Here's another one courtesy of Epikoinos. He's with a club called Gamla Upsala: http://www.laget.se/guskherr/12452-truppen-do-1-item-1037584.html He's an '88 who played at UW-Milwaukee: http://uwmpanthers.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/rosenthal_greg00.html UWM alum, Khaled El-Ahmad - who was born in Sweden but came to the USA to play for the Panthers - helped Rosenthal out during the Scandinavian transfer window, helping secure the trial in Sweden. Rosenthal played in one game before the club made an offer which will keep Rosenthal there for the remainder of the season. http://uwmpanthers.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/041211aaa.html
Match reports and blog-entries seem to indicate that Rosenthal is doing really well so far at this level for GUSK. He currently leads the div2.se poll for best defender in all of the division 2 leagues during April/May with 65% of the 178 votes. It wouldn't suprise me if Sirius (the biggest Uppsala club who are trying to get promoted back into Superettan) started showing some interest in him if he keeps it up.
Well, I was right that bigger clubs would come for him even though it wasn't Sirius. Yesterday Rosenthal were one of three trialists who played a game for Ängelholm U21. A short report say that Rosenthal totally ran things in the defense as the team won 3-0. The Superettan club already has an american in goalkeeper Matt Pyzdrowski. The article also states that even Allsvenskan clubs have been looking at him. He will stay and train with the club for the rest of the week. The manager commented: "We were recommended these guys from Matt Pyzdrowskis agent, and Matt has been a hit for us. But of course we want to see more from them before making any decisions. This might be more for the future, but depending on how our injuries turn out we might bring in someone new this summer." The director of sports commented: "From a strategical point of view it's about being active early on and seeing what our options are for the next season. The american market is no doubt interesting, there's alot of good finds there. Matt Pyzdrowski is a role model with his great attitude, and that's why we're looking for more americans."
Yeah, the system in Sweden combine the U21 and reserve league. I believe the rule is that you can include at most five or six players over 21 in the matchday squad. Since the clubs over here generally don't stack huge numbers of over-21 backups in their squads it's a system that fits pretty well.
Or maybe I was totally right Uppsala newspaper UNT had an article today saying that Sirius are also interested in signing Rosenthal. The Sirius director of sport commented that they're watching many players and that nothing will happen before the window opens in August. Rosenthals agent told the paper that Greg has the potential to play in a higher division and that clubs are showing interest but at the same time it might be good for him to stay a little longer with GUSK.
Div2.se have a small notice today that Rosenthal has now also had a test game with another Superettan club, this time Falkenbergs FF. The report says that he performed very well.
There is a real gathering of the yanks happening tomorrow in Uppsala. Gale Agbossoumonde, Nate Weiss and also Greg Rosenthal will be in the Sirius squad to face Leicester City in a friendly game. Considering that the club has previously shown real interest in signing Rosenthal this will definitely be a good time to impress against a very tough opponent.
Rosenthal was one of the most frequently mentioned players in the live text match report. The game ended in a 3-1 win for Leicester. Here are the times he was mentioned: 19:15 Rosenthal has started really well! Intercepts as the last man for the fifth time. 19:35 Berglund, Ian and Sunday have started well! And Rosenthal. 20:01 They have done well! Rosenthal has made a couple of really good interceptions, Bergström hasn't done too bad either. 20:21 Good interception by Rosenthal. 20:24 [Reader Comment] Wouldn't Rosenthal be a good summer signing? 20:25 Based on this game he definitely wouldn't be out of his element. It is difficult however to judge since this is a friendly game. He's not to blame for Sirius being down 0-3 though. 20:35 Rosenthal is alert and intercepts! That could have ended badly! 20:57 In Sirius the best players were Garcia och Rosenthal, and Berglunds first half. Moses was also hot! Rosenthal also said to the local newspaper after the game that he would definitely like to play for Sirius but that the decision wasn't up to him.
