http://www.randersfc.dk/index.php?afd=1&side=4456 According to the RFC homepage, Ryan Finley (Duke Blue Devils) is on a Trial at Randers FC along with two other strikers this week. According to the Randers FC director of Football (Jacob Nielsen) they are looking for a striker and a midfielder.
College bio http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=204766687 scored 11 goals this past season for Duke. He also spent two seasons at Residency with the U17s. An old interview but still kinda interesting, this was before he signed with Duke https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=778 Scoring in the milk cup 2009 [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TTu--Cl12k"]YouTube- Ryan Finley's goal[/ame]
Finley has gotten a callup or two so far this U-20 cycle. Latching on to a Danish League club would only help his chances.
I watched him play for the US U20s at the Dallas Cup against Vancouver. I was expecting nothing more than just a big target forward. But he was more useful than that. He sent in a bunch of good crosses that were poorly finished by his teammates. Actually he should have had two assists. He also made some nice runs in that game. Finley is big and not that fast, but he is crafty for a guy size. He missed a wide open sitter that should have been easily finished but all-in-all I remember him having more positives than negatives that game.
Randers are playing Silkeborg in a friendly on Friday. He and the other trialists should get some pt I would imagine.
He was one of the top scorers in the ACC as a freshman. So hopefully he shows his talents at this trial.
In the past NCAA players couldn't play in actual friendly games on trial without losing their eligibility because it violated the "can't play with pros" rule. I suppose that isn't true any more with the recent changes.
I was wondering about that when I posted about the friendly. The press release said he and 2 others were on trial. If he was just their training then I doubt they would include him. I think he is their on trial and possibly looking to leave Duke, but thats just speculation. He played with a PDL team in highschool and I'm sure if he wanted to do that (and maintain eligibility) they would welcome him back to the team.
Finley also has a trial lined up with Norwegian club Viking. http://yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=6452
According to the Randers FC site, Finley couldn't play due to the American College rules. They haven't published anything about signing him yet, but I'll keep monitoring it.
That makes sense. In order to play in college you need to have amateur status. Playing on a team, even a friendly, with professional players or anyone getting paid is a no no in the eyes of college eligibility. I don't think he's ready to leave college just yet. These trials may be more of a look and see type of thing. He may be trying to get a feel for the level of play and trying to spark some interest for when he is ready to leave college.
According to various articles (1 2 3) Finley is trialing with swedish second tier Superettan club Ängelholms FF who are usually pretty keen on americans. The manager explains that the club has one opening in their attack which would be what Finley is currently trying out for. He played in a preseason game against some form of lower division team and scored two goals. Afterwards the manager described him as a fast forward running attacker and an overall exciting player. He will stay with the club for the remainder of the week and on saturday he will play in the perhaps more telling game against Allsvenskan club Falkenbergs FF.
Finley scored his teams only goal as they lost the game 1-3. An article in the local paper has the manager commenting that Finley had a good game and that his type of skillset is different from the other players that they have. Funny fact from another article that I read is that the manager is an old teammate of ex-yank abroad Ryan Miller at Halmstad. So when Finleys name came up as a possibility to bring over for a trial he contacted Miller who apparently gave a thumbs up when asked about his qualities. The article also states that the club will meet with Finleys agent tomorrow where it will be decided if they are going to sign him or not.
The manager wants to sign Finley but the deal might still not happen as the club apparently have been making cuts in their wage budget (which was probably already one of the smaller ones in Superettan). The whole thing seems to be up in the air and will probably come down to if they can afford it or not. The manager also comments that other clubs might have become interested in Finley too now after his successful trial, but it's unclear if that is something he knows for sure or just him speculating.
It's been quiet for a while, but the local paper ran an update on Ryan Finley today which says that the club and player are close to a deal but that Ängelholm still need to sort some things out with their economy before the deal can be finalized. They do sound very keen on making it happen.
For those who don't know, Ryan's father is Terry Finley - a big player in thoroughbred horse racing. Terry is the founder and owner of West Point Thoroughbreds which has produced a triple crown and Breeders Cup horses. Not really relevant, but interesting.
It seems that Finley has signed with Ängelholm but under extraordinary circumstances! Like I wrote previously the club seem to be in major financial difficulty and recently it was revealed that they had implemented a 20% wage decrease on all existing player and staff contracts. Six of their players have apparently refused this so now they only have 16 available players for the season! At the same time Finley wanted to join them but obviously the club has no money for that, so his agent has stepped in and offered to pay Finleys salary while at Ängelholm!! Never heard of that happening before, but according to the article he arrived back in Sweden today and seems set to play for them. No word on the contract length though.
I think Bshredder's post was that Ryan doesn't need to even earn a living, given his background. https://www.ownerview.com/advisor/terry-finley-west-point-thoroughbreds-inc
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44205150 How I Made My Millions: Are You Willing to Go All In? By Terry Finley
.@Ryan_Finley9 has signed in Sweden with @AngelholmsFF after an impressive trial. Congrats Ryan! #nd pic.twitter.com/RKXHUb5ZUO— CAA Stellar Soccer (@caastellarna) March 18, 2016
Inhopparen Ryan Finley gjorde matchens enda mål när @AngelholmsFF vann borta mot @OrgryteFotboll. #Superettan pic.twitter.com/AiAmQJ4Qdj— Superettan (@SuperettanSE) April 11, 2016
I watched parts of the game and you could tell that Finley is going to be very useful for Ängelholm this season because even against a newly promoted team like Örgryte they pretty much, at least during the parts that I watched, parked the buss from start to finish. The commentators (who obviously watched the full game) also spoke about this and how Ängelholm actually managed to counter attack after bringing Finley on in the second half, whereas before they were really toothless in their few attempts at going forward. Still though, six points after two games is nothing short of amazing for a club in such disarray. Year after year I'm proven wrong in my predictions that this will be the season where Ängelholm is finally relegated