocco with his parents at a young age. Mind you, the only person who's ever bothered me with a switch was Begovic (the unmentionable one even gets a pass from me as I know some of shit he put up with from the bozos running the CSA in 2000-2001 era). And anybody questioning my loyalty to Cdn national team and players is ignorant of the history of this forum and previous incarnations and the supporters group.

I give Begovic a pass as well.

[Ottawafan]

6 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Hopefully nobody is going to do the we offered his family safe sanctuary during a terrible war routine when it was Germany that actually did that. Have seen it claimed that either him or his family (I forget the exact details) were visited by some very intimidating people that you wouldn't want to cross as part of Bosnia's efforts to persuade him to switch. No idea if that's accurate or not but that's part of why I'd personally tend to reserve judgement when not knowing the full circumstances in these situations. 

Have heard from a very good source that is 100% accurate.

[narduch]

All this really proves is that using the CSA as a boogeyman for duals that don't play for Canada is just an excuse.

Some players won't play for us no matter what we do.

[Ottawafan]

57 minutes ago, narduch said:

All this really proves is that using the CSA as a boogeyman for duals that don't play for Canada is just an excuse.

Some players won't play for us no matter what we do.

Each circumstance is different. 

It's like saying a handful of fans will always back the CSA no matter what and ignore the evidence or reports which point out their misgivings.

[costarg]

20 hours ago, The Real Marc said:

We've lost so many foundational pieces - Hargreaves (the absolute worst of the bunch with his the cut me from the youth team whining), Begovic (a snake but we flubbed too), Jonathan De Guzman (such a tease).

While I agree, I think Tomori would've probably been the biggest potential game changer to actual results and our global classification.  More than the others at any given moment.

[SoCalTransport]

On 8/15/2024 at 5:43 PM, ahmedou said:

That how I call ''started from the bottom (Futsal, PLSQ, CPL to MLS/Etc)''.

He's playing with Columbus the best team of MLS. His choice of maghreb national team (Algrtie) will open him doors to play Europe. 

There's a lot of talented canadians maghrebians (playing for amateurs) in soccer but there's less professionals canadians maghrebians (playing for professional) in soccer like Farsi. Farsi's story will push a lot of canadians maghrebians to follow Farsi's path and being professional soccer players like him. 

I understand what you're saying, but these players are born and raised in Canada.

The dream should be to play for the country that gave your family an opportunity at a better life.

With Canada's recent success, I'm shocked that some players that are born and raised in Canada would want to even consider playing elsewhere.

[CanadaFan123]

5 hours ago, SoCalTransport said:

I understand what you're saying, but these players are born and raised in Canada.

The dream should be to play for the country that gave your family an opportunity at a better life.

With Canada's recent success, I'm shocked that some players that are born and raised in Canada would want to even consider playing elsewhere.

It is shocking but it’s also a blessing. Why would we even want these guys? We have a group of character guys who love playing for Canada and being Canadian. That is our current culture in Canada soccer and he’s not like us. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

...We have a group of character guys who love playing for Canada and being Canadian...

It's got nothing to do with the money. Hence why there are never any bitter disputes over how sponsorship revenue and prize money is divided.

[CanadaFan123]

59 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

It's got nothing to do with the money. Hence why there are never any bitter disputes over how sponsorship revenue and prize money is divided.

Yeah, we’re swimming in cash. The players are only around for the money. So lucrative playing for Canada. 

[rkomar]

10 hours ago, SoCalTransport said:

I understand what you're saying, but these players are born and raised in Canada.

The dream should be to play for the country that gave your family an opportunity at a better life.

With Canada's recent success, I'm shocked that some players that are born and raised in Canada would want to even consider playing elsewhere.

We have American women playing for the CWNT out of love and respect for their parents and grandparents and their ties to Canada.  It seems natural to me, and I'm grateful for them choosing us.  Farsi is doing what those women are doing, so I can see where he is coming from.

[Onelessstar]

24 minutes ago, rkomar said:

We have American women playing for the CWNT out of love and respect for their parents and grandparents and their ties to Canada.  It seems natural to me, and I'm grateful for them choosing us.  Farsi is doing what those women are doing, so I can see where he is coming from.

I think that most of those women did not really have a realistic/identified path to the USWNT and, perhaps, were fortunate to be able to access Canadian ancestry to play senior international football. All good. All good for Farsi, also. His choice is his choice.... these choices occur the world over all the time.

