Another Dutch-American chimes in: https://sports.yahoo.com/both-the-u...ut-what-does-sergino-dest-want-174404710.html
Whoever Dest decides, I have to say that he has earned my respect by the way he is handling this. It's very mature for an 18 year old. I hope he plays for the Yanks because I want to have guys like that on the team that I support, but I will wish him well and root for him regardless. He's a pretty good young man.
He's done everything right. If he's not ready to make the decision, be honest and say you're not ready to make the decision. Nothing wrong with that. He's only 18. I do think we all know what's going on here, though. If his heart was with the USMNT, he'd already have been called up to the Nations League squad. His heart is with Holland. His head may still be in the USMNT camp, but the Dutch are working on that too. What I do know is that I believe the USMNT/USYNTs couldn't have done more with this kid. They made him a key player for the U17s and U20s. They aggressively called him up to the full national team at about the earliest stage they could reasonably do so. If Dest chooses Holland, then we walk away feeling like we did everything we could. [Unlike other high profile cases like Subotic and Gonzalez.]
Yes, Dest was treated appropriately by the Yanks. So much so that they have made this a difficult decision for him and have taught him to appreciate US Soccer. I don't now if its his heart or his mind that is leading him to the Dutch at this point, probably some combination of both. What is clear though is that he is of at very least a divided heart and mind...and that's a credit to US Soccer and the way he has been brought into the fold by guys like Tab Ramos and Berhalter. People forget that Gregg was an American Abroad and understands this dynamic. If Dest chooses to represent Holland, then this is not a black mark on the program. It's actually an example of success. You don't want to trap players and prevent them from other opportunities. That's unethical. You want them to choose your program. The US has made it difficult for him to choose between a mid-level struggling program on the rebound and one of the historical greats on the rebound. That is a resounding success in its own right.
Ya, it seems so obvious that he would be well worth a shot, trying him at one of those attacking winger spots.
Here's a Brit who was raised in the Netherlands who thinks Dest should choose the Dutch: https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-...hould-represent-netherlands-instead-of-the-us On the other hand, Dest has an emotional attachment to the U.S., and the USSF was good to him at youth level when the Dutch FA ignored him. The Americans have a chance. But as battles for binationals become the norm in international soccer, the Dest case ought to be a prompt for the U.S. to ask itself: Why does the tiny fraction of American passport-holders raised in western Europe still produce such a disproportionate share of this giant country's best players? Meanwhile, in a joint interview on the Ajax website with the U.S.-Mexican Alex Mendez, who plays for Ajax's reserves, the conflicted Dest turned to Mendez and asked: "What would you do if you were in my shoes?" These decisions are always in part matters of the heart, but the betting must be that Dest chooses Oranje. The underlined sentence could be a trigger for a decent conversation all its own.
Re your underlined sentence: When ANY other country in the world starts having five top flight professional sports leagues across their entire country we can talk. That that doesn't mean that the US should't be producing more and better quality soccer players. But our youth get pulled five ways with football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer. And for players in the US soccer is probably low man on the pecking order when it comes to average salaries.
Exactly right. We speak often about the motivations and responsibilities of the player but the country has obligations and responsibilities to to the player as well. The country has an obligation to be honest and not to cap tie a player they do not plan to use. Aside from the ethical considerations, it is important from a recruiting position as well. If we make it a pattern to cap tie players and they don't end up in our plans that will likely be a deterrent to any sensible dual national that we have in our sights.
I'm tempted to say that the claim in the underlined sentence is just false at this point. Who in the senior team pool right now was raised in western Europe? Brooks, who's always hurt; Dest if he commits; maybe Weah, but he spent time in the US while growing up. That's about it, right? Is ~10% disproportionate? Guys like Green, CCV, and A. Robinson seem pretty marginal at this point. I also don't think we have too many Euro-raised guys in our next wave of top prospects either. The guys people seem most excited about guys like Ledezma, Llanez, Richards, Soto, Reyna, etc. Plenty of dual nationals, but dual nationals who were born, raised, and trained in the US.
It'll always be a little disproportionate because there are many more Americans in the US than living in Europe, but the percentage of non-US raised players being top performers in the US pool is shrinking. There will always be some just because Europe (and Mexico and Latin America) have stronger development systems and cultures that push soccer as the primary sport.
