Ali Gerba, Toronto FC striker, journey man, prolific Canadian goal-scorer and excessive pie-eater has been sent home by Preki and the Toronto FC coaching staff as they focus on their two remaining games in the Carolina Challenge Cup. The reason, because Preki isn’t happy with his physical fitness (shocker). When I heard the news I was not the slightest bit surprised. He was clearly out of shape playing with Toronto FC last season and after scoring in his first game with the club in 2009 he contributed very little from there on in. Preki is known for being a bit of a hard-ass coach and it was to be expected that he would demand more from Ali Gerba.
Despite not being shocked at all by this news it made me a little upset. Not because I’m a massive an of Ali’s, but because Canada’s most proven goal scorer on the international stage is too fat to play for a club which can’t score goals in a very average league.
Ali Gerba is tied with Dwayne DeRosario (arguably Toronto FC’s best player) for Canada’s fourth highest scorer of all time with 15 goals and has played 23 less matches. Although players like Rob Friend and Simeon Jackson are much more productive at club level than Gerba. It was Gerba who scored the winning goals in both of Canada’s wins at the 2009 Gold Cup, it was Gerba who scored twice against Mexico in World Cup Qualifying, and it was Gerba who scored three more times at the 2007 Gold Cup. Love him or hate him is impossible to deny that Gerba is Canada’s most prolific striker on the international stage at the moment.
So what does Gerba being sent home from Toronto FC’s camp in shame really mean? Well first off it means he needs to lose a few if he wants to play at all under Preki, but is also outlines something very important for Canada. Yes the obvious thing is that Canada probably needs to be creating more goal-scorers, but so do most international sides in the world. What it does illustrate is that Canada gets the best out of Gerba.
He’s failed at almost everyone of the thirteen clubs he’s been at over the past ten years, but since 2007 he has consistently performed for Canada and in important games too. It was not exclusively under Stephen Hart either, he had limited success during World Cup Qualifying with Dale Mitchell as well. This is one of very few examples where the Canadian national team has brought the best out of a player. There are so many examples to the contrary, Rob Friend, Dwayne De Rosario, even Julian De Guzman to an extent.
Why is Ali Gerba such an odd case I have no idea. As it looks like Ali Gerba’s career in top flight football may be coming to an end one can only look back and admire what a servant Ali has been to the Canadian National Team (albeit not much of a servent to anyone else).
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