Doesn't translate too clearly; however, I think this says Djurgårdens IF have hired Rosenthal's agent as their chief scout. The author expect Greg to follow and suit up for the U21 team Flera källor tyder även på att man lyckas behålla tongivande nyckelspelaren Greg Rosendahl. Det har väl inte undgått någon att Magnus Pehrsson i Djurgårdens IF har gjort en klassiker och plockat in polaren Khaled El-Ahmad som ny chefsscout? Vad kanske många däremot inte visste är att Greg Rosenthal agent hette tidigare Khaled El-Ahmad, jag skulle bli väldigt förvånad om vi inte får se Greg i någon U-21 match i Djurgården tillammans med Prince Ekong och Tommi Vaiho. http://www.div2.se/norra-svealand/f...lka-spelare-som-blir-nasta-allsvenska-export/ Edit: Though it looks like he signed with Gamla Upsala at some point. He appears on their roster page
Yeah, Khaled El-Ahmad joined Djurgården as the new head scout just a couple of days ago. He was the guy who was behind bringing over all those college players this summer and also the agent of the Ängelholm americans. Judging from his history as an agent it seems almost a guarantee that we will see more americans in Djurgården. However I have no idea if this would apply to Rosenthal as it would be a pretty big jump up through the league system. The author of the article might just be overly eager trying to connect the dots, but then again he's supposedly an agent himself so who knows?
The season is coming to an end for the yanks abroad in the swedish lower divisions and today GUSK won their last game of the season which meant a strong third place finish in the table. Rosenthal played all league games this season and seems to have continued to perform well throughout. No more transfer news though so I guess we will have to wait and see this winter if he stays or moves up one or two divisions.
A local newspaper has confirmed that Rosenthal will return to play with GUSK next year at least until the summer transfer window.
Rosenthal will start in central defence for Djurgårdens U21 team tomorrow in a preseason game against an english "Nike Academy" team. Not sure if it means anything?
UNT write today that the interest from Sirius has resurfaced after one of their central defenders declined to extend his contract. The new Sirius manager comments: "We will remain calm and look through what players are available to us on the market, but of course Greg is interesting. He is of course a player we will have a closer look at. He trained with Sirius before I arrived at the club, but we will make sure that I too can have look at him. We will check with GUSK to see how they feel about it."
Well it was the new head scout at Djurgården who brought Greg to Gamla Upsala, so just looks like he's giving him a chance to prove himself in Djurgården now.
No move to Sirius for Rosenthal as the club comments today in the newspaper: "We've made the assessment that Greg will do the most good at GUSK.".
The local newsporter report that Rosenthal will likely miss the rest of the season after breaking his leg. Unfortunate for the club who look like they will be involved in the relegation battle this year. Rosenthal started 7 out of the 8 games before he got injured. I haven't been able to find much about his performances but the article on his injury refered to him as "the star defender" so I assume that he has continued to perform well.
Greg didn't recover from injury quick enough to play any more games during the season. He is back now however and has been trialing with third tier club IK Frej. They had five trialists but sent three of them home at the time of the article but kept Rosenthal around. The club does note in the interview that it's difficult to evaluate him since he's just come back from injury and haven't played any games.
Fotbolltransfers.com notes shortly at the end of an article that Rosenthal is now trialing with Valsta Syrianska who also plays in the swedish third tier.
Apparantly they liked him and the manager comments that he fits in with the team. However, the club would have to find a place for Rosenthal to live first if they are going to sign him and it's a bit unclear if they intend to do that. Rosenthal on the other hand is already trialing with yet another third tier team, Västerås SK.
They apparently found that roster spot, as they are reported to have agreed upon a contract with Rosenthal. http://fotbolltransfers.com/site/news/27428
Translated interview with Rosenthal, who apparantly now has hair. He and his team will be up against alot of other americans this year in the northern half of the swedish third tier: Torres and Gracia at Nyköpings BIS, Stadler in Sandviken and Gorrick at IK Frej.
I played against this kid 3 years in high school (2002-05). Not sure how he progressed over the years, but I always thought he was a little overrated. Obviously he was better than I was, but I still managed to juke him pretty good on occasion. Good ball skills and strength, but I dunno if he has the pace to excel at the professional level. Nice kid, hard but fair player. Now that I'm remembering playing against him, I feel bad about the "overrated" comment. Sounds like he's doing really well, aside from the ankle injury, and I hope he keeps improving.