That guy is living in the past. What current A roster Americans were raised in Western Europe? Dest, and Brooks? Brooks is debatably not a starter. So, 2 out of 23? That's a disproportionate share? Who am I missing? Edit: someone please respond to that article that Simon should check his math. I couldn't figure out how to respond.
I'm not even sure he's living in the past. How many of our best all time were dual nationals raised in Europe? How many of the best of any given cycle were raised in Europe? How disproportionate is it really? I'd have to give it some thought.
Seriously. It's Brooks, Jermaine Jones, and then you're going back 20 years to Dooley and Earnie? I'm sure I've missed a couple, but given that 30 years ago, we didn't even have a professional league, it's damned surprising that a country that didn't have a league 30 years ago has made it out of the group stage 4 times and won a knockout match with so few players raised abroad. And, look out, Simon, the number of true academies in the U.S. has grown …. what's bigger than exponentially, astronomically? … since the days of Bradenton and …….. The stated of U.S. soccer is currently well and truly jacked up …. largely thanks to this crazy manager. But, the inertia for growth of the quality of soccer player this country produces ….. well, it's snowballing. Enjoy it while it lasts, Simon. Simple Simon, indeed.
I would hope so. b.t.w., Dest could choose to play on Olympic team for USA which might be good for Ajax anyway. I wonder if Pulisic has set his sights on OLympics.
I wouldn't add him to the Olympics unless he's locked in. Give that spot to someone who we're certain will contribute to the USMNT. Dest can pick whomever he wants. He seems like a great kid. I hope he picks us. But, international tournament matches, especially of the caliber of the Olympics, are a limited resource. We would allocate that resource as intelligently as we can.
I took a look at Wikipedia's list of USMNT caps and here are the players with at least 20 caps who were raised abroad: Ranking Name Caps Last Cap #15 Earnie Stewart 101 2004 #27 Thomas Dooley 81 1999 #33 Jermaine Jones 69 2017 #42 Fernando Clavijo 61 1994 #46 Fabian Johnson 57 2017 #64 Janusz Michallik 44 1994 #69 Roy Wegerle 41 1998 #71 Mix Diskerud 38 2016 #73 John Brooks 37 2019 #95 Tim Chandler 29 2016 #95 Carlos Llamosa 29 2002 #99 Preki 28 2001 #103 David Regis 27 2002 #115 Danny Williams 23 2017 #125 Angelo DiBernardo 20 1985 There may be some others, but I didn't check all the names I didn't recognize. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_men's_international_soccer_players Six of those above immigrated to the US as teens and naturalized or came to play professional/college and then naturalized. There was a German-American spike during the Klinsmann years. There may have been times when we could have had up to 6 of the above players on the pitch at the same time, mostly German-American. Considering the late start the US has had in developing players, it's a pretty decent record.
To be charitable to the guy who wrote the article, maybe he's thinking back to the 2014 WC roster, which would make sense given that we weren't there in 2018, and Europeans probably don't pay attention the USMNT outside of WCs. That roster had Jones, Johnson, Brooks, Johannsson, Diskerud, Green, and Chandler, which is a pretty high percentage. But you could argue that's an anomaly because 1) Klinsmann went all out recruiting from Europe, and 2) we had a serious trough in domestic talent development in those years.
Thank you. One, maybe two, of those would have played for us at WC18. One, maybe two Euro raised players are currently in our 23. Maybe Holmes breaks in. Someone should tell Simple Simon that he's grossly out of date. The U.S. talent train is coming, the only thing holding us back is management.
But he said disproportionate amount of our best players. I'd only put Johnson and Brooks on that list from that WC.
Kuper like Gabriele Marcotti had Academic parents who moved around a bit and spent some time in the US in his childhood. So he should be able to have a better understanding of American Soccer than most European writers. And he is also one of the best Soccer writers around.
But, still, clearly f*cking clueless about the number of euro-raised players in the pool. Presently, and ever.
I like when he said "yeah, we are close (dest)" I didn't like it when he said: "It was easy for me because I grew up in the USA". I hope Dest wasn't listing to that.