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JULIÁN DE GUZMÁN
Date of Birth: 25 March 1981
City of Birth: Toronto
Nationality: Canada (international)
Contract: 2005 - 2009
Transfer: Free Transfer (2005, from Hannover'96)
Previous Clubs: Hannover'96 (2002-2005), 1.FC Saarbrucken (2000-2002), Olympique Marseille (1997-2000)
Buy-out Clause: ?
Height: 169 cm
Weight: 68 kg
Position: Defensive Midfielder (central)
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In 2005 legendary midfielder Mauro Silva (37) retired at Deportivo from professional football. That same summer midfielder Julian de Guzmán (aged 24) was signed on a free transfer, hence the first comparison between the two players. Although there were doubts about his qualities at first, and he had difficulties getting into the team, the second part of the season 2006/2007 was his breakthrough in Spain as well as internationally. In June 2007 he was voted as Most Valuable Player of the CONCACAF Gold Cup’07 tournament and during the season 2007/2008 he became Deportivo’s undisputed starter in midfield. He even was voted 2007/2008 Player of the Year by RCDLC.com and supporters should have no worries about Deportivo’s midfield this season.
Coming from Canada, Julián de Guzmán quickly realized that to become a quality player he needed to move away from Toronto to Europe. Being the eldest son of family with mother coming from Jamaica and father from the Filipinas, sport played an important part at home. His mother was an athlete and his father practised all kind of sports and is a huge fan of local basketball club Toronto Raptors. It’s not surprising that short De Guzmán (168 cm) didn’t have a future in that sport and his father made him, and his younger brother Jonathan, joining local football club North Scarborough. Aged sixteen in 1997, he was discovered by French football club Olympique Marseille (“a friend of mine offered me a two-week trial”). After having played at Olympique reserves for three years (“Sometimes I trained with the first team, with Luccin, Blanc, Makelele”), in 2000 he accepted the challenge to play in the German second division at 1.FC Saarbrücken (“I always was the smallest on the pitch, and I became more aggressive there”). That same year his brother Jonathan, aged barely twelve, joined him in Europe and started playing in the youth system of Feyenoord Rotterdam.
 In 2002, Julián De Guzmán made another step and signed at Bundesliga club Hannover’96. The club was recently promoted to the highest level and had hired Richard Moar as their sports director. Moar was a player of Deportivo in the 1970s and 1980s and later a personal advisor of president Lendoiro. It was Moar who achieved loan deals with several players of Deportivo (Jaime, José Manuel and Fernando), who became colleagues of De Guzmán. “With Jaime I became good friends”, De Guzmán said when he signed at Deportivo later. Meanwhile, Fernando described him as a “quiet guy. But he was still young and has a big future ahead in Spain. He gave all during training sessions”.
His coach at Hannover, Ewald Lienen, defined him as a “dynamic and polyvalent defensive midfielder. But he cannot be compared to Mauro Silva, because he became a world champion and not only has been a reference at Deportivo. De Guzmán is smaller but great in recuperating balls, and he has some incredible moves. He’s more comparable to Makelele (a personal favourite of De Guzmán), although one cannot expect of him to play very offensively or to organize the game. But I am convinced he’ll triumph at Deportivo because he has been one of the best midfielders in the Bundesliga”. That final observation didn’t go unnoticed. The retirement of Mauro Silva was getting close when in January, 2005 news reports appeared about Deportivo being interested in signing him. One month later the deal was done and De Guzmán could arrive on a free transfer as his contract ran out that summer. De Guzmán's departure was forced when Hannover wanted an answer before the Christmas break on a contract extension. Other clubs seriously interested were Feyenoord Rotterdam (where his brother Jonathan plays) and Tottenham Hotspur.
