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David Edgar is an eager young man. Reports from Newcastle have the 21 year old Canadian defender pushing hard to either see more first team action with the Magpies or a deal to get him to a team where he can.

It has to be exceptionally frustrating for a guy like David, who has Geordie blood running through him via his Dad, Eddie Edgar, himself a former keeper for Newcastle. A dream come true to play at Newcastle is turning into an extended stay in purgatory as he has seen limited action, despite being the captain of the reserve squad and scoring memorable goals against both ManU (was that really 2 years ago already) and, last week, Liverpool.

Here’s hoping Newcastle pisses or gets off the pot.

Paul Stalteri goes toe to toe with DaMarcus Beasley of USA (Image by Getty Images via Daylife)

Tip of the hat to OOT for calling this one. Paul Stalteri is leaving the hell that has become his career with Spurs and heading back to Germany to join Rob Friend at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

I suspect this is a welcome Christmas present for Diesel who will, no doubt, see more time on the field in the Bundesliga than he did with Spurs this past year and a half (but not so welcome to Canuck footie fans who now have double the incentive to figure out how the hell you pronounce Borussia Mönchengladbach).

As an Arsenal fan, I can finally heave a sigh of relief.

This is great news for the MNT. I think Stalteri’s (relatively) poor WCQ performance for Canada this year can be directly attributed to the number of minutes he (didn’t) log on the pitch with his club. And I think once you are a pro athlete on the other side of 30, this is especially true. You need the time to keep in game condition.

Paul still has a major part to play on the team, if not for the next WCQ cycle in 4 years (when he will be 35) then at least for the next Gold Cup. Plus, he only needs 10 more caps to pass Randy Samuel on the all time caps list for Canada. Mind you, with the number of international’s Canada plays, it may take him a few years to get 10 more caps.

But maybe, just maybe, he won’t be joining Rob Friend in Germany, Maybe Rob Friend will be leaving Germany and heading to the MLS, perhaps as, oh I don’t know, the DP for Toronto FC?

Yeah, okay, I am just starting some crazy rumours here, but with Ben Knight tossing around names of Canadian strikers as possible DP’s for TFC, then why not add Friend to the list? If the rumours are true that the TFC DP will be Canadian and with JDG officially out of the picture, then why not Rob Friend? If you were Rob Friend and you were potting a whack of goals for a club that was in danger of being relegated back to the second tier of German soccer, would the MLS be an attractive option? Or is Friend still a bit too unproven to wear the DP badge? Discuss…

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• Canadian soccer captain Stalteri signs with German club
• Moenchengladbach sign defender Stalteri

My vote is Tomasz Radzinski cause he had the guts to wear a Sack the CSA jersey in his final game.

Thanks,
Clint

Yeah, I can be a pissy little Footie Fool sometimes. But give me a sliver of an opportunity to get my 2 cents in with the CSA and I’ll take it.

Personally, I think this is a bit of a tempest in the teapot. TFC is better to wait until after the holidays to have a big splashy press conference to show off DeRo. Right now the holiday season is where most people have their heads so why not wait until the new year when the news cycle is a bit slower and get maximum coverage out of the pictures.

Meanwhile, The 24th Minute has some good advice for TFC fans over the holiday season.

During Christmas diner you can’t ask your grandmother who she thinks TFC will sign as a DP . Unless she’s an ultra that is.

Paul Stalteri may have a future at Spurs after all. You get the feeling that Spurs boss Harry Redknap would like to slap former gaffer Juande Ramos upside the head for his decision not to register Paul Stalteri for the UEFA Cup. Reading some quotes from Redknap prior to today’s Tottenham UEFA Cup tie and you get the slight glimmer of hope that Paul still may have a part to play with the club.

With Redknapp unwilling to risk a fragile Ledley King or fellow centre-back Jonathan Woodgate, whose back went into spasms on Saturday, peripheral squad players such as Paul Stalteri or Ricardo Rocha could offer useful solutions but were not even registered for European competition under Juande Ramos. “The balance is not great,” Redknapp admitted. “There are players who haven’t even got squad numbers who I would love to be playing in the Uefa Cup. They’d do a great job. But they’re not even on the roster.”

Finally, spend a bit of time this holiday season with this post from Out Of Touch who has spent a crazy amount of time and effort trolling YouTube digging up the best/worst video highlights of the MNT in 2008. Soar with joy as you relive Friend and DeGuzman scoring against Brazil, and come crashing back to earth watching that goal. Okay, you may want to watch heavily lubricated with nog of the rum and egg variety to ease the pain.

I could make a good argument for many of the nominees, but this year I think my vote is going to Tomasz Radzinski.Tomasz Radzinski, a player who showed up in every outing for the MNT this cycle. Radzinski, who scored goals during his time in Greece and continues to do so in Belgium, albeit in the second division. Radzinski who had the balls to wear a Sack the CSA shirt and to try to call the Greek soccer organization on match fixing. Really, could there be a more fitting retirement for international soccer than to be named player of the year by the fans. Tomasz, my vote goes to you.

But I would also be happy with Ali Gerba, who popped 6 goals for Canada this year. Those are numbers hard to argue against. But he spent most of the year with no pro club and when he signed it was with MK Dons, a third level English side (where he continues to score goals). But it is still a third tier English side.

Mike Klukowski also had a great year for the MNT. No goals, but consistently solid performances on the left side. And his club side Bruges is at the top of the league in Belgium.

The three that are usually at the top of the list for me each year (DeRo, De Guzman and Hutch) are not there for me this year. As much as I love them, their failure to perform in WCQ tarnishes their year, despite Hutch and DeGuzman having great year’s for their club side. DeRo also had a good year at Houston, but not up to his previous performances.

Rob Friend failed to impress for the MNT, but is ripping it up in the Bundesliga, while Paul Stalteri had a poor WCQ and has played, um, zero games this season in the EPL (although he did contribute significantly to Fulham at the end of the season last year when he was on loan and helped them avoid relegation).

Once again the CSA has choosen the extremely high tech method of email to collect votes. C’mon guys, email? Can’t you just make a form or a poll? Why do I have to give you my email address to play along? Oh, so I can get on your email list….ahhhh, I see.

Fans can email their Fans’ Choices to rscott@soccercan.ca with the title ’CanadaSoccer.com Fans’ Choices’ in the subject line.

Here is the full list:

- Julian de Guzman – Scarborough, ON
- Dwayne De Rosario – Scarborough, ON
- Rob Friend – Rosetown, SK
- Ali Gerba – Montréal, QC
- Atiba Hutchinson – North York, ON
- Michael Klukowski – Oshawa, ON
- Paul Stalteri – Etobicoke, ON
- Tomasz Radzinski – Toronto, ON
- Adrian Serioux – Scarborough, ON

…and some more in depth player analysis from OOT.