Edited August 17 by Onelessstar
Typo

[rkomar]

You could argue that Janine Beckie was not going to make the USWNT, but I think that Sydney Collins and Simi Awujo had a better shot.  I wouldn't put Farsi's chances significantly above those of Awujo or Collins.  So, I think the comparison is a good one.  I agree that we shouldn't be accusing any of these players of being traitors to their home country.

[Onelessstar]

18 minutes ago, rkomar said:

You could argue that Janine Beckie was not going to make the USWNT, but I think that Sydney Collins and Simi Awujo had a better shot.  I wouldn't put Farsi's chances significantly above those of Awujo or Collins.  So, I think the comparison is a good one.  I agree that we shouldn't be accusing any of these players of being traitors to their home country.

USWNT at all age groups is just so deep.... Collins had no age group caps and Awujo hadn't had any since U17.

[rkomar]

Okay, I was probably blinded by the finished products on our team as opposed to what they looked like coming up.  I'll agree that Farsi had the better outlook for making the home national team as a youth.

[MtlMario]

4 hours ago, rkomar said:

We have American women playing for the CWNT out of love and respect for their parents and grandparents and their ties to Canada.  It seems natural to me, and I'm grateful for them choosing us.  Farsi is doing what those women are doing, so I can see where he is coming from.

 

3 hours ago, Onelessstar said:

I think that most of those women did not really have a realistic/identified path to the USWNT and, perhaps, were fortunate to be able to access Canadian ancestry to play senior international football. All good. All good for Farsi, also. His choice is his choice.... these choices occur the world over all the time.

 

3 hours ago, rkomar said:

You could argue that Janine Beckie was not going to make the USWNT, but I think that Sydney Collins and Simi Awujo had a better shot.  I wouldn't put Farsi's chances significantly above those of Awujo or Collins.  So, I think the comparison is a good one.  I agree that we shouldn't be accusing any of these players of being traitors to their home country.

I do not want to turn this into 5 pages of back and forth but I have a honest question for you both, if you were in a similar situation would you choose Canada or not? Cheers.

[rkomar]

Personally, I would have chosen Canada.  My parents were Polish immigrants, but my father would probably have been imprisoned if he returned (he fought for the Polish Free Army in WWII after being released from the Siberian gulags when the Germans invaded the USSR, and so was considered to be an enemy by the Communists).  Many of my father's fellow soldiers were offered refuge in Canada following the war, and that is something we are very grateful for.  I suspect that makes me closer to Davies than Farsi in terms of feelings towards Canada.

[Dominic94]

At the end of the day we can’t and won’t win them all, he’s a sure starter 5 years ago, and a star 10 years ago. We’ve improved so much and the reality is that with us he likely has a Tesho like path.

[costarg]

10 hours ago, rkomar said:

We have American women playing for the CWNT out of love and respect for their parents and grandparents and their ties to Canada.  It seems natural to me, and I'm grateful for them choosing us.  Farsi is doing what those women are doing, so I can see where he is coming from.

Those American women who's parents left Canada did so for very different reasons than the Algerians who left Algeria.  Canada gave those Algerians a lot more than the US offered the Canadians.  I don't feel it's even comparable.  

[Aird25]

Farsi played 90' again as Columbus advance to the semis 

[Onelessstar]

4 hours ago, costarg said:

Those American women who's parents left Canada did so for very different reasons than the Algerians who left Algeria.  Canada gave those Algerians a lot more than the US offered the Canadians.  I don't feel it's even comparable.  

Yeah maybe, but then again maybe not. 

[Pasta88]

I’ll never blame a player for choosing a country they are eligible to represent under the current rules.

I will blame the eligibility rules though. It will always be a farce that players can represent countries they didn’t grow up playing the sport in. Farsi should never have been eligible for Algeria and on the flip side, players like LDF, Tomori, etc. should never be eligible to represent us. But alas, Fifa hasn’t put me in charge yet. Any day now…

[MtlMario]

6 hours ago, Onelessstar said:

Yeah maybe, but then again maybe not. 

...and you never answered my question (or maybe you did by not answering?).

[Onelessstar]

49 minutes ago, MtlMario said:

...and you never answered my question (or maybe you did by not answering?).

I assume Canada.... I have absolutely no identity outside of being Canadian so I can't relate to the situation of having strong ties to another nation