Apparently, with FC Schatthausen: “I have recently signed a short term contract to play with FC Schatthausen (of Germany). This past year I have been talking and training with Irish champs St. Patrick’s Athletics and I plan on going to Dublin in January of 2010.” http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/superelite-soccer/united-states-football-club-archives/nid-9383 He's a GK. Not sure his YOB but I'm guessing '88 or '89. I think this is the club site, but I haven't found him on it yet: http://www.fc-fortuna-schatthausen.de/ Also, think this is him (second from right in the first row) with a previous team:
The club plays in the 9th division. Strange that someone who plans on going to Ireland's first division who stay there, even short term.
Forgive me for being pessimistic, but this is hardly a professional team. I haven't played soccer in almost 10 years and I play on a higher level team than them.
http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/superelite-soccer/united-states-football-club-archives/nid-9383 Interview with TDS. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/soccer-blog/comments/202 Blog
15 saves!? Yeah, I'd say there were some defensive lapses! Also, did anyone else notice that there were 3 keepers and only 13 other players on the whole squad? I hope no one gets hurt or else they may have to start some games with less than 11 players.
Hm. Looks like Badum Maloo would have graduated HS (from Florida powerhouse American Heritage) in 2008. I'm not finding a ton of stuff from him quickly, but I'm still looking. Nathan Medina could be this guy (who graduated from D2 Sonoma State U., which sends a pretty good number of guys overseas to lower divisions) from San Diego: http://sonomaseawolves.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=329
That is indeed Nathan Medina who played his collegiate ball at Sonoma State and recently the Sonoma County Sol who just won the NPSL National Championship. The level should be below his skill level by quite a bit. Look to see him stack up goals and assists.
I was looking on the internet for this Adam Afghani, i found some new things about him: He attended La Costa Canyon HS and played for youth side San Diego Surf. According to websites he has been playing in Europe since He was 16, In Spain, Belgium, and Germany. In Germany he played for SG Horrenberg (06-07) and SV Sandhausen (07-09), Now i gess he has signed a short term contract with FC Schatthausen. Now FC Schatthausen has 3 Americans, that apparently all played high levels, and a German U18 international for 1st bundesliga side TSG Hoffenheim, that also played for the Nigerian U20's (James). My gess is this club FC Schatthausen has some serious money to be getting these players from higher divisions. And just like the first leagues players go where the money is! And this Adam Afghani going to Irish first divison side ST. Patrick's alth. Well he played HS soccer with Ryan Guy who has played there for the past 3 years, so that might be a connection. I will find out more. flo
Well, Adam Afghani *sligthly* exaggerates in the linked interview. He was never a first team player at Sandhausen, but played for their reserve in the 6th division (from which they got relegated while he was there). I also looked into Kingsley James'/James Kingsley's (both names are used...) career - and I doubt he ever played for any German Youth NT (there's one site that mentions this, but it doesn't look too reliable). He played for Hoffenheim's youth, then in 2008 went to 4th division side VfR Mannheim, were he never played a single league game, and left the club again after 5 months to join 7th division side ATSV Wattenheim. After one season there it seems he left again to join Schatthausen. Considering that the chances for a player to ever make it back even to the semi-pro divisions from that level are microscopic I'm very doubtfoul a German youth international would go there (in most clubs at that level the player's are lucky if the club pays for their expenses).
Well i gess we will never know how much they get payed at FC Schatthausen, im gessing pretty decent. Why else would would players come from teams that are 3 divisons higher to play there??? And according to some of these post the american players that are there are good quality players. Least there trying to make it happen. flo
Well, Afghani seems to stay there short term only. The club is located near an American military base, so that may explain the connection with the US. But seriously, everyone who pays players more than the 150 Euro minimum (players who get no or less money wouldn't need to sign a contract) to play for an mid-table Kreisklasse team is crazy.
Like i said we will never know the ammount of money those players are getting, there is no pay cap, right? Who will know the motive for these players to go to Schatthausen. And i gess we will see this winter time if Afghani goes to Ireland.
No, there is no salary cap, or anything - but keep in mind that it's very unusual for 5th division players to make a living from football (my neighbourhood's fifth division side is fully amateur, and they are still mid-table every season). But this club is Kreisklasse - which is the German equivalent to sunday league football - several levels below that.
True, it is not normal for low division clubs to pay much, but like i said we will have no idea the real ammount their making. Have you checked out the History of Adam Afghani tho, pretty impresive for a 20 or 21 year old. I havent been able to see to much of the other Americans playing for Schatthausen: Nathan Medina and Badum Maaluo, besides Nathan's college info, that was posted by some on here, and nothing about Maaluo. Any one got info???
Well, Afghani has certainly come around a lot. And it's not as if I wish him bad or anything - just thought it was a bit over the top for a guy who played in the Spanish 5th and German 6th division so far to talk about the English Premier League being the next step after Ireland .
Well, part of the problem is that we've been looking for the wrong Badum. It's Badum Maaloo. He's from Nigeria; been in the States (most recently in Florida, I believe) around 10 years, according to this article: http://www.hohamclass.com/maloo.html Not sure if he's a citizen. May have played a year with Montreat College: http://www.westpinesunited.org/collegecommitments/316807.html
Well, none of these guys are listed on the club's roster page but Afghani is indeed listed as the starting GK in the most recent match reports. It doesn't look like Maaloo or Medina have played yet. From the 26th: Aufstellung: Adam Afghani – Florian Lietzmann (59. Christoph Maier) – Nico Keller – Matthias Traub – Alexander Kralj – Achim Jung – Angel Mihaylov (66. Luigi Venezia) – Kingsley James – Florian Gund – Dominik Schörm – Sven Keller; ETW: Nico Schindler, Bank Steven Villalba http://www.fc-fortuna-schatthausen.de/fc/index.php?site=articles&action=show&articlesID=41 To get to the reports, go to the web site then click Senioren > 1 Herren > Spielberichte.
Official lineup: Aufstellung: Adam Afghani – Jochen Blecher (83. Christoph Maier)-. Rene Meier – Alexander Kralj – Matthias Traub – Achim Jung – Badum Malou – Kingsley James – Florian Gund – Nathan Medina – Jens-Peter Loy (54. Luigi Venezia) I'm going to assume Medina is a Yank but I'd love some confirmation of Maaloo's if anyone happens to know...