Frantzdy Pierrot at Royal Excel Mouscron (Belgium)

Discussion in 'Yanks Abroad' started by BostonRed, Jul 28, 2018.

  1. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #1 BostonRed, Jul 28, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2018
    Frantzdy Pierrot
    Forward
    Real Name: Frantzdy Pierrot
    HT: 6' 4" WT: 205
    Age: 23 (03/29/1995)
    Hometown: Boston, MA


    Frantzdy Pierrot committed until June 2022


    The leaders mouscronnois and young American-Haitian striker born in Boston on January 7, 1997, found a middle ground for a contract until June 2022. Last season, the very athletic striker defended the colors of Coastal Carolina University. With his meter ninety-five he can play the points of fixation on the front of the mouscronnoise attack. He is already qualified for the first match of the competition this weekend in Ostend.


    http://www.excel-foot.be/2018/07/27/frantzdy-pierrot-sengage-jusquen-juin-2022/

    Transfermarkt profile: https://www.transfermarkt.com/frantzdy-pierrot/profil/spieler/492955
    College bio: https://goccusports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=2106
    MLS bio: https://www.mlssoccer.com/players/frantzdy-pierrot

    MLS draft list confirms US citizenship: https://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2017/...list-invitees-2018-adidas-mls-players-combine

    Royal Excel Mouscron is in the top tier of Belgian football.

    He was drafted by Colorado, but decided to try out European opportunities: https://www.thebentmusket.com/2018/...ids-opportunity-coastal-carolina-northeastern

    He has been called into the Haiti squad before (a qualifier for last year's Gold Cup), but it appears he hasn't been capped by Haiti yet.
     
  2. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  3. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  4. Sandon Mibut

    Sandon Mibut Member+

    Feb 13, 2001
    If this kid starts to produce in the Belgian league, it's gonna make the Colorado Rapids brass look really bad.

    Well, I guess they already look really bad regardless of this kid. But if this kid becomes a player over there, this'll make them look worse.
     
  5. adam tash

    adam tash Member+

    Jul 12, 2013
    Barcelona, Spain
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    IMO, MLS has never been worse at giving unproven players a legit chance than they are right now....understandable side-effect of bigger budgets....but I expect more and more of these stories in the future.....

    .....end of the roster deals in MLS have also never been a worse option than they are right now for young, unproven MLSers in terms of actually becoming an established pro soccer player....trying europe out makes more sense than ever for these players, imo.
     
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  6. m vann

    m vann Moderator
    Staff Member

    Colorado Rapids, Celtic FC, & Louisville City
    Sep 10, 2002
    Denver, CO
    Club:
    Celtic FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Dude. As a STH, the Rapids couldn’t have more egg on their face than they already do. However, from all accounts Pierrot had zero intentions of ever pulling on the Rapids kit, despite his words after the draft. He apparently had suitors before the draft and MLS was his “fallback” option. So I can’t fault the Rapids even if I really, really want to. Glad to see Pierrot land somewhere and in a reputable league. The kid is huge and can play from what little I’ve seen.
     
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  7. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It's a really weird situation for a player to go from Coastal Carolina (and a couple of games this summer in the PDL) to starting the league opener in the Belgian 1st division in the span of a few months. The whole thing is a bit surreal.
     
  8. Balerion

    Balerion Member+

    Aug 5, 2006
    Roslindale, MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Pierrot got a nice four-year deal with Mouscron, too. Sometimes you see guys just get a one-year contract because a club wants to take a flyer on them. Four-year deals are given to players that clubs take a bit more seriously.
     
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  9. Balerion

    Balerion Member+

    Aug 5, 2006
    Roslindale, MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This guy could be huge for the hypothetical Massachusetts state team, btw. Mac Steeves and Gabe Gissie just aren't getting it done up top.

    There seems to be some disagreement between online sources as to whether this player was born in 1995 or 1997. 1995 makes more sense based on the fact that he was a four-year college player.

    Mouscron's website says 1997, but his old DA profile says 1995. What's weird is that they don't even agree on the date.

    Mouscron: Jan 7, 1997
    DA: March 29, 1995
     
  10. Dave Marino-Nachison

    Jun 9, 1999
    Gabe Gissie!
     
  11. Balerion

    Balerion Member+

    Aug 5, 2006
    Roslindale, MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Definitely the best active player from the Worcester metropolitan area.

