Most Popular Players in US - where USMNT falls

Stumbled on this bit of research on the most popular players in the US. Cannot vouch for accuracy, research methodology...

But here it is for your viewing pleasure:

https://twitter.com/SoccerMarketer/status/288400098470277122/photo/1

Basically there is LD, Clint and Tim Howard. And everybody else. Not that that's a surprise.

Thought it was interesting to compare the three lists.

I would like to see Michael Bradley on the list, but oh well. It's Progress. 5 years ago Freddy Adu would have been on the list.

My dad still asks about Adu sometimes and thought Freddy was playing when he saw "Edu.

The website has a mistake. Messi's overall percentage was listed as lower than his percentage for both of the subgroups. Using the subgroup percentages, Messi's overall percentage should be 26.37%, not 23.40%.

Edit: It would be interesting to see favorite player results broken down by the person's favorite national team. I would expect almost all of the people whose favorite player is Donovan to be fans of the USMNT, whereas the people whose favorite player is Messi would be less likely to have their favorite national team be Argentina. The Messi example would also be true for Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, and to some extent Wayne Rooney. If each person had to choose their favorite player on their favorite national team Messi would have a much smaller percentage.

Past the distinct lack of Bradley, I think the US players stack up quite well on that list. The guys on this list are our highest profile guys overall, Mike aside.

TBH, I don't think that until very recently, I don't think Mike's profile with even American fans was anywhere near his quality. He's not the flashiest or most charismatic player out there, so I have a feeling he'll often be a bit "undervalued" in terms of fan popularity, and of course in the past there was that very silly nepotism stigma.

By this time next year, my bet is that he would edge on to the list. His popularity is trending upward, and well it should be for one of our key players, and, health providing, one who probably will be for years to come.

I feel like people pretend like Bradley was as good then as he is now. He's blown up over the course of the last 2 years. He wasn't special and much like Altidore, he had a spot because no one else took it from him. I LOVE that I've been proven wrong by Bradley about his ceiling and contribution but I don't think for a minute that his criticisms were unjustified. I look forward to the day that he wears the armband if his career goes down that path.

tl;dr: It's no surprise that when you really aren't that great and your dad's the coach that questions of nepotism arise.

Not really. He's just improved a little this year like he has pretty much every year of his career; just like Dempsey, for example . But when that faction of American fans took the blinders off in late 2011, it was like whoa - where did this player come from! There have been few things as a US soccer fan that have given me more satisfaction in the last few years than the Nepotism idiocy blowing up in your faces.

There's no way Bradley gets on a popularity list like this until the stench those fans put on him gets washed away for a year or so more.

Even with his performances he won't be as popular until US Soccer and Nike markets him. Right now that's Clint - he's at the forefront of all US Soccer's ads.

Will be interesting to see what both US Soccer and Nike focus on from a marketing standpoint going into the next World Cup. In 2010 it was the trifecta of Landon, Clint and Tim with a sprinkling of MB. If all four go forward it will probably be all 4 once again, though I suspect with the ages of the other three, MB will become more of a focus.

I wonder how much of an issue Bradley playing in Italy is versus a bigger US market like the EPL is in terms of his popularity.

Probably a lot. It's hard to watch his games. Clint is much more marketable right now.

EDIT: And based on those numbers, if Landon comes back to the game, he'll continue to be marketed. It's a no brainer from a marketing standpoint - in particular to the Hispanic audience. (helps explain those GanaGol commercials!)

Or maybe it was because he scored major goals in the Confederations Cup and World Cup following a match-winning brace in the most important game of the last qualifying campaign. Maybe it was because he consistently played, almost injury-free and with flashes of serious quality, in top European leagues for almost the entire cycle at Heerenveen and Monchengladbach. No one else took from it him because no one else was nearly as good for a solid two-and-a-half years. (Cue arguments that an injured Stuart Holden should have been handed keys to the midfield in South Africa based on 2 games with Bolton. I miss those days.)

He hasn't "blown up" in the last 2 years; he's doing pretty much the same things he been doing for years in a different country. If anything, the goalscoring dimension of his game has been limited in Italy, especially considering the tactical setup he plays in at Roma.

For comparison, in 2006:

I'm buying Josmer Volmy Altidore's stock. Our most talented U23 by a long shot and I think he'll be plying his trade in a major league by the time the next WC comes around. Now if only he could score some of those amazing AZ goals in the stars and stripes shirt...

Way too much.

Eh, I've watched a few Roma games recently and it's just hard to thoroughly enjoy watching a game sololy for a Dmid, especially in Roma's style. I love Bradley just as much as the next guy but his marketability, and thus his popularity, is understandably low.

This. Bradley is going to need to play in a real league some day if he wants to be considered great. Holland. Germany. Italy... the players in those leagues ultimately want to play in England or Spain if they can. Mike Bradley is a good US player, but any fan can see Roma isn't exactly Man City.

And this is why people hate EPL fans... Since when have Germany and Italy and Holland not been real leagues? And I'm sure every Bayern and Juventus player dreams about playing with the European powerhouses that are Manchester City and Chelsea.

Man City? Two words: Borussia Dortmund.

After a couple of Friday night drinks I mis-typed. I meant this in relation to the "popularity" notion that the thread is about. I don't think the teams Mike has played on, in the leagues he has played in, create much "popularity". But really, who cares. He is a pretty good player.

Still, I bet many casual US fans couldn't tell you where he plays.

I think MB will soon be one of the more popular players. He is the kind of player every team needs. He is a fine role model and I would be very proud if my grandson modeled MB. All the guy has done is answer every challenge, kept his head down and proved his naysayers wrong, of which I was one.

I cannot imagine how hard it must have been to be deaf when people were talking about your daddy. All the guy did was work harder. His daddy put him on the field because he was the best man for the job and all he got as grief. I told his uncle in another thread he was a credit to his family, his team, and his country. We should all be proud of MB, he represents the things that are good about our country.

I will never forget when CD appeared to have poached a goal form Mikey, and was apologizeng and Mikeys total and complete lack of concern about who got "credit" as long as Team USA got a goal he did not give F....!! How can you not love a player like that?

Is this sarcastic?

Bradley looked like he belonged, to me, when he came on the field for a few minutes in one of the games in the 2006 send off series. And at that time I remember thinking I wish he was on that roster rather than Ben Olsen.

Exactly!! What most fans do not understand about MB is that he has had a sharply upward development trajectory since he was 17. Any professional coach could see it. Fans seldom do.

Michael Bradley is a great player and is very forward player on Roma. I watch a lot of their games. they are fun to watch. Osvaldo is brilliant.

Definitely. But for some reason I still rated him well behind Benny Feilhaber as midfield prospects go. I didn't really come around on Bradley until the breakout season with Herenveen, and even then I was somewhat suspicious until he got transferred to and started regularly at Mönchengladbach and his Hex performances.

From what I gather from his youth days, though, there were plenty of doubters even back then.