Jonathan de Guzmán

Early life

De Guzmán was born in Scarborough, Ontario and is of Jamaican and Filipino descent. His father Bobby, from the Philippines, and mother Pauline, from Jamaica, came to Canada when they were ten years old and have three children: a daughter Jenelle and the two sons Jonathan and Julian. De Guzmán's older brother, Julian de Guzman, is also a professional football player who plays for Ottawa Fury. Julian also plays for the Canada national team.

De Guzmán's childhood was completely focused on football. His father first wanted his sons to play basketball, but due to the brothers' short height, they started to focus on other sports. Once they started playing football, the brothers fell in love with the sport completely: "After school, all we did was playing football. That was pretty unusual in Canada, because almost nobody of our age did it. Canada is not a football country, we were exceptions." He attended St. Rose of Lima in his early years.

Youth career

De Guzmán started his youth career at North Scarborough Soccer Club in Canada. To improve his skills, the youngster trained six times a week and was active in three different teams (North Scarborough, Malvern, and the team of his older brother). When his brother Julian left Canada to join Olympique Marseille's youth academy, de Guzmán's urge to also pursue his career in Europe grew strongly. At the age of 12, two years after his brother went to France, he joined the Feyenoord youth academy in the Netherlands.

The rise

De Guzmán was not allowed to play for Feyenoord's first team before he was 18 years old. On 15 September 2005, three days after turning 18, de Guzmán was part of Feyenoord's first team squad for the first time. However, he remained on the bench in the UEFA Cup home match against Rapid Bucharest (1–1). Three days later, on 18 September 2005, de Guzmán made his official Feyenoord debut in the Eredivisie home match against SC Heerenveen (5–1). He replaced Ghaly in the 87th minute. De Guzmán scored his first professional goal on 30 September 2005, in the Eredivisie away match against Willem II (1–3). After his debut against SC Heerenveen, De Guzmán quickly became a first team regular. On 11 December 2005, he received much praise after outplaying former Barcelona player Philip Cocu in a midfield battle at Feyenoord's Eredivisie home match win against PSV (1–0). De Guzmán finished the Eredivisie season 2005–06 with 29 matches, scoring 4 goals. On 29 December 2005, he signed an improved contract with Feyenoord until summer 2010. His old contract was set to expire in 2008.

Initial difficulties

At the beginning of the season 2006–07, Feyenoord sold their star players Dirk Kuyt to Liverpool and Salomon Kalou to Chelsea. The management had high expectations of de Guzmán, who was ready to make the next step in his development. However, the youngster couldn't prevent the club from finishing on a 7th Eredivisie place. De Guzmán's disappointing season ended with a red card in the 21st minute of the first playoff match against FC Groningen on 10 May 2007. Feyenoord lost the double confrontation and missed out on European football for the first time in 16 years. At the end of the season, De Guzmán acknowledged there was perhaps too much pressure on him: "I was only 19 years old, I couldn't just tell everyone what to do. It was really a disappointing season. I didn't make progress as a football player, but I did grow mentally because of all the problems we had. It was a very tough season for me personally."

With the 2007–08 arrival of experienced players like Giovanni van Bronckhorst from Barcelona and Roy Makaay from Bayern Munich, Feyenoord created the perfect circumstances for de Guzmán. The pressure on the youngster was taken away, however de Guzmán wasn't too happy with his new position in the team. Where de Guzmán always played as a midfielder, new manager Bert van Marwijk placed him on the right wing position in a 4–2–3–1 system. De Guzmán played 33 Eredivisie matches, scoring nine goals.

Injuries

De Guzmán had a personal agreement with Manchester City, but Feyenoord couldn't agree on a transfer fee with the Citizens: "Last summer, I assumed that I would depart from Rotterdam That eventually fell through, at that time was mainly to Feyenoord. Personally, I already said yes and I thought it was quite a nice sum (reportedly ten million, ed.). But the clubs were not there and later took another City player, Shaun Wright-Phillips." Despite a turbulent pre-season full of transfer speculations, De Guzmán remained at Feyenoord. However, de Guzmán also had a disappointing start to the season, as he was sent off in Feyenoord's season opening Eredivisie match. On 31 August 2008, de Guzmán received a red card for a flying elbow in the 30th minute in the away match against Heracles Almelo (3–1), resulting in a suspension of four matches. Not much later, de Guzmán started having physical problems. What started with minor groin, thigh and knee injuries, ended with a serious meniscus surgery in January 2009. De Guzmán was out for the rest of the season. Due to his injuries, de Guzmán only played two Eredivisie matches in the 2008–09 season.

De Guzmán made his comeback in the 2009–10 pre-season friendly away match against Sporting Portugal (1–2), scoring the equalizer. Due to his expiring contract, Feyenoord was keen to sell their youth product in the summer. However, new Feyenoord manager Mario Been wanted de Guzmán to stay. He stated de Guzmán was an important player for the team and was willing to let him play on his favorite central playmaker position. Despite interest from Chelsea and Valencia, De Guzmán stayed at Feyenoord. After a promising start of the season, scoring three goals in his first nine matches, injuries kept following the midfielder. On 3 October 2009, de Guzmán was subs cartilage in the right knee, needed surgical intervention and was out for over two months. De Guzmán made his comeback after the winter break, but after playing four more matches, he had to leave a training session injured on 4 March 2010. He was struck by the same injury as he had earlier this season, only this time on his left knee. De Guzmán made his final comeback in Feyenoord's last match of the season. However, de Guzmán couldn't prevent Feyenoord losing the KNVB Cup final against arch rivals Ajax (1–4) on 6 May 2010, and left the club on a free transfer: "For me personally it's nice that I am fit again and still could get some playing time during the finals, but the result is very disappointing obviously. It's very sad I have to leave Feyenoord this way."