    EDIT: not sure if he's actually with a club this season
     
  12. adam tash

    adam tash Member+

    Jul 12, 2013
    Barcelona, Spain
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    or how about an 18 year old fcdallas academy player on loan with zero pro minutes under his belt just playing in all 3 bayern munich preseason games.....? that player probably wouldnt even play for fcdallas, most likely lol.....

    kinda makes you think that maybe the relationship between MLS and europe isn't as clear-cut as it may seem on the surface.....and that the relative quality of players in north america vs europe isnt always as clear-cut as it seems, either.

    my personal take is that the salary structure/contract policies in MLS do a lot to make many of the players in MLS seem worse than they are relative to the world market....and getting to europe is much much harder than it should be for a player who tries to work his way up in MLS as opposed to just going overseas as a free agent.

    i dont think these players are outliers.

    i think the players who arent "making it" in MLS are oftentimes no worse than the players who do.

    i think it is just a matter of opportunity (or lackthereof) ...these cases reveal hypocrisies in the system of pro soccer in the usa/world....more than they indicate that these players making these moves are flukes.
     
  13. VBCity72

    VBCity72 Member+

    Aug 17, 2014
    Sunny San Diego
    Club:
    Plymouth Argyle FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Dallas is probably the best place for young talent to get on the field.
     
  14. Sandon Mibut

    Sandon Mibut Member+

    Feb 13, 2001
    I would love to know the story behind this guy playing all four years of college soccer.

    Were he or his parents just hell bent on him finishing his education? (A completely reasonable proposition, btw.) Did he want to go pro but MLS wouldn't let him declare for the draft? Did no agent identify his senior year as a candidate to go abroad? (Usually the Euro teams want amateur players as early as possible.)

    I mean, I follow college soccer pretty closely and even I wasn't aware of this guy as a top pro prospect till the combine.

    He had that call-up to Haiti so clearly someone knew about him. (Though the bar to make Haiti's team is pretty low. They've played college guys in the Gold Cup who later struggled to get pro deals.)

    Love to know the backstory here.
     
  15. Sandon Mibut

    Sandon Mibut Member+

    Feb 13, 2001
    #15 Sandon Mibut, Jul 29, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2018
    So I did some digging on Pierrot.

    As noted, there seems to be some confusion on his DOB and whether he was born in the US or Haiti but multiple sites say he’s a US citizen.

    https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/frantzdy-pierrot/profil/spieler/49295
    https://www.sportingkc.com/post/201...-adidas-mls-player-combine-invitees-announced

    He doesn't ever appear to have been called up by a US youth national team and he was on the bench but uncapped by a Haitian senior team.

    https://goccusports.com/news/2017/3/20/Pierrot_Named_to_Haitian_National_Soccer_Team.aspx
    https://www.transfermarkt.com/gold-cup-play-off/startseite/pokalwettbewerb/GCQ5/saison_id/2016

    He grew up in Massachusetts and played club soccer for the USSDA’s Seacoast Academy (I think they’re in New Hampshire) and was a USSDA All-Eastern Conference team in 2012. Also on that team were Zack Steffen, Jacori Hayes, Adam Najem and Amando Moreno. So he wasn’t toiling in ethnic league obscurity.

    https://www.dcunited.com/post/2012/07/17/academy-honored-ussda-end-year-awards

    Pierrot also played high school basketball and averaged 21 points a game as a junior and was MVP of the Middlesex League. He missed his senior year with a broken wrist suffered… playing soccer. I have no idea how good the Middlesex League is in hoops but his injury was newsworthy enough to get covered by frikkin’ ESPN.

    http://www.espn.com/blog/boston/hig.../melroses-frantzdy-pierrot-out-for-the-season

    In the 2012/13 USSDA season (his HS junior year) he scored 10 goals in 17 games and as a senior, despite the broken wrist, Pierrot scored 9 goals in 23 USSDA games.

    https://ssl.demosphere.com/scripts/...ments/Display+E+47116+Team/+47187415+47158344

    https://ssl.demosphere.com/scripts/...ments/Display+E+47116+Team/+47187415+60852393

    So our boy was his conference’s Rookie of the Year as a freshman. Not a sure-fire sign of a future pro – but should have put him on a watch list. After its disastrous season in 2015, Northeastern fired the coach that brought Pierrot in and replaced him with former MLS starter Chris Gbandi. Either he didn’t want to play for Gbandi or he wanted a fresh start and a chance to win or maybe warmer weather, he transferred to Coastal Carolina.

