Jonathan de Guzmán

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 held the most caps for the Canadian national team (until being surpassed in November 2021 by Atiba Hutchinson). 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…

Youth career

Like his brother, De Guzmán started his youth career at North Scarborough Soccer Club in Canada, training six times a week to improve his skills. Julian left Canada to join Olympique Marseille's youth academy and two years later, at the age of 12, Jonathan followed him to Europe, joining the Feyenoord youth academy in the Netherlands. Upon his arrival in Rotterdam, de Guzmán was taken in to the home of an employee of the club; he later stated, "I was basically her son for three years." At fifteen, he moved into a dormitory at Feyenoord, remaining there at weekends when his peers returned to their families in other parts of the Netherlands.

Feyenoord

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…

De Guzmán was born in the Toronto suburb of 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 former professional football player who retired as the most capped player for the Canada men's national soccer team and was the general manager at Ottawa Fury from 2017 until 2019. Julian was the first Canadian to play in La Liga. 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 concentrate 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.

De Guzmán has a son named Jaden born on 18 January 2007. Jaden plays alongside Robin van Persie's son Shaqueel at the Feyenoord Academy.