Niko Sigur

[king1010]

Man he played for york U in 2021. How is our scouting so bad. The only way we had a chance at a guy like this is if he was entrenched in our youth programs for years. As soon as Croatia comes calling, of course he is as good as gone. 

[narduch]

4 minutes ago, king1010 said:

Man he played for york U in 2021. How is our scouting so bad. The only way we had a chance at a guy like this is if he was entrenched in our youth programs for years. As soon as Croatia comes calling, of course he is as good as gone. 

We have to stop kicking ourselves over this. Not every player develops at the same pace.

The difference is when a player is a late bloomer from a country like England for example, he simply reps England when he finally gets called.

The Farsi situation should be an eye opener for people. There are some players that are simply not going to want to play for Canada. I will cheer for the ones that do.

The mods really should move threads like this one to World Soccer where they belong.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

11 hours ago, Kadenge said:

...It would also break the narrative that Cdn youth players with Croatian heritage  don't want to play for Canada

The presence of Nick Dasovic in the CMNT should have already buried that notion a long time ago given he was one of the players that regularly made the effort to answer international call ups in an era when that wasn't always happening. Think it's more a case of what players who are good enough to be able to choose decide to do rather than an outright reluctance to represent Canada and there would be less of a dilemma for these guys if their parents had been from Slovenia instead and the other interested national team setup was unlikely to ever get anywhere near a World Cup final.

[Bigandy]

15 hours ago, Kadenge said:

So IF he is good enough to make our 23, we should be going after him big time. We have Copa in 3 months and a WC to offer. You just know that Herdman would have done the same. I get that some are pissed, including myself, that he seems to be on the Croatia bandwagon, but if senior team mins are on offer for 2  massive tournaments it would be crazy for any player not to seriously consider it as he's only playing youth soccer for Croatia. It would also break the narrative that Cdn youth players with Croatian heritage  don't want to play for Canada

We did go after him with herdman. Wasnt he called up and declined? 

Sigur is on call for the senior croatia team. Their midfield is several tiers above ours. They have 2 bundesliga right backs. If he is good enough to be player #24 for croatia, hes good enough to be player #23 for canada. 

Being on call as a 20 year old for croatia gives the feeling for sigur he is on the cusp of the croatia senior team.... it may be cynical but how can anyone tell for sure at this very moment.

He must feel he has equal or more chances of big tournaments and doing better with croatia than with canada. 


https://www.instagram.com/p/C4HImtDOnzk/?img_index=1

Edited March 27 by Bigandy

[narduch]

They may also be trying to cynically cap tie him like Serbia did with Mitrovic.

[FC_Hali]

16 hours ago, Obinna said:

Forgive me if this was previously posted. I will share it here for discussion sake:

https://www.croatiaweek.com/dual-citizenship-dilemma-talented-niko-sigur-chooses-croatia/

The statement makes it very clear he wants to play for Croatia, both now and in the future, but it seems like Canada was in consideration. I don't see him abandoning Croatia right now, but yet the statement from him doesn't seem to necessarily slam the door shut on Canada either, more like he's simply excited about Croatia, and why not? They are a top soccer nation in every respect, they seem to really value him, and he was on the list for the Euros.

For me this is a massive loss for Canada, very unfortunate. I was skimming his wiki page and see he was on Vaughn Azzurri "C" team at some point, back in his York days. Seems like he was slept on at every level in Canada, or maybe his development exploded once he got to Europe, maybe it's both? 

Would be amazing having him in our midfield at Copa America, but isn't happening. I almost feel like Koleosho is more realistic, sadly. 

I’m all for canvassing as many dual nats as possible but if a player has set their heart on playing for another nation, best of luck to them. With our growing playing pool, we have enough emerging talent to give the opportunity to hungry players. Unattached FC, RIP.

Edited March 27 by FC_Hali

[Bigandy]

9 minutes ago, narduch said:

They may also be trying to cynically cap tie him like Serbia did with Mitrovic.

