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Turning tide: Tabla, Busti emblematic of Canada's new recruitment approach

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TORONTO - Canada hasn't always had the easiest time attracting top talent.

Players with international options have usually opted for greener pastures, which is understandable considering the national team’s standing on the world stage.

But like the decidedly buoyant and confident mood in training this week ahead of Tuesday’s Nations League qualifying tilt with Dominica, things are beginning to change for the better.

Since drawing the attention of scouts from Europe’s biggest clubs while with the Montreal Impact's USL offering, Ballou Tabla's name and the future of Canadian soccer have been intertwined.

There was just one small problem. Tabla, who was born in the Ivory Coast and raised in La Belle Province, had leaned toward playing for his country of birth. And despite being named Under-17 and Under-20 Canadian Player of the Year, Tabla remained torn between joining a CONCACAF afterthought or an African giant.

It would be hard to blame the kid. Tabla was training in Montreal’s first team with Ivorian legend Didier Drogba - a man so revered back home that his status as a national footballing hero played a consequential role in ending the country’s civil war in 2013. And while the Ivory Coast national team navigated the notoriously difficult African qualifiers to make three World Cups on the bounce before missing out in 2018, Canada was narrowly edging out home results against Curacao.

Related: Renewed Canada benefitting from Herdman's change in culture

Upon taking the gig in January, new Canada coach and sporting director John Herdman immediately set his focus on changing the culture within the ranks and attracting a group of young players that included Barcelona newcomer Tabla.

Herdman admits the early signs weren't promising. "We reached out to Ballou and the response wasn’t good. It was pretty clear at that point he was focusing on Barcelona and he was undecided about his international career," Herdman told Sportsnet's John Molinaro. "It’s been a journey with Ballou. There was no hard sell, there were no bells and whistles in our presentations. Our conversations weren’t about what Canada could do for him, but what he could do for Canada."

Tabla, 19, eventually welcomed Herdman's invite, officially declaring his allegiance on Sept. 25. For long-suffering fans of Canadian soccer, securing the services of a teen plying his trade with Europe's preeminent incubator of budding talent created a palpable excitement.

"It's something that I reflected on for a while, especially with my family," Tabla told theScore following Monday's training session. "But in choosing between Canada and the Ivory Coast, there was no wrong decision."

On Tuesday, Tabla officially became part of Canada's future by coming on in the 54th minute against Dominica. His friend and fellow teen Zachary Brault-Guillard made his debut too, as did Alessandro Busti, who started between the pipes in a one-sided 5-0 victory. Fellow youngsters Alphonso Davies, Liam Millar, Derek Cornelius, and Jonathan David all put in a shift while Busti spent most of the match shivering in solitude. Welcome back to Canada, young man.

The 18-year-old Busti - who was born in Toronto before being whisked away to Italy - is now a member of Juventus' youth set-up. His recruitment to the Canadian national team was more straightforward than Tabla's, though it was far from conventional, as Herdman conceded that he and his staff used databases like Transfermarkt to identify players like the young goaltender with Canadian eligibility.

Regardless of the process, securing both Busti and Tabla is certainly a bright omen for a Canada side aiming to qualify for just its second-ever World Cup.

It's also quite a change from the past. Owen Hargreaves, Jonathan De Guzman, and Asmir Begovic were all capable young players who were eligible to play for Canada, but each of them opted for greener pastures. And while Hargreaves and De Guzman understandably consented to approaches from England and the Netherlands, respectively, current Bournemouth shot-stopper Begovic was a missed opportunity for Canda to cap-tie a player within its grasp.

Bosnian-born and raised in Edmonton, Begovic parlayed a spell as Canada's Under-20 No. 1 into a senior call-up for a 2010 World Cup qualifying match against Jamaica in 2008. It was the final game of a group stage that saw Canada finish last with two points and well adrift of progressing, and for then-manager Stephen Hart’s charges, there was little to play for. However, Lars Hirschfeld started his fifth qualifier on the spin, Begovic sat on the bench, and Canada lost 3-0, finishing the match having used just two of three subs. Begovic has since made 61 appearances for Bosnia & Herzegovina, starting all three of the nation's debut World Cup matches in 2014.

Canada Soccer/Flickr

It hasn’t been all doom and gloom, though, as Scott Arfield, Steven Vitoria, and Tesho Akindele were all dual-national additions to Canada that were met with little resistance.

Meanwhile, nineteen-time capped Junior Hoilett once faced a situation similar to Tabla's. Eligible to play for both Canada and Jamaica, the Brampton-born forward, then 20, declined an offer to join Hart's squad for a February 2011 match against Greece. It was just the latest advance from the national team that was rebuffed so the player could focus on his club career in the Premier League. Sound familiar?

"I've asked him for every single outing that we've had. It's no secret, (and) I think he would acknowledge that as well. He said, 'Please give me some time,' but I'll keep knocking on the door," Hart said of Hoilett at the time.

The following year, Jamaican football federation president Horace Burrell approached Hoilett’s father as additional rumors swirled of the player's interest in suiting up for England. It wasn’t until 2015 that Canada got its guy, cap-tying Hoilett in a 2015 qualifier against Honduras.

Like Hoilett, Toronto-born striker Lucas Cavallini’s road to becoming a Canadian international was bumpy. Eligible to play for Argentina and Italy, Cavellini was 19 when he was rushed into Canada's senior side in 2012 for the country's infamous 8-1 defeat in Honduras.

Canada Soccer/Flickr

It was like christening a new home by spilling a cloudy Amarone on the white rug. It would take three years for Cavallini to sport the red and white again, as he appeared in an international friendly against Ghana in October 2015. By then, Cavallini had become a refined striker with Fenix in Uruguay. Benito Floro, who called up Cavallini for the Ghana fixture and managed Canada from August 2013 to September 2016, said the goal-poacher had rebuffed approaches from the national team during the interim.

Later, a Spanish-language interview from May 2015 suggested Cavallini regretted the decision to play for Canada, a notion the player dispelled later that year and again on Tuesday, when he told theScore, "I've never said I regret playing for Canada. This is the first country to contact me, and I didn’t doubt."

He continued: "This is a new process. Under the new coach, everybody is happy, and everybody is happy with the coaching."

Cavallini’s sentiments are synonymous with a group of players who've appeared noticeably cheerful in camp, and who from the sounds of it, are collectively confident in the future of Canadian men’s soccer. It's a refreshing switch.

"Everybody is focused on 2022 (World Cup)," Cavallini added. "This is a big group, with a lot of talent, and a big future."

How quickly things have changed.

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