ussoccerplayers.com in article about players being called into nats. camp mentions that Zavagnin will not be attending because he is currently training with Sunderland? Discuss.
i pray he winds up in europe... he deserves a pay day he'll make the nats playing and training over there as well
And with Sunderland currently sitting third in the CCC, if Zavag gets signed, he could find himself next year in the Premiership. Too soon to say on both counts (Z getting signed and Sunderland promoting), but the possibilities are nice to see.
Wow. This makes so much sense to me. I'd always thought of KZ as a poor man's Claudio Reyna. Sunderland (Prem) = Claudio Sunderland (1st Div) = KZ Good for him. And good for the USMNT.
I mean, I wish the best to Zavag and all, but man after the stinker of a season Sunderland had in 02-03, I'm not too keen on seeing them back in the Premiership anytime soon. IIRC, they earned a full one point in the second half of that season. Reyna's injury sort of screwed them over, but still. Either way, going to a Championship team in position to be promoted is still a good thing overall.
Rusty Pierce had a European trial, too. One step at a time. Two bigger steps yet to be taken - get signed, and get playing time.
Not an expert here but I think that Z has played enough for the Nats that it won't be a problem. Unless we fall to 76th on the Fifa list, which now that the lockout is over hopefully won't happen anytime soon.
There was talk that Zavagnin was close to obtaining Irish citizenship, but that the process was taking longer than expected. Not sure where I read that so no source... I apologize.
This is BigSoccer, anything you want to know, we've got it: http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20050120&content_id=21305&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
Yes, before long the top leagues in Europe will be full of American players -- a sure sign that the end is near, for American soccer.
You know what, if I'm a young 18 year-old American soccer player I don't know why I would join up with MLS if I can find any sort of job in Europe. Even if I go to some podunk Norwegian 2nd division team I'll get paid more than the minimum salary of MLS, and then, if it doesn't work out or I don't get signed by some big team I can just go back to MLS when my contract lets out and the league will sign me and pay me close to the league max, like they do with all Americans who have magical "Foreign" experience. Look at John Thorrington, if he had just signed with MLS out of school they would have paid him 23k a year and by now he'd be making about as much money as Zavagnin. Instead, he goes and plays for some nothing team in England for a couple years and comes back as a conquering hero earning probably in excess of 150k. Same thing with Yi. I hate to see the league bleeding to death as everybody and his brother has tried to jump the pond this year, but at the same time, if I were them, I might do it too.
yo thats my plan. except im gonna be a 22 year old college grad. euro trials here i come. i got nothin against the norweigian 2nd division! forza inter
I believe that KZ invited himself. If Pablo does the same and gets an EU passport, I'm sure plenty of people would be happy to give him trials.
As the demand grows, I'm sure Uncle Phil and Big L can find some more loose change under their couch cushions to re-up blossoming stars midseason. That way they'll at least get a piece of the pie if the young guys do move across the pond. It's good for MLS players to have a competitive market. Hopefully MLS suits are cunning enough to spin things in favor of the league as well.
Several think that Zavagnin is a "poor man's" Reyna but at this point I would actually rate Kerry a little higher than Reyna. It's hard for me to swallow as I love Reyna but his injury woes have really take some life out of him. He can still be useful but he's going have to change and adjust his roles to keep playing effectively. Zavagnin is somewhat of a late bloomer but I can see him fitting in at Sunderland. He's not flashy and is by no means spectacular but at the end of the day he get's the job done. He may not get all the glory but his contributions are respected by his team and that's all that matters. I wish Kerry the best and I hopeful he'll get his citizenship ironed out and signs abroad.
Fairly sure Pablo could get a Euro passport quite easily. Believe he was born in Argentina to Italian parents. Anyway, I recall some Spanish 2nd division team making a bit of noise about Pablo sometime last year.