I don't know tons about croatias depth but looking at fifa cards, its clear that after juranovic and stanisic, theres a big drop off for RB quality. Theres 7 other options all playing in the croatian league or equivalent level. Most of the 7 also play primarly in other positions such as CB or RM.  

If Fifa is to be semi trusted, he seems to be the 3rd choice right back for croatia at only 20 years old. 

Not sure if anyone can speak to a better 3rd option for croatia? 

[narduch]

13 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

I don't know tons about croatias depth but looking at fifa cards, its clear that after juranovic and stanisic, theres a big drop off for RB quality. Theres 7 other options all playing in the croatian league or equivalent level. Most of the 7 also play primarly in other positions such as CB or RM.  

If Fifa is to be semi trusted, he seems to be the 3rd choice right back for croatia at only 20 years old. 

Not sure if anyone can speak to a better 3rd option for croatia? 

Their  most recent squad has 3 guys that can play RB.

Edited March 27 by narduch

[Bigandy]

3 minutes ago, narduch said:

There most recent squad has 3 guys that can play RB.

Juranovic, Stanisic and whos the 3rd? 

[narduch]

2 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

Juranovic, Stanisic and whos the 3rd? 

Pongracic

[Bigandy]

2 minutes ago, narduch said:

Pongracic

fair point. 

I would consider him a CB though. It's a bit like miller being able to play LB but in the depth charts, I would consider him a CB. 

 

[narduch]

5 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

fair point. 

I would consider him a CB though. It's a bit like miller being able to play LB but in the depth charts, I would consider him a CB. 

 

In a 23 man squad how many RB do you think a team will carry?

[Bigandy]

1 minute ago, narduch said:

In a 23 man squad how many RB do you think a team will carry?

2 right backs. Which is why sigur is on the outside of the national team. 

However, it's not out of the realm of possibility that croatia takes -

4 CB's: Pongracic, caleta car, erlic and gvardiol 

2 right backs: juranovic and stanisic
2 left backs: Sosa, one other (currently they are playing gvardiol there and vida at CB). 

If one of the RB gets injured then whos the next up? Maybe a lower quality CB like medic and pongracic is pencilled in at RB or maybe they take a lower quality RB in Sigur. 

[Obinna]

The fact we are even debating how Sigur could possibly fit into the Croatian team suggests he is good enough for Canada. Nobody in the Gravan thread is seriously debating if he could possibly get into the Croatian team.

[narduch]

4 minutes ago, Obinna said:

The fact we are even debating how Sigur could possibly fit into the Croatian team suggests he is good enough for Canada. Nobody in the Gravan thread is seriously debating if he could possibly get into the Croatian team.

I still think he isn't ready for either team.

[DeRo_Is_King]

14 hours ago, phresh said:

There is nothing wild about this thread, there are players who are significantly more unproven with dozens more pages. Niko is consistently starting in a highly respected league for a powerhouse team which has produced more top-level players than any single MLS club. Okay, MLS has a higher level of competition than most Euro leagues. What's relevant here is the club level, which is quite high

I largely agree with you on this, even if the league quality as a whole isn't that notable. The guy is playing on a top team and alongside current / former members of the senior Croatian national team (namely, Livaja, who scored on us at the WC). Two starters from Croatia's recent friendly win over Egypt were also from top domestic clubs. 

[Bigandy]

3 minutes ago, narduch said:

I still think he isn't ready for either team.

I agree hes not ready for croatia yet but who do you take at RB for Copa if laryea is injured. AJ and....

[Obinna]

9 minutes ago, narduch said:

I still think he isn't ready for either team.

I don't see how you can say that (for Canada). On what grounds? That he hasn't gotten enough first team experience? He's played more pro minutes than Bombito, and you cannot say in good faith that Colorado are better than Hajduk Split. Furthermore, Bombito was ready to start in the Gold Cup for Canada before he was even a starter for Colorado. I know it was a weakened Canada, but still.

And none of this is considering that he's playing for Croatia's U21 team, that's not nothing. Eustaquio was playing for Portugal's U21 team right before he joined us. 

All of this is moot because he isn't playing for Canada, but I am just curious and intrigured by your resistance here? Tell me your thought process if you don't mind, I am genuinely curious and will respect and consider any well reasoned argument you present. 

