One Fast Boomerang....Robbie Rogers Returning to the US...

Two weeks ago today I blogged about the recent Boomerang effect going on with American players leaving for Europe and then swinging back home a few years later. Recent news has one more highly rated youth international returning to the US from a European adventure. Yanks Abroad is reporting that Robbie Rogers and Dutch club Heerenveen will be parting ways after only six months has expired on a three year deal. The article makes it sound like the youngster was home sick, however a lack of breaking into the first team probably contributed to his yearning for the USA.

Heerenveen press liaison Tina Lagerweg:

He would like to go back to the United States. He is only 19 and wanted to be in America, so we respected his wish.

Growing up Rogers was a soccer stud. He found success at all youth levels, and won a national championship with Maryland as a freshman. I can understand how going from top dog to just another youth player with promise in Holland is tough. However, Rogers is coming back at a tough time. Most MLS clubs are getting ready to pare down rosters as opposed to taking on new trialists. The roster compliance date is March 1. Hopefully his youth status will allow him to jump onto a MLS roster with such short notice. On the other hand, if his ego is high after signing on with a European outfit, and he makes outrageous contract demands, he may find MLS coaches disenchanted.

A similar story is playing out for once highly rated MLS prospect Greg Dalby. Dalby has been bumping around Europe ever since the MLS draft where his stock fell from certain early 1st rounder to second rounder because he wouldn't sign the league's contract offered before the draft. Now he is trying to get a third trial with a mystery European club after unsuccessful trials with Italian side Siena and Swiss club FC Aarau. Frankly I think Dalby is being misled by his European based agent. Is a playing for FC Aarau really going to be better then playing for the Rapids? The club is currently last in the Swiss first division. Dalby's agent continues to release stories to Yanks Abroad in an attempt to create value for his player by making a sense of competition for his signature.

Dalby's agent:

(Siena) are still trying to get rid of one non-EU player. I think they want to come to him with something

I just don't believe that Siena is trying to dump another non-EU player to sign Dalby. If they were going to, they would have by now. At this point Dalby should be in MLS training camp, fighting for his spot. Dalby continues to depress his value by going on trial after trial. MLS' roster compliance date is March 1. After that the Rapids are probably going to have some heartburn about dumping another player for Dalby who thumbed his nose at them to begin with.

The story of Adolfo Gregorio is not ringing in enough young players' ears. Adolfo skipped MLS to go straight to Europe. He signed with a club, couldn't make things work and came back to MLS. He bombed out after one year. My point. A successful college career does not guarantee professional success. Hard work and a willingness to put in your due can. Rogers and Dalby are going to learn that.

Kyle Davies Skips College...goes straight to the pros...

Soccer America reported earlier this month that California high school student, Kyle Davies, has signed a professional contract with Southampton Football Club of the English League Championship. Davies, 17, of Ballistic United in the SF Bay Area spent time in the Bradenton residency program and was one of my favorites to go to college a year and then sign with MLS. Davies has earned All-American Youth honors in 2005 and became an instant fixture with the US Youth setup. His mother is English and his father Welsh so soccer is in their blood and a work permit is not an issue.

Southampton's youth system is well known for developing solid professionals and with Theo Walcott's move to Arsenal last year they have proven to be a link to the big time. Southampton are currently trying to earn promotion back to the Premier League so we could see another American in the top flight in another year or two.

This is great move for Davies as it will continue his development in a top system. We all know that the US has a long way to go to catch up to the level of coaching in England. While I would have preferred to see the young player give the US system a go, I can appreciate the desire to test skills at the highest level. Having another young prospect in England will only help the American National set up.

Good luck Kyle!

The Boomerang Effect – Young Americans Returning to MLS...

After every college season we see a rush of players trying to go to Europe to start a professional career. Many MLS fans see this European flight as a big problem. Many American “Eurosnob” soccer fans see this as the only way to build a noteworthy professional career. I personally see it as another aspect to the World’s Game that will help the growth of American soccer over the long term.

The first time I put any thought to the topic my knee jerk reaction was one of fear for MLS. After all, how can our young, domestic league grow and prosper if all of the talent moves to Europe before ever putting on a MLS kit? Well my friends, that last sentence has a lot of flawed logic in itself and we’re starting to see more young American players return from their European adventure still preferring to play professional soccer at home.

First, let’s think about the above statement with the flawed logic. The statement that “all of the talent moves to Europe before putting on a MLS kit” implies that those players staying in MLS as opposed to going abroad are not talented. Jonathan Bornstein, Bobby Boswell, Jimmy Conrad, Joshua Gros, Chris Albright, Brian Carroll, Ricardo Clark, Pablo Mastroeni, Chris Rolfe & Eddie Johnson will probably disagree with you. What do they have in common? They all played against Mexico last week, beat Mexico despite being underdogs and started their careers in MLS as opposed to a foreign league. Let’s throw Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey & Bobby Convey into that mix. What do they all have in common? They’re all playing in the English Premier League after starting their careers in MLS and featured in the above mentioned Mexico – US friendly. I think you see where I’m going…MLS is signing plenty of talent every year. The league has also become a strong developer of talent as their pupils go onto National Team and foreign league success. After all, without MLS we probably wouldn’t know Bobby Boswell’s name. Please stop thinking that MLS is sinking into an abyss when players like Charlie Davies and Tally Hall sign with a foreign league right out of college. There is a good chance they’ll return like a boomerang in a few years. Why do I think that? Read on….