    He was all conference and all region as a junior. Last summer he played in the PDL for Reading, one of the top teams in that league in terms of grooming future pros, and scored 8 goals and an assist in 7 games. He also scored the game-winner in a little tournament called the US Open Cup as Reading defeated some team called the New York Cosmos.

    https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...ment-position-as-one-of-nations-top-pdl-teams

    https://www.uslpdl.com/roster_players/18320217

    He was the Sun Belt player of the year last fall.
    http://sunbeltsports.org/news/2017/...nounced-pierrot-named-player-of-the-year.aspx

    Here are his college stats.
    2017 – Coastal Carolina (14-7-1) 22 games, 10 goals, 4 assists, Sun Belt Player of the Year, all Southeast Region 1st team
    2016 – Coastal Carolina 19 games, 8 goals, 5 assists, all Sun Belt first team, all Southeast Region 1st team
    2015 – Northeastern (3-12-2) 14 games, 5 goals, 2 assists
    2014 – Northeastern (8-11-1) 20 games, 5 goals, 5 assists, CAA Rookie of the Year

    His college stats aren’t eye-popping but other than his sophomore season, he was recognized as one of the top players in his conference.

    So here you have an obviously great athlete who is built like the proverbial brick shithouse, or put another way, like Romelu Lukaku who played in an MLS market but isn’t a part of their academy team and who keeps getting collegiate awards and scores against a team of well-regarded pros and somehow no one in MLS seems to think he can play for them and he falls to the 27th overall pick.

    And then goes unsigned.

    Aside from not having him in their academy, how did the Revolution not want him after/during college? Reading Is affiliated and trains with the Union; how did Philly not go after him? He scored a game-winning goal against a team coached by Gio Savarese but Portland doesn’t go after him. (Not that they’d have played him, of course.)

    The point is, this kid wasn’t unknown. He was right there. Playing USSDA in a major market and getting awards. Getting media coverage for his non-soccer athleticism. Getting awards in Division I college soccer, dominating in the PDL, scoring against a pro team in the US Open Cup. All the while being 6-3 or 6-4 and about 200 pounds.

    And no one in the US said “yo, this is a kid we could use” until the second round of the SuperDraft? A lot of people say American soccer is too obsessed with size and athleticism but here you have a big, athletic kid and... crickets.

    This kid should have been a pro years ago. Again, maybe he was hell bent to get his degree, but even if that was the case, a pro team should have been willing to pay for his school and even after four years, some team should have been willing to take him fairly high.

    Maybe he won’t do much in Belgium and his pro career won’t get going. It’s happened before when a European team signs an American college kid, creates some fanfare and nothing comes of it and he doesn’t have much of a pro career. (Dominic Servi and Greg Dalby come to mind.) It’s entirely possible this happens with Pierrot.

    But right now, this seems like a giant collective whiff by the American soccer community.
     
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  16. adam tash

    adam tash Member+

    Jul 12, 2013
    Barcelona, Spain
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    MLS clubs have too many other options when signing players now....they only look to college or even USL for depth....these types of players "don't matter" to MLS clubs b/c they can just pick up already proven MLS free agents, trades, foreign players with pro experience, homegrowns, etc.....I don't think there aren't college players who could become very good MLS players but MLS clubs just arent bothering to try and find players there these days...a player with this guy's profile shows promise...but there are other options for teams that MLS clubs prefer b/c those other options are more "proven"....the level of opportunity for unproven players to break in to MLS is the lowest it has eve been...but that doesnt mean the amount of talent in unproven areas like college and lower level pro teams in the USA is the lowest it has ever been.

    these players are just getting passed over now...whereas before they would get a chance on an MLS team.
     
  17. ChuckMe92

    ChuckMe92 Member+

    Jun 23, 2016
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
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  18. The Irish Rover

    The Irish Rover Member+

    Aug 1, 2010
    Dublin
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    Maybe, but there's the possibility that the lad was hell-bent on moving to Europe once he's secured his degree. Whatever the level MLS is at as a league, there's still no doubt that a player who makes it to rotator in the English Championship or 2BL is going to get a good deal more money than a rotator in MLS for some time to come. If I think I'm at that level trying Europe isn't a choice, it's an obligation
     
  19. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  20. autobus39

    autobus39 Member+

    Jun 28, 2006
    Scranton, PA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Royal Excel Mouscron fell 1-0 despite playing up a man after the 11th minute. Pierrot went the distance.
     
  21. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  22. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  23. autobus39

    autobus39 Member+

    Jun 28, 2006
    Scranton, PA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Went the distance and picked up a yellow card in the 68th minute in a 2-0. Mouscron played the last 10 minutes up a man.
     
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  24. bshredder

    bshredder BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 23, 1999
    Club:
    Millwall FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Mouscron has lost all 4 of its games to start the season and has scored just 1 goal
     
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  25. ArsenalMetro

    ArsenalMetro Member+

    United States
    Aug 5, 2008
    Chicago, IL
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Starting again today at home v. Eupen, losing 1-0 in the first half.
     

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