 When arriving in La Coruńa, Moar described him as having “a tremendous illusion. He’s a winner and on Sundays he performs like during training sessions. And for him it doesn’t matter playing against smaller of bigger teams. Despite being small he’s strong and has good technical capacities, and he’s very quick. He can play at several positions but his speciality is playing in the centre, like Duscher and Sergio”. New coach Joaquin Caparrós of Deportivo also appreciated his skills and on 21 September 2005 he made his debut in the Primera División during a 1-1 home draw with Betis Sevilla. With it he became the first Canadian to play at the highest level in Spain. His first starting place he acquired some days later at Zaragoza and until the end of November he added six other starting positions to his name including home matches against FC Barcelona (3-3) and Real Madrid (3-1). He got Riazor cheering during last-mentioned match when his low drive gave Deportivo a 1-0 lead.
But De Guzmán’s problem that season would simply be that Caparrós preferred the duo Duscher-Sergio in the centre midfield. Between the end of November and early April, De Guzmán started just four other Liga matches and entered as a substitute in another four. But at the end of the season 2005/2006 he started six of Depor’s final seven Liga matches. The one he missed had to do with his sending-off during the match at Cádiz (1-1) with twenty minutes remaining. In total he played 1476 minutes Liga minutes (43% of a possible total) during the season 2005/2006, which wasn’t bad at all.
 However, De Guzmán wanted more but his career experienced a set-back when at the start of the season 2006/2007 coach Caparrós again relied on Sergio, new signing Juan Rodríguez and defender Coloccini for the centre midfield positions. With Duscher out of favour, De Guzmán now had to cope with other competition. The situation became urgent when in December 2006 he still hadn’t played a single minute in the Liga. Only on 16 December 2006 he made his first appearance during the home defeat against Athlétic de Bilbao (0-2). One week later Deportivo were fifteenth in Spain at just a few spots of the relegation zone. Something had to happen. Looking back at that time, De Guzmán said: "I came into the season 2006/2007 thinking I'd get a much better chance of being a starter. But in the first half of the season I didn't play at all and I was definitely disappointed with that, so I was looking elsewhere to play. I didn't want to leave Spain at all, but if it came down to it I would definitely do it if it meant I could play, because I am too young to be sitting on the bench." De Guzmán was linked with moves to Charlton Athletic, Sheffield United and Wigan Athletic in England, as well Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam and a possible return to Germany. "During the winter break there were a couple of offers to go to the Premiership and I was kind of leaning towards that, especially because of not playing in the first half of the season", he confirmed.
But De Guzmán didn’t go and during the next two months Deportivo experienced an impressive revival. The team stayed alive in the Copa del Rey and experienced an 8-match unbeaten run in the Liga which took them four spots up in the table and relatively safe from the dangerous spots. The turning point for De Guzmán at Depor came when he was included in the starting line-up for the home match against Real Madrid back in January, the team's opening fixture of 2007. De Guzmán started these matches of Depor’s fine run and was an important part of the team not leaking a goal for 451 minutes in a row. However, Deportivo couldn’t continue this run and finished the season anonymously. Still, De Guzmán had made name and was one of the few high lights during the final months of the campaign. De Guzmán himself explained: "The home game against Madrid was when it all changed. It was the coach's last chance. If we would have lost that game he would have been fired so he played his last cards in that game, including me, and came out with the win and we played well”. When Caparrós was asked about his best players in the team, he mentioned Jorge Andrade, Lopo, Arizmendi and… De Guzmán.
 In the summer of 2007, De Guzmán was satisfied with his role in the squad and admitted that his love for life in Spain has been rekindled in the last few months. "It's a dream coming true to be out here, not just the football alone but the culture, the lifestyle ... it's amazing. Also, it is a dream coming true to play at the Bernabéu and something like that will take a while to settle in. The highlight for me is simply being here, being the first Canadian, representing my people and my country. I never thought I would have the chance to play in what for me is the top league in the world, and here I am. ... I'm very thankful and honoured to be in this position. Now I'd prefer to stay in Spain and am very happy here. And as long as I get to play that is all that matters. If there is an opportunity to stay longer than the two years which I have remaining (on his contract), then I would definitely do it," De Guzmán said. "I'm very happy here and it's just unfortunate the team is not really living up to its expectations from previous years." About living in the city of La Coruńa, De Guzmán mentioned that "we (the players) do get a lot of respect up there. Everybody knows who you are but they give you your space and are very friendly. It's a small city, there's a lot of countryside up there, it's near the coast and is very beautiful. In the winter it rains a lot but for me it's not a problem because when I was living in Germany, the winters were pretty brutal. We get a lot rain in the winter but apart from that the weather is incredible”.