As the 2007 MLS season approaches I have enjoyed reading all of the pre-season info on various websites. Most stories are about the veterans coming back to camp to gear up for another season. However, rumors of young Americans leaving Europe behind for MLS began to surface last week and that started to raise my interest. As I looked around more and more, it seemed that the swell of talent people were so horrified to lose to Europe a few short years ago could be headed back to MLS this season.

We can all remember when Peter Philipakos bolted for Europe after a great career at American University ended in 2004 when the young Greek-American signed for AEK Athens, right? Ok, if you missed it there were scores of American soccer fans lighting up BigSoccer with claims of the demise of MLS due to this defection and so on and so fourth. Same goes for Daniel Karbassiyoon leaving for Arsenal the same year. Erik Hort was another recent young American to sign with a European club in the Czech Republic. Well folks, these players are all rumored to be returning to the US and hoping to sign with MLS after their European adventures didn’t turn out the way they had hoped. While Conor Casey’s return hasn’t been made official yet, he is also on the way back and is the most substantiated of all these rumors.

Over the past few years MLS has seen a couple players returning from Europe each season. Taylor Twellman came back to the US after a period in Germany. He’s gone on to become one of MLS’ most prolific goal scorers. Then there is John Thorrington who was the youngest American to sign with an English Premier League club when he signed with Manchester United and flopped around Europe a few years before returning to MLS to play in only ten matches over the past two seasons. Jovan Kirovski’s name used to make American soccer fans extremely excited but now he’s looking at the end of the Colorado Rapids’ bench…if that. We all know how John O’Brien’s once promising career is going these days after a mythical start at Ajax of Amsterdam. Landon Donovan is one of the best known successes of this boomerang set up.

You see folks, just because a young American soccer player starts his professional career in Europe, it doesn’t mean he won’t end it here in MLS. Similarly, heading to Europe after college/high school doesn’t guarantee a great career. Guys like Twellman and Donovan have built on their European adventures to build solid professional careers. Careers that may take them back to Europe in the future. Other players who once had limitless potential and inspired dreams of World Cup glory in American fans are now riding the pine in MLS.

This boomerang of American players crossing the pond and returning will continue so long as the sport exists on our shores. There is no reason to fear it. No reason to think MLS is in trouble. No reason to pin your hopes of World Cup success on the next youngster who jumps the Atlantic. Some will go onto glory while some will return to start over. Some will return on high while some come back unknown. All I’ve got to say is….get used to it, the boomerang always returns.

***Edit 2/17/07*** I just read that Danny Karbassiyoon who had returned to the US to try and sign with MLS after developing in England has been forced to retire due to knee injuries.

Carnival of Soccer VII...Youth Be Served...

In some ways it is hard to imagine that we are on the seventh installment of the Carnival of Soccer. Then again, who am I to talk because I think I have written for one or two of them only. So here we are, Number 7. I decided to offer to host because the suggested topic is right up my alley. For those who don’t know, there is a magical soccer blogger email distribution list. Every once and awhile someone starts the call for the Carnival of Soccer. A blogger volunteers to host, picks a question, and gives the other bloggers time to respond. As I said, this is the seventh time it has been done.

Without further ado…..the Question…

“What does MLS have to do to keep/lure the best and brightest young American soccer talent?”

That was the question posed to the world of soccer bloggers. How many bloggers? I have no idea, as I said, the list is magical and things just float out into cyberspace from my fingers. I can’t tell you if a response of four is good or poor based on some percentage, because I don’t know how many bloggers have been receiving my call to arms. However, I can tell you that I enjoyed reading everyone else’s ideas and putting together my own.

First off, I’d like to thank Jeff Carlisle of ESPN.com for his contribution… Ok, just kidding. It is nice timing that Jeff just published this article on youth bolting. I’d like to think he is on the soccer bloggers list and stole our idea. However, I doubt it.

I’ll also take this opportunity to link to Robert Zigler’s recent take on the youth development going on down south with the Houston Dynamo. Thanks for your indirect contribution, Robert.

To kick things off here, we’ll start with Jeff from It's a Simple Game. Unfortunately, when I try to open this blog, I get a Blogger error. Technology, sometimes I just want to shake my fist at you! Funny enough, my blog was giving me the same error earlier this morning, so hopefully I can come back and revise my comments yet this morning.

