As usual, Friday afternoon’s OneSoccer Player and Pundit Hangout was a roundtable chat between the four hosts, Adam Jenkins, Asa Rehman, Oliver Platt, and Kurt Larson.
They began by discussing the return of the Bundesliga in Germany this weekend, pondering what the closed-doors matches might look like.
“I would just be watching to see if it’s the same game, really, without the fans in the stands, and maybe some of the reservations the players have about being in close quarters,” Platt said.
One major attraction for Canadians this weekend will, of course, be Alphonso Davies’ return to the pitch with Bayern Munich. The four OneSoccer pundits debated whether or not the young phenom is already one of the top three most impressive athletes in Canada.
“Alphonso Davies is far and away Canada’s best athlete right now,” Larson argued.
“If somebody would’ve told you that a Canadian tennis player, male or female, was going to win a major within five years, you probably would’ve thought it was somewhat likely, or at least within the realm of possibility. If somebody told you that a Canadian would be starting semi-regularly for Bayern Munich in the champions league … which would you have said is more likely?”
Moving to the week’s biggest CPL-related news, the group discussed Emilio Estevez’s historic transfer to ADO Den Haag. Platt gave major credit to York9 coach Jimmy Brennan for finding Estevez from the CPL’s open trials.
“(Brennan) has shown that he has a bit of an eye for a player,” he said. “You look at guys like Morey Doner, who comes from the footballing hotspot of Collingwood, Ontario. (Diyaeddine) Abzi, you can say he’s a good prospect now, but Brennan was the only one to sign a player out of the Quebec league.”
As for which player might next follow in Estevez’s footsteps, plenty of names were mentioned: Marco Bustos, Dominick Zator, Daniel Krutzen and Marco Carducci.
The show finished with a debate over which footballer would be best-suited to come out of retirement, à la Mike Tyson, as well as a discussion about which CPLer might fare best on Survivor.
To watch Wednesday’s OneSoccer Player & Pundit Hangout in full, click here.