De Guzmán’s highlight of his career, until then, was playing the CONCACAF Gold Cup’07 tournament (The Gold Cup is the confederation championship for teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean) in the United States which started on 6 June 2007. In January 2002 he made his debut for the Canadian national team. Five years later he scored both of Canada's goals in a 2-1 win over Costa Rica in Canada's opening game in Miami. Canada finished as leaders of Group A, eliminated Guatemala in the Quarter Finals but didn’t reach the final because of a 1-2 defeat against the United States. Nevertheless, De Guzmán was selected by the CONCACAF Technical Study Group for the All-Tournament Team and won the overall tournament Most Valuable Player award. De Guzmán himself didn’t expect winning that trophy. "To be honest it surprised me, I thought Landon Donovan of the United States was going to win the award since they won the championship game. And it would have been better to touch the Gold Cup than to win the MVP award. But I'm glad I was able to put Canada on the map in winning the award. All the thanks really goes to my team-mates and especially Canada's fans, I would like to dedicate the award to them”.
 New coach Lotina also put faith in De Guzmán, but he confirmed that he wanted to add another defensive midfielder to the squad. “I want to add someone who’s capable to control the aerial game. But we’ll try with Juan Rodríguez there and possibly Antonio Tomás”. Lotina described De Guzmán as “a very agile player and he can do interesting things with the ball. He isn’t the typical organize, but he’s able to pass well. He’s a very interesting player”. De Guzmán started in the 2007 Teresa Herrera tournament against Atalanta Bergamo, next to Sergio, and played a good match. In the final against Madrid, Lotina gave the others a chance and in this case it was a midfield with Juan Rodríguez and Verdú. De Guzmán replaced Guardado in the middle of the second half and some of his individual actions were enjoyed by the Riazor crowd. Lotina categorized De Guzmán and Juan Rodríguez as his “defensive midfielders” and mentioned Verdú and Sergio as having “more freedom”. “And if they need assistance, Aythami can play there too. I believe that we have covered midfield fine”.
It wasn’t sure though that, against Almería on the first day of the season 2007/2008, De Guzmán would win the spot next to Sergio as Juan Rodríguez had been doing very well. But eventually De Guzmán and Sergio formed Deportivo’s centre midfield against the new boys. It became a disaster. They were completely overrun and appeared non-existent. As a consequence, the wings were flooded too and the attackers isolated. Deportivo lost 0-3 and appeared helpless. De Guzmán was the one to be sacrificed. He lined up all Sergio, Verdú and Juan Rodríguez at Valladolid (a 2-2 draw) and the 1-0 win against Betis Sevilla confirmed that Lotina’s repetition of this line-up was a good choice. The team had fought at Valladolid and played a very good game in Riazor against the Andalucians. De Guzmán had some minutes as a substitute in both matches. In the mean time he played with Canada in his hometown Toronto, which could have confirmed his place on the bench at Deportivo. Then it went from bad to worse. De Guzmán was in Deportivo’s squad for the matches against Getafe and Recreativo, but didn’t play a single minute. His numbers after five matches now looked bleach with just one starting position. But the overall performance of Deportivo in most of these matches causes his return for the match at Espanyol. Lotina revolutionized the team after the hopeless 0-2 home defeat against Recreativo when Juan Rodríguez and Sergio possibly played even worse than De Guzmán and Sergio had done against Almería.