Edited March 27 by Obinna

[Kadenge]

1 hour ago, FC_Hali said:

I’m all for canvassing as many dual nats as possible but if a player has set their heart on playing for another nation, best of luck to them. With our growing playing pool, we have enough emerging talent to give the opportunity to hungry players. Unattached FC, RIP.

From a patriotic point of view I agree, but take a look at how many duals with little connection to  America currently start for the US. And they have way more depth than us.  Jnr & Vitoria have contributed big time to our program. It looks like he can and has played as a CDM.  Unless he has told the CSA not to contact him, we should keep the lines of communication & the door open

[Kadenge]

1 hour ago, Bigandy said:

We did go after him with herdman. Wasnt he called up and declined? 

 

Yes, it was reported that Herdman wanted to include him on the player list for the 2023GC but he declined. But  Jebbo was called up and declined as well. Just saying we should continue to keep in touch.

[narduch]

31 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

I agree hes not ready for croatia yet but who do you take at RB for Copa if laryea is injured. AJ and....

I would rather call Corbeanu.

If Johnston gets injured you can play Buchanan as RB in a back 4 or Waterman as a RCB in a back 3

[Bigandy]

4 minutes ago, narduch said:

I would rather call Corbeanu.

If Johnston gets injured you can play Buchanan as RB in a back 4 or Waterman as a RCB in a back 3

Great point! I already have corbeanu in for one of the strikers in my 23 but I use this exact same logic to justify not taking franklin/ZBG or any other right backs so we can bring a guy like ali, bair, corbeanu or sigur etc. 

 

Edited March 27 by Bigandy

[Corazon]

I think it’s all irrelevant now anyways.  We really needed a player like Farsi or Sigur for potentially short term (and of course long term) but mostly short term with Laryea being out.  Farsi has said not interested and Sigur is in the middle of Euro u21 qualification.  If Croatia were already eliminated from u21 Euro than I’d like to think he would consider our senior program now with a chance to play at Copa.

The reality is that, he is a starter for Croatia u21 that is right in the middle or Euro u21 Qualification.  Qualifying goes until the end of this calendar year and then if they come 2nd which seems likely, they’ll have a playoff to qualify to u21 Euro, afterwards.  It seems unlikely that he would switch in the middle of this qualification campaign.  There are a lot of eyes on Euro u21 Qualification and even more at the tournament itself.  For his career, staying in the Croatian youth setup makes the most sense.  If he came to Copa, it would likely be as a deep bench option at best.  Timing isn’t great, unfortunately.

If he sticks with the u21’s through this campaign he will gain almost another full season of experience and may easily walk into the Croatian senior team.  However, Croatia is also littered with talent and a couple other young players may emerge in that time as well.  I just hope that we are doing our best to keep in contact with Niko and hopefully continue to invite him.  It's been a long time but it looks like we are going to be having lots of friendlies in the future.  We should be utilizing these friendlies by bringing in some dual nationals.  Other top international football countries like England, Serbia and Croatia aren’t afraid to cap tie Canadians, why should we?  We shouldn’t be afraid to cap tie Canadian dual nationals going forward as long as the friendlies keep getting booked.

Edited March 27 by Corazon

[TOcanadafan]

7 hours ago, Corazon said:

  It's been a long time but it looks like we are going to be having lots of friendlies in the future.  We should be utilizing these friendlies by bringing in some dual nationals.  Other top international football countries like England, Serbia and Croatia aren’t afraid to cap tie Canadians, why should we?  We shouldn’t be afraid to cap tie Canadian dual nationals going forward as long as the friendlies keep getting booked.

It'll be a little more difficult this cycle to cap-tie duals, as only official competitions count, and we won't have any World cup qualifiers.  So we've got Copa and then after that Nations League.

[narduch]

31 minutes ago, TOcanadafan said:

It'll be a little more difficult this cycle to cap-tie duals, as only official competitions count, and we won't have any World cup qualifiers.  So we've got Copa and then after that Nations League.

There is a 2025 Gold Cup