Only 16, born in the USA, comes to the States twice a year... Sounds American to me but I think he is leaning more to France but will take sloopy seconds from us. cap him!
I disagree, he seems like he doesn't like the France federation and wants to play for the US, his dad wants him to
From the article it sounded like his Dad was upset that France didn't call his son in even though he was having a better year then the kid they called in on Tall's team. Hope Tall gets called in the the US set up. Is he u17 eligible or is he a little late? Between him and Green that would be 2 very good young strikers in our youth system we didn't have a month ago. Good stuff.
So, will he save American soccer like Adu did? Calling someone the next Didier Drogba is a wee bit premature. Show us something on the field, then get back to us.
Would be great to see him in our set up, but what happens when another forward, with less goals on his club team, gets called into the senior team before him? Will he switch to the next country on his list?
All credit should go to the poster Dr. Soccer90 who first alerted us about this talent. I only say this because had one of us found about him it would probably have been 1 to 2 years from now as he starts getting closer to the first team. and he has a good chance of by then being in the french set-up at some level. We might be very lucky here as we were late on derrick williams, adam henley, jeremy Toljan,etc. Although some of these kids might end up playing for USA anyway.
Lets wait and find out after the fact. If we werent so starved for good strikers, I might give that a second thought.. Even then I probably wouldnt. We need all the help we can get up top. If his dad's potential occasional griping is all we have to worry about, then I'll take it in a heart beat (assuming the kid produces)
Maki's dad: “In the U.S. National Team, he will get a chance if he is good. It is a culture of merit and excellence – no matter your origin or color,” Madani said. “Last year, Le Mans sent a striker with three goals to the French National Team at mid-season. At the same time, Maki has 12 goals but his name was not proposed. This would have never happened with the U.S.” That's fantastic to hear from someone who has been exposed to national team set ups around the world. Some of you guys who have never been exposed to other countries should take note. We have something unique here, and worth keeping.
Sounds a little more like unhappiness with one particular decision. Thing is, anywhere in the world, coaches are human. Every coach will have some favorites. We had Thomas Rongen drop Neven Subotic from the U-20 squad in favor of Julian Valentin, which is hardly any different. Of course, if Maki Tall pulls a Subotic and chooses to play for us because of a French youth NT coach's mistake, I'll be happy to accept it.
Ya, he was looking for any excuse for him not to look like the bad guy for switching and he actually manged to do it, at the expense of Rongen
Well if that's true, you have clarified the reason that Rongen is wrongfully blamed for losing a good defender, even if he's not starting for Serbia in the qualifiers so far.
Oh, it's definitely serious. National teams in the Balkans, for example, can be quite hierarchical, with players selected only partly on form, while the lower youth categories can often contain relatives of federation execs. Even France could have similar problems, since hidden conversations have shown that some French football people are annoyed at the large number of non-white players on the teams (this may be what Maki's father was hinting at).
Yes, but finger save said word for word, "we have something unique," implying hat we're the only country that calls up players without judging them for ethnicity. This simply isn't true.