 Sergio and De Guzmán formed Deportivo’s midfield, with Verdú in front of them, at the Montjuic and the team played possibly its best match of the first round. If only the team would have scored some goals, but that didn’t happen. De Guzmán placed Lafita in front of Kameni, but it would require some more months before Lafita started to shine. De Guzmán dominated in midfield and was one of the best players on the pitch. According to La Voz de Galicia, Lotina couldn’t avoid playing with De Guzmán if he wanted to field a defensive midfielder. Lotina mentioned the names of Sergio, De Guzmán and Verdú when he was asked about his best players against Espanyol. De Guzmán regained confidence but said that “right now the important thing is not the individual aspect because we have three difficult matches ahead and need to accumulate points. We must win the match at Sevilla to demonstrate that we belong in the Liga. They have won five titles in fifteen months, that’s something incredible. Right now they’re one of the biggest teams in Europe, but I loves these kind of matches”.
At Sevilla, Lotina repeated his line-up with Sergio, De Guzmán and Verdú and placed Juan Rodríguez at right wing. It worked, and Deportivo made up for the loss at Espanyol. With fifteen minutes remaining, De Guzmán launched Guardado who ran for fifty meters and gave a decisive pass to Riki: 0-1. De Guzmán was the best man on the pitch and formed Deportivo’s lungs. He stole none less six balls in midfield and reigned in midfield. The media were excited too. He ran “a marathon” according to one source and another called him “priceless”. “De Guzmán was excellent and so was the system” was to be read. La Voz de Galicia called De Guzmán the “final piece for the winning formula”. For his part, De Guzmán pointed to the team and said that “we fought together and were very complete. To win at Sevilla is something special”. De Guzmán never give away his starting position for the remaining part of the season and only had to do so at Real Mallorca because he had five yellow cards behind his name. In fact, he became Deportivo’s second-best player with match numbers (35 appearances) and only had to leave Coloccini in front of him, who didn’t miss a single minute. After Coloccini and Manuel Pablo he started most matches (thirthy-three) and played most full matches (thirty). Manuel Pablo only beat him with sixty-five minutes during the season 2007/2008. The only negative aspect was that he received nine yellow cards, one card between ever three and four full matches (nothing uncommon in Spain for a defensive midfielder).
 But the season consisted of two chapters for the team, and hence De Guzmán played a part in both of them. Deportivo played good football in the first part of the season, but finished too many points without points. When the Galicians were at a relegation spot in November, De Guzmán confirmed that “we have quality here. Deportivo will return to the top spots and one day I hope to win a title with this team. We reached the Semi-Finals in the Copa during the past two seasons and we only missed out on the final. This season we started a little bit lost, but the victory at Sevilla made us believe in ourselves. This team always does better against big clubs”. Asked about his best moment as a player, De Guzmán mentioned “the goal I scored against Real Madrid two years ago. It’s the best thing that happened to me in my entire career. They even showed it back in Canada and all my friend and family were watching it. It was special to me. I watch it regularly, and still have to pinch myself in order to understand that it really happened”. But statistics indicated that it was his only goal in two seasons at the club, and neither did he score during the season 2007/2008. “My position is too far away to score goal on a regular basis and that isn’t my job. I’m not obsessed with it”. When he spoke about Lotina, who was questioned a lot during the first five months of the season, De Guzmán said: “I like his ideas. He introduced a new system, and that valorises possession. That’s good for the quality of the team and we see better football. It’s better than last year, and the players feel more comfortable with this formula”. De Guzmán was close at Murcia, but his effort hit the post.
