As Footyfan said in the 1860 thread, the report is likely speculation by a reporter having seen two of the scouts at an 1860 training session this week. He is probably right, German rags speculate all the time on stuff like this; they see known scouts at practice and then write the headline, "Schalke interested in Wood". I have heard an unconfirmed report that his agent has been contacted by a 1.BL unnamed 1.BL team, but no second confirmation of that. All that is to say that there may be smoke on this but no fire. Or, there could be both. Neither takes away from the fact the Club may risk losing the kid unless they sign him now. I hope I am wrong and have signed him to a pro contract...I just have heard nothing to that effect. Having let go or sold 8 players this winter break, SURELY we have enough money to sign an 18 year-old. Thanks!
Yeah, surely Stuttgart (Gebhart, Traesch), Wolfsburg (Johnson, Schaefer), Dortmund (S. Bender, Leitner), Leverkusen (L. Bender) and Hoffenheim (Mlapa, Volland) are forever grateful. That's three years worth of talent out the door.
Well, there's a reason for the rising number of Scouts at 1860. They have to sell, they have an excellent reputation in terms of youth development, their players often don't have a pro contract like you mentioned. Hoffenheim got Mlapa and Volland, Dortmund Bender, Leitner and it will most likely continue like that. All Bundesliga clubs will have a look at potential players and Wood is certainly one of them. The clubs might not be Schalke or Cologne in the end, but I'm quite sure that there is interest from Bundesliga clubs.
I'm sorry for that and I really hoped that you'd be able to keep some of them, but it looks more and more likely that this will be even more unrealistic in the next years, so despite feeling sorry for that, I want my club to have a look at Ziereis, Hofstetter, Wood, Pledl etc too, because it's obvious that there will be a race between several Bundesliga clubs to sign the most promising players from 1860's academy...
There was a good article in one of the Muenchen dailies (TZ, AZ Merkur) with the current academy head (Jung). They talked about the talent coming up in the '93/94 ranks and even a few of the '95s. The initial thought was the pipeline was drying up, but Jung says otherwise. Should be interesting to see how they develop. EDIT: Found it...here.
LOL, well, yes. But he's no more a "YA" than Rossi or Johnson. Besides, knowing Puerto Rican nationalists, if anything he'd be a "PR" abroad. They may be a US commonwealth (technically a territory) but the locals do not consider themselves "yanks" by any means.
And no less of one than Jermaine Jones. Your statements about the feelings of Puerto Ricans is, at best, overly general.
Magath's "Yank Abroad-ness" is a Dooley like story. Magath's father (the Puerto-Rican serving in the US military) left Felix & his mother when Felix was <1 year old. Felix apparently had no contact at all from his father until he was in his late teens, and only visited Puerto Rico for the first time in the late 90's.
Rainer, I have *MANY* PR friends and NONE of them consider themselves Americans, let alone "yanks". They consider themselves Puerto Rican first, Hispanic second and, in many instances, more Spanish than American. Now, they do come from the more aristocratic families on the island, hence the closer alignment with Spain instead of the US. But even the friends I have that are of more "common" ancestry do NOT feel like "yanks". In fact, I just IM'd one of them this thread. His response: "I would never consider myself a yank in a million years. What is "Yankee" about me? I am Puerto Rican and proud to be. Just because we were granted citizenship, that is not something many Puerto Ricans wear on their lapel." To bring this back on topic regarding Wood, not many native Hawaiians consider themselves "yanks".
Well, he and Dooley share a similar "origin" but that is where it stops. Magath never even considered himself "American" at any time during his career. He's always considered himself German.
Well, define "native". That is a HUGE point of contention. I believe he was born there, but not sure.
What does that mean? i.e. he's a native of NY or Texas. Was he born there? raised there? Does it really matter? From what I recall his mother is of Asain decent and his Father is I believe African American. Regardless I'm just happy he a US prospect.
The domestic meaning of "Yank" is different inside the US and without. Many southerners would not consider themselves Yankees, a term which is commonly associated with the Northeast. In my experience, the term "Yank" comes up almost exclusively in the international context. I almost never hear Americans refer to themselves or other Americans as "Yanks" when talking with fellow Americans. For me personally, I might use the word Yank if I were with a group of Europeans, much in the same way I might say football instead of soccer, pitch instead of field, and match instead of game...in the interest of knowing my audience. But I wouldn't use football/pitch/etc with a group of Americans and I wouldn't say Yank either. Keep in mind that Yank means different things to different people.
Don't get your knickers in a snit, I think I noted that this was HIS opinion, didn't I? Like I said, having been to PR many times, having close friends who are PR and having discussed the topic (while in PR) with many people out of my own general curiousity about whether they consider themselves "American" or not, I simply posted my experience. I never said I spoke for all Puerto Ricans....that is something you infered. Totally...and well said. I just don't think Magath would ever consider himself American/Yank. We are way off topic here.
IIRC correctly, the term "native" in Hawaii means more than just born there, it deals with their inherent ethnicity. Part of the deal when Hawaii became a state was certain protections for "native/indigenous" Hawaiian's property rights, to ensure they weren't all bought out of all the prime property by monied US/mainland buyers. Of course, the free-market fundamentalists scream bloody murder about the "unfairness" of it all, but that was the deal that was made. Now, I'm not sure, but I believe someone who isn't ethnic Hawaiian can't be "native" under this usage of the term, no matter where there were born. For instance, Obama was born in Hawaii (sorry Birthers, but he was), but he isn't ethnic Hawaiian under this definition of the term.
If you allow me to put on my pseudo science hat, he looks like he's Filipino or something of that origin.