Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Not surprised. Najar lived in Honduras for 13 of 17 years of his life. As much shit as we give Rossi for playing for Italy, Najar would be doing basically the same playing for US.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 just to clarify, you have to be 1)uncapped and 2)lived in the country for 5 yrs. OR have a grandparent/parent born there
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 thats what wiki says, smyth said "he played one game for gernany" didn't go right and decided he wanted to play for ghana. supposedly he and his brother dont speak and family is split in half
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Yea he played youth with them, I thought you meant he played international with them. So I was all like
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 sounds like a tight-knit family. prince is a first-class punk though so i don't blame them.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 What about Danny Mwanga? I know he's from Congo, but seeing as how he and his family had to, you know, run for their lives when the rebels overran their country I don't exactly see him going back to play for Congo anytime soon. The guy is 6'3" and can run like a gazelle, and he did look pretty durn good in the one MLS game I saw him playing. And he's only 19.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 The new FIFA rule is that you can switch countries as long as you haven't had an A game cap which is essentially a qualifier or big tournament can switch after 21. Jermaine Jones played in friendlies for Germany and was allowed to switch to the US because of this new rule. Sucks that he wasn't able to play for us due to injury.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Sucks that Jones is 28 already. Likely will not play any meaningful games for the US either
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Yep. Would have been a beast in our midfield if he was healthy and we wouldn't be having these talks of why did Bradley start Ricardo Clark.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Agree. For whatever reason FIFA wants to make it easier for players to just switch nationalities. Shit is gay.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Dont we have a kid in Arsenals youth system or did that end up not happening. I think his name was Luis Gil or something like that.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Depending on how old he is, I don't know if I agree. He will more than likely get top flight time here as to playing in the youth system over there. If he's as good as he apparently seems(Arsenal wanted him), he can go back in a few years
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Sure, playing shit ass MLS ball is better than being taught by Arsenal. The time to learn touch, passing and tactics is now and there are only a few clubs in the world that do it like Arsenal. He isn't going to learn shit at RLS except how to play subpar football. The best thing US soccer could do is come to an agreement to send our best young kids to Ajax, PSV, Arsenal, West Ham, Barca, etc. etc. They probably would never make that first team, but they would get an education that would suit our national side for years to come.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 so you're saying that he doesn't know how to dribble and pass because he didn't go to Arsenal?
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 You saying there isn't a difference in how Arsenal coaches style and technique compared to RSL? You really gonna try and argue this?
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 You're treating it like he won't learn soccer, and won't develop at all by playing here. He's gonna be over in Europe soon anyway, I don't see why him choosing 1st team ball over youth ball is such a dumb move...
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 I think part of the problem with developing players in MLS with 1st team ball is that it is so results oriented. In youth ball he would be able to try new things and grow.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 I mean obviously I'd rather have him in Europe. But you're acting like he is learning zilch by playing in the MLS...
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 On of the few teams that can actually afford him. No way MLS is giving him up unless the $$$ is inflated by at least 50%. Where would Donovan even fit in at City? Doubt this happens though
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 He would battle Adam Johnson on the right side. To be honest, there is no way he beats out Johnson for the spot unless he plays out of his mind early on. It would be publicity signing from City's perspective.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 it was a weird goal though he scored on his own rebound on basically a 2-on-goalie break. i cant tell if his first shot was poor (blocked by keeper) or just a great play by keller.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 I pulled the Youth tread back out. I figued it would get lost in here and it is easier to update and talk about it when it is in a seperate thread leaving this thread for established players.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 First off, Luis Gil is prohibited from signing with Aresenal or any other European team for that matter because he is not 18 y/o and does not hold a passport to a European country. FIFA has cracked down on this in a major way the past year and basically MLS was his only option, and his contract has built in loans to go train with Arsenal.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Read that Arsenal evaluating Tim Howard in 2003, but passed because of worries that his tourrette syndrome would affect his performance instead settling for a laundry list of shit tier keepers. Being a Shit Tier Keeper affectes performance far more than tourrettes in my opinion.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Well he ended up doing well for Man U for about a season and then kinda sucked and transferred to Everton where he has turned into a top 10 keeper in the world.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Have to remember Arsenal had the German No.1 at the time. Would certainly take Howard now.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Jens was awesome and obviously United was still trying to fill the void left by Schmeichel. Howard is two times better then what Manuel Almunia is right now.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 FIFA has cracked down on this within the past year (Wenger openly complained about this rule a couple months ago), and Mexicans can qualify also by getting a passport for Spain. Arsenal or any other European club was hands down not an option for Luis Gil. It's the same reason that Charles Renken and Joseph Gyau are at Vancouver's academy until they're 18 y/o, then they can go to Hoffenheim.
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 And here's the exact FIFA law on transfers of players under the age of 18, and yes an American going over to Europe just to play in a youth academy is considered a transfer. http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/01/06/30/78/statusinhalt_en_122007.pdf
Re: Yanks Abroad '10-'11 Back to some news/rumors - Cherundolo re-upped with Hannover for 2 more seasons - Goodson appears to be leaving for Odense, 2nd place team in Denmark this past season - Dempsey has interest from Napoli, and clubs in England, Spain, Germany, and France. All the teams are in a European competition next season. - Bornstein has interest from Atalante and other Mexican clubs - Feilhaber has interest from an unnamed La Liga team, Turkey, and Hapoel Tel Aviv