Lotina returned the praise and called De Guzmán, Sergio and Verdú “the heart and lungs of Deportivo. They give us a lot of football and balance”. De Guzmán had a curious match at Bilbao (a 2-2 draw), when afterwards it was revealed that several players suffered from a virus including De Guzmán. Still, Deportivo came back from two goals down and De Guzmán finished the match as right winger. He explained: “Lotina wanted to see Verdú next to Sergio so I moved to the right. I had a lot of space in that sector to give crosses to Bodipo and Taborda. I think that this chance helped the team. Let’s hope that in the next matches we’re calmer and won’t see many difficulties again”. Against Zaragoza (a 1-1 draw), De Guzmán finished the match with two injured knees but Lotina already had made three substitutions. But still he kept going. Later that season he was asked about his ability to run miles and miles in every match: “During my time in Germany I progressed a lot in the physical aspect. I learned to watch after myself, and every player should do that. It’s fundamental to eat enough, and to eat healthy, to be at the top”.
 De Guzmán was moved a little bit forward in the match which started Deportivo’s come-back: the 3-1 win against Valladolid on 27 January 2008. Juan Rodríguez and Antonio Tomás covered the backs of De Guzmán and Guardado, who for their part supported Xisco. Especially De Guzmán dominated in that zone although his absence in the destruction work was sometimes noticed. New arrival Wilhelmsson, who would play a crucial part in Deportivo’s revival, had two players coming to his mind when he heard about the club: De Guzmán and Coloccini. After the Valladolid match, De Guzmán was attacking placed a little forward and it was his steal of the ball which led to the only goal of the match. De Guzmán was also vital in the home match against Getafe when and Aouate were faced with three opponents, but he saved the draw. A fitness test revealed that De Guzmán was among the four fittest players at the club, but he admitted that playing with five defenders caused more pressure upfront. “Especially the first fifteen minutes always are terrible. Later I started to get some rhythm, bit the fatigue is noticed during the final fifteen minutes. I am running during the whole game and I don’t know how I’m going to last with this system. Maybe it’s a question of getting used to it. I’ll try”. For a fourth time in a row De Guzmán was placed a little more forward, this time at Recreativo, but he might have been predicting the outcome. Recreativo were more focussed at the end, although they had been playing with ten men for forty minutes, and scored the winner trough Martin Cáceres: 3-2. When the score was still 2-1, an effort of De Guzmán hit the bar. When Deportivo fixed this with wins against Espanyol and Sevilla, Lotina said that De Guzmán had done “a spectacular job, as always”. Lotina took special care for De Guzmán, as the Canadian suffered from small injuries. “He runs a lot in every match and ends very tired. That’s why sometimes he needs more rest”.
But the De Guzmán kept going, and so did Deportivo. He admitted that he felt “more comfortable than ever at the club, on the pitch, with my colleagues, with the system… I want to help with my experience to leave the difficult situation behind us. But I keep being a student of football too. I learn every day and after each match I feel stronger and with more confidence. And one the coach and fans display confidence, I feel untouchable”. De Guzmán related Deportivo’s transformation to the pressure to perform: “When we feel pressured, by the fans, we yield more. It’s vital to give our best effort, our life to survive. Each player in the squad tries to help and that’s what has caused our reaction. And I’m referring to positive pressure. Since we’re winning and scoring goals, we also are gaining confidence. The fans are behind us, and that’s important too”. He revealed that Lotina had helped him to play more wisely. “And also to keep my position on the pitch. I also learned from my experienced colleagues. After three years in Spain I have learned how to deliver my best game. The system is important too (he referred to being in front of five defenders), because we’re now more compact and aren’t giving away too much space to opponents. And now I have more opportunities to attack”.
 He knew that his chances of scoring a goal were minimal when current, and future, champions Real Madrid visited Riazor although he had done it before. De Guzmán made headlines when he declared he would live without sex for one year if he would repeat scoring a goal against them. Nobody took that too serious though, and Lotina said that he wouldn’t promise that not even in return for becoming Spanish champions. “Besides”, he asked joking, “how are we going to prove if he fulfils his promise?” Guti never could cope with De Guzmán, although the Canadian midfielder received his fifth yellow card of the suspension and was going to be suspended for the match at Real Mallorca. Lotina said that a Sunday of rest would do well to De Guzmán “although he gives us a lot of personality”. It’s no coincidence that Deportivo’s match at Mallorca, without De Guzmán, was one of the worst in the second part of the season. The team missed a connector between defence and attack and finished the match frustrated. Deportivo, and De Guzmán, returned to a winning team against Murcia (3-1) and Racing de Santander (1-3). In this match he, together with Lafita, set up the third goal.