Next we’ve got Jason from ZigaZoga. Actually, you’re going to see three posts from ZigaZoga and I believe they were each written by different contributors to the ZZ community. Thanks for all pitching in folks!
ZZ #1, ZZ#2 , ZZ #3 and *all new* ZZ #4. I got a laugh out of the first post that totally disses my question. However, this is the US and speech is still free. Enjoy the ZZ crew’s work.

Thank you for everyone’s submissions. It is always fun to get a lot of ideas on from one question.

Now, to mine…And Chris, I do think this is a valid question.

In some ways I feel like I have talked about this in the past a lot, so those of you who read regularly, please don’t go back and quote me to point out a contradiction. The following are my thoughts today and I reserve the right to have different thoughts today then in the past and in the future.

The knee jerk answer to the above question is, “Pay them more.” First off, remember that we are talking about best and brightest, not Supplemental Draft picks. As I discussed recently, not everyone in MLS should be making the big bucks. Secondly not everyone is motivated by money. Some of these kids will have dreamt of playing in Norway for their entire lives. Ok, I kid. But in all seriousness, MLS has sent the message that they want Americans to stay in America. Those young guys who have always dreamt of going to Europe will take the lower level European League over MLS with the dream of making a switch to a bigger league down the road. Guys like Oguchi Onyewu are proving that hard work in a second tier European league can pay off. Guys like Shalrie Joseph are proving that MLS will not easily let you go (I know Joseph isn’t an American citizen but he was a US college player and is being treated as an American by our domestic league.)

What MLS needs is a plan, and I’m here to give it to them. The Goal: retain more quality, young American soccer talent. To be clear, the league needs to sign the likes of Charlie Davies, Robbie Rogers, Benny Feilhaber, Lee Nguyen, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector and Preston Zimmerman before they go abroad to start their careers. Once in the league we won’t be able to keep them forever, but watching the above players grow for a couple years would be better then watching Seth Trembly trip over himself.

Step 1: Improve scouting of American players. Since the league owns all player contracts and benefits from selling players to other leagues, they need to know everyone available to them. This means the league needs to create a scouting office that keeps tabs on all successful youth, college and National Team players. Right now the focus seems to be limited to the Bradenton residency camp and U-20 player pool. When one of these kids goes to college they are followed. The league should be casting a wider net. Additionally, the league shouldn’t see a player already in Europe and turn away. They should actively follow American’s abroad with the idea that someday a contract could expire making a well trained player available on a free.

Step 2: Expand reserve team rosters while also making the entire reserve team outside the salary cap. At the same time, say that all American’s under 24 years old are considered on the reserve team. Currently Generation Adidas players do not count on the cap but other young Americans do. This puts pressure on the teams to push down the salaries of some of the best and brightest who did go through four years of college. There is no reason for the league to punish college graduates. My best example…Jonathan Bornstein. In 2006 he signed a contract for $28,000. In 2007 he earned his first cap for the National Team and scored the game winning goal in a friendly. His stock is rising quickly and if he gets dissatisfied with his MLS deal, he’s going to have a move to Europe itch worse than Clint Dempsey. In fact he’ll be the new Clint Dempsey. If the league considered him a reserve player until his 24th birthday, they could have offered more money right out of the gate (this is also dependant on a good scouting system, so change won’t be over night.) MLS is lucky Bornstein was not working with an agent telling him to go to Europe, because if he had been he probably would already be on my list above or would have gone on a post draft sojourn similar to Greg Dalby. The goal of this change would be to allow more players like Bornstein to come into the league, grow and prosper while making a good living wage.

This is also where Step 1 ties in. If the league does a better job of scouting and can sign more talented young players without having to worry about the salary cap, we’ll see more players like Bornstein who deserve a shot but can’t get one in the current set up.

Step 3: Develop a full academy system at each club and don’t worry too much about how it is run (remember, this is a plan for the league.) Allow the clubs to make the choices; don’t burden them with too many rules. At this point something is better than the current set up where a couple clubs are running youth teams, but not all clubs, and the player chain isn’t integrated to the reserve and senior team.

I know MLS has said that each club will be running a couple youth teams this season, but with all of the Beckham bru-ha-ha the youth development system has been swept under the carpet. Here we are at the start of pre-season and we know little about the plans. So I’m just saying that MLS had better do this one right. I think they will but I have to wait and see.

There you have it, my three step plan to help keep young American soccer stars on our soil. However, there is one last thing. MLS needs to learn they can’t keep talent here forever. Each year select stars are going to be sought after by foreign clubs. There is no way to get around that; it is the way of a global sport where the US is at the bottom of the pecking order. The league needs to use the above plan, to have more native talent in the pipeline so that when one is sold; five more are trying to fill in. Make a smooth transition for players leaving and you’ll be able to keep the light on for them when they want to return. Don’t turn every young American into Clint Dempsey. Foster transfers, make your profit on the sale and watch as more talented youngsters pop up. If a good system bringing players in is created, they’ll be more talent coming in then going out. That is the goal here.