OCTOBER 22 – A CALL has started for Steve Nash (pictured), one of the country’s leading basketball players who has British parents, to oversee Canada’s preparations for the 2012 Olympics in basketball and football.
Canada’s footballers have already been eliminated from the qualifying rounds for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and their basketball team failed to qualify for the Olympics in Beijing earlier this year.
There is a growing campaign for the 34-year-old Nash, who currently plays for the Phoenix Sun in the NBA, to be appointed player-coach of the basketball team for London 2012 and there is even suggestions that the Tottenham fan also be given some kind of role in overhauling football in Canada.
Nash is such a keen football fan that last year he held talks with Daniel Levy, the chairman of Premiership Tottenham Hotspur, about the possibility of investing in the English club.
A close friend of Owen Hargreaves, Thierry Henry and Steve McManaman, Nash was born in South Africa but moved to Canada at the age of 18 months.
His father, John, was born in Tottenham and played professional football in South Africa, and Nash grew up playing football as much as basketball.
His school team won the provincial championship and he was voted the best young player in British Columbia.
Nash has also trained with Major League Soccer’s (MLS) New York Red Bulls, and his brother, Martin, has won 33 caps for Canada and played for English clubs Stockport County, Chester City and Macclesfield Town.
Nash is currently in the last two years of a $65.6 million (£40.2 million) with Phoenix and has recently been linked with a move to the Toronto Raptors.
Nash has labelled the recent failures of the Canadian national men’s football and basketball teams “sad” and indicated it starts at the top.
He said: “The sad truth is both national sides in soccer and basketball have been underwhelming in their recent international performances.
“And it’s the sad truth that both [national] structures have been underwhelming.”
Nash’s highlights during his decade of national team hoops duty, which earned him the nickname “Captain Canada”, included leading Canada to a 5-2 record at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and being named MVP (most valuable player) of the Americas qualifying tournament for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
He said it is both “humbling and amusing” that people would consider him a potential saviour for one or both of the national team basketball and football programmes, but it will not be happening in the foreseeable future.
Nash said: “Not right now, but you never say never.”
Nash is heavily involved in football in North America and is currently leading a campaign for a team in Vancouver to play in MLS, the same league that England’s David Beckham plays in for Los Angeles Galaxy.
Nash said: “We’ve put in a world-class bid and now we wait and see what the decision will be.”