Mallorca

With de Guzmán available on a free transfer, he gained offers from Espanyol, PSV Eindhoven and Villarreal but preferred a move to the Premier League with Newcastle also interested. Instead, on 27 July 2010, de Guzmán signed a three-year contract with Mallorca. He cited the amount of faith shown in him from club owner Lorenzo Serra Ferrer and manager Michael Laudrup for making the move, in spite of the club being expelled from the UEFA Europa League due to financial reasons. De Guzmán made his debut for the club and performed brilliantly in a 0–0 draw against Real Madrid 29 August 2010. Three weeks later de Guzmán scored his first goal in La Liga in a 2–0 home win vs. Osasuna. On 18 December 2010 de Guzmán scored a stunning goal out of nowhere to tie up the game in the 28th minute against Villarreal; the game finished in a 3–1 Villarreal victory. De Guzmán had a very strong first season in Spain although his team finished in 17th place one out of relegation. De Guzmán made 33 league starts while scoring 5 goals, including one in the last game of the season against Atlético Madrid in a 4–3 loss in which Sergio Agüero scored a hat-trick. After a summer filled with speculation on de Guzmán transferring to Villarreal, Jonathan played in Mallorca's first game of the season on 28 August 2011 against Espanyol, scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 home victory over the Catalonia team.

Villarreal

On 31 August 2011, hours before the transfer deadline Villarreal completed a transfer for de Guzmán, the deal was for an undisclosed fee believed to be worth around €8.5 million. De Guzmán made his debut on 10 September as a second half sub for Javier Camuñas during a 2–2 home draw against Sevilla. Days later de Guzmán made his return to European competition since his move to Spain on 14 September against Bayern Munich in a 2–0 defeat in the first game of the UEFA Champions League group stage. De Guzmán scored his first goal for Villarreal on 22 November against Bayern Munich, the game ended in a 3–1 away defeat in the second last match in the Champions League group stage. After receiving consistent playing time after joining the club in both league and domestic play de Guzmán began to struggle to find playing time under newly hired manager José Francisco Molina in early 2012, and rumors started about a potential move back to the Eredivisie.

Swansea City (loan)

On 10 July 2012, de Guzmán completed a move to Swansea City on loan thus being reunited with former coach Michael Laudrup. He made his début against Queens Park Rangers in a 5–0 win at Loftus Road. He scored his first goal for Swansea in a 3–1 League Cup win over Liverpool at Anfield on 31 October 2012. De Guzmán scored his first goal in the Premier League and for Swansea on 17 November against Newcastle United, the game ended in a 2–1 away victory for the Swans. De Guzmán's second league goal for Swansea came in a 2–1 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage on 29 December, scoring the winning goal for the away side.

On 19 January 2013, de Guzmán netted two goals against Stoke City as they won 3–1 at home, his first was from a wonderful free-kick and his second came off of an assist from Danny Graham. He scored another brace in Swansea's 5–0 Capital One Cup Final defeat of Bradford City at Wembley on 24 February 2013, guiding the Swans to their first ever major piece of silverware. Following a successful debut campaign in the Premier League, de Guzmán was awarded the Swansea Goal of the Season for his strike against Stoke City on 19 January. De Guzmán agreed to a second season on loan at Swansea. On 19 September, his 30-yard (27 m) free kick completed Swansea's 3–0 win away to Valencia in the Europa League group stage.

Napoli

On 20 August 2014, de Guzmán transferred to Serie A club Napoli, signing a four-year contract. He made his debut as the team began their league campaign on 31 August away to Genoa, replacing Marek Hamšík after 74 minutes and scoring the winning goal in added time. On 6 November 2014, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–0 win at San Paolo against Young Boys in the group stage of the Europa League.

Carpi (loan)

On 28 January 2016, de Guzmán joined Carpi on loan until 30 June 2016. On 13 March 2016, de Guzmán scored the winning goal from a 90th-minute penalty in a 2–1 win over Frosinone.

Chievo (loan)

On 26 August 2016, de Guzmán joined Chievo on loan with an option to buy.

International career

After much speculation on which country de Guzmán would choose to represent internationally, de Guzmán made himself available for selection by the Dutch national team, immediately after receiving his Dutch citizenship in February 2008, having applied for it the previous year. His decision was met with disappointment in Canada. Controversially, de Guzmán appeared on a nationally televised Canadian sports show a week before this announcement and claimed that he had not made up his mind on his international status, and was focusing on his club career in the Netherlands. His brother Julian holds the most caps for the Canadian national team. After failing to make the final cut in a senior call up, de Guzmán made his international debut for the Netherlands U21 squad on 26 March 2008, in a European Championship qualification match against Estonia U21. He played a significant role, scoring the first and third goal and providing the assist for the second in a 3–0 victory. He was later named in the Netherlands squad for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In 2011, de Guzmán expressed an interest to play alongside brother Julian de Guzman for the Canadian team. However, in 2012, de Guzmán gave an interview to The Score TV stating that he was dedicated to the Dutch national team and hoped he would be called up after the completion of Euro 2012. On 23 January 2013, de Guzmán was called up to the Netherlands provisional squad to play in a friendly against Italy and made his debut in the 46th minute of the game. On 6 March, Louis van Gaal included de Guzmán in his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches against Estonia and Romania to be held at the Amsterdam Arena in late March. On 31 May 2014, de Guzmán was named to the Netherlands final roster for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He started Netherlands' first Group B match against Spain on 13 June, going 62 minutes in a 5–1 win.

Career statistics

Honours

Swansea City

International

Netherlands