A Californian: American teenager Nick Ledesma signed a 6 month contract to play in the U-19 German Bundesliga for Alemannia Aachen this week. Alemannia Aachen is a traditional 2nd Bundesliga team, having last played in the German top flight in 2005/2006, and plays in the newly constructed 30,000 seat Tivoli stadium. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/feb/06/jordan-older-helps-local-soccer-player-sign-europe/ I am confident that longtime readers of this forum will be interested to learn the name of the player who helped broker this deal.
Considering the number of the ex-Yanks Abroad and the insatiable appetite for new talents on that side of the pond, you'd think there ought to be more former players doing what Older is trying to accomplish.
Holy flashback. JordanOlder.com isn't up anymore, sigh. Remember when he was voting for himself in that poll of top players who should be called up and then using that as a notch on his resume. Yeah, that was awesome. Good job brokering this deal though!
Jordan F******* Older! Did I just have a flashback to like 10-12 yrs. ago???? Yup, I think so! Wow. Well nice to see him putting those "marketing" skills to use.
The best part is the disclaimer at the end: This story is contributed by a member of the Ventura community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Ventura County Star
However, that won't have much of an influence on their U19 team. They always had to spent less money than their neighbors Cologne and Gladbach, and try to get the best out of the "second-best prospects of the western Rhineland" for cheap. Notable former Alemannia youth players: Lewis Holtby, Torsten Frings, Marco Höger, Christoph Moritz, Sami Allagui.
Their youth set-up will be affected. On a Regionalliga budget you just can't keep the same infrastructure and coaching staff. Especially at a club that just a few days ago didn't know yet if they can even afford to finish the season. Getting stability or a "vision" into your youth set-up is pretty much impossible then. Ledesma won't be affected that much yet, though - unless he plans to stay on with the club. Although right now, their U19 team is pretty much relegated already (1 win and only seven goals scored after 14 out of 26 U19 Bundesliga games so far).
Depends on your standards. Aachen at the very least fullfilled the Bundesliga's minimum requirements for their youth set-up. And those are already a far cry from the barebones set-ups many RL clubs run. Those literally amount to "get some kids onto a community sports field, give them a ball and see what happens."
http://www.modelmayhem.com/2893644 https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/did-jordan-older-ever-play-for-the-usa.484276/ This tells you pretty much all you need to know.
Here it says he is a 19 year old here and transfered from Alemannia Aachen U19 to Tus Dornberg in Germany and that he also played for the Alemannia Aachen reserve team. http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/nicholas-anthony-ledesma/profil/spieler_261165.html And there is an article about him in the Palos Verdes News here: Nick Ledesma Here is his player profile at Tus Dornberg where he is currently playing in Germany: http://www.tus-dornberg.de/?page_id=14486 Not bad for a 19 year old American!
"He also stands at 5 foot 8 and must learn to shadow taller German players. “Some of them might be 6-4 or 6-5,” Older said. “But there are a lot of great players who are Nick’s size — like Pele, I think.”" Odds that freelance writer is a buddy of Older's who wrote the article for free?
Dornberg is not doing well this season, but Nick Ledesma started the last game and played 45 minutes against TSG Sprockhövel. http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/tsg-sprockhoevel-tus-dornberg/index/spielbericht_2352392.html I found some fotos of your 19 year old American from the game in Google. Stadion Im Baumhof - 3.500 spectators capacity http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/tsg-sprockhoevel/stadion/verein_1000.html Kickoff Nick Ledesma #14 Nick Ledesma (left side) Nick Ledesma (right side) Nick Ledesma seems to be getting some good experience playing in Germany. Not too bad for an American teenager.
So if he's playing first-team ball for Dornberg, does that mean he has a professional contract? (I am guessing he was still an amateur with Aachen.)
No, not in the Oberliga. They are probably paying him some Euros, but not enough to make a living. It's very unlikely to start a pro career in Dornberg.
In the US, the line between professional and amateur is crossed as soon as you make any money playing. This comes from the NCAA rules which require college athletes to be amateur (meaning no money at all). Someone who is paid, but not enough to live on, is said to be semi-pro.
Some lower division players make full time money. I don't know what kind of contract he has or his salary but he has been in Germany for a year and a half so he must have some kind of work permit. Here is a video of the last game Nick Ledesma played. He's not getting much time to play, I think because his team is having troubles, but I think its a good experience for a young player. http://www.herein.tv/video/Oberliga...TuS-Dornberg/f5cd500f7a0b7ec211162fbc6b704f86