Now Caparrós returned to Riazor, this time with Bilbao, and De Guzmán was quite honest about his relationship with him: “Several players had a difficult relation with him. When I arrived I knew nothing of him, but I immediately noticed that he didn’t have a very good impression of me. I had to fight hard to play, and I was about to leave Deportivo. But I stayed because I wanted to show that my place is here. He used me for ten matches at the wing that wasn’t isn’t my position. I thought that it was best to speak with my feet. I played for the fans, my colleagues, the club and at the coach came at the last place. He didn’t speak to me, only his assistants did. The only thing I heard from him was my surname: De Guzman!”. When I told him I had offers from England, The Netherlands and Germany, he told me he needed me and I played against Bilbao and Real Madrid. Until today it surprises me what happened with Manuel Pablo and Coloccini. But all this forced me to be stronger”.
 A goal of Filipe against Bilbao won him a bet with De Guzmán and Manuel Pablo about who would score first that season. Lotina was asked in an interview about which players had surprised him most, and he named Filipe, De Guzmán, Xisco and Lafita. This was confirmed by Lafita, who mentioned De Guzmán and Guardado. At Atlético, the Canadian midfielder first out Xisco in front of their goalkeeper and later saved an effort of Atlético from the goal line. All was in vain though as Deportivo lost 1-0. But even in such a match, against a team qualifying for Champions League football, Sergio and De Guzmán ruled in midfield. When the season was over, and Deportivo had qualified for Intertoto football, Lotina once more gave compliments to De Guzmán: “he tended to chaos but we managed to control him. And he became vital for us this season”.
De Guzmán has become the first Canadian player to succeed in Spanish football. “My friends always say that it’s seldom, like a Spaniard playing ice-hockey in Canada…”, he replied. When asked about his family, who live in Germany nowadays, he said: “It’s difficult to live separated from them, but it’s not that far. Sometimes I visit them and sometimes they come here. I have two children now and my 3-year old daughter always calls me before a match… Then I go out full of strength”. The midfield once more explained his relationship with Lotina. “He gave me confidence as a player. Now I feel better about myself and happier. He has taught me a lot and thanks to him I am now more organized on the pitch. I always wanted to do everything, and Lotina taught me how to move and how to help my colleagues. He prefers to see me more static and not me going everywhere. And he’s right about this”. De Guzmán explained that the come back of Deportivo had to do with Lotina, but also “with Aouate and Munúa who placed the good for the team above their personal situation. The best thing of Deportivo is the group of players, who are like a family. And in every family there are problems”.
 One thing though that is endangering De Guzmán’s future is that his contract finishes on 30 June 2009. When asked about Deportivo’s intentions, the midfielder said that “no one has told me anything yet. I only have in my mind to continue, as it’s my dream to play in Spain at Deportivo. What more can I ask? Deportivo are in my head and heart. And I love this calm city (he always prepares his matches in silence with his headphones on). People are friendly and the food is great. I didn’t like seafood, but now…”. Finally, there have been a lot of comparisons between Julián de Guzmán and his brother Jonathan who still plays at Feyenoord Rotterdam and is rumoured to become part of the Dutch national team. Both are midfielders with a fine technique. But Julián is much more experienced and not as offensive as his brother. Jonathan describes Julián as “a serious man. Easy, like me. He’s my big example and I admire his fighting mentality. We call each other almost daily and his support has helped me at difficult moments. We always joke about retiring at Toronto FC together, but we'll see. First he wants to play in Spain, but he’s followed by Chelsea and Arsenal. Once Richard Moar asked about him, but it’s difficult for Deportivo to sign him".
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