Why No Offers for WC Players?

Discussion in 'USA Men' started by Mississippi Flash, Jul 29, 2002.

  1. Mississippi Flash

    May 19, 2002
    Mississippi
    Why Offers for WC Players

    During the WC there was lots of talk about U.S. players moving overseas or to a better club. Has anybody actually been signed by a new club?
     
    Pedro Rondon H de Sá repped this.
  2. Mississippi Flash

    May 19, 2002
    Mississippi
    Why No Offers for WC Players

    Whoops! I left the "No" out of the subject.
     
  3. Jacen McCullough

    Nov 23, 1998
    Maryland
    Re: Why No Offers for WC Players


    Not a problem, I tossed one in there for you. As for the question, finances in Euro leagues aren't in the best of states right now, and not many players are getting big money transfers. MLS brass has obviously seen this, and realized that players like Mathis, Beasley, Wolff etc, are worth more playing in the league than they would be at current transfer rates.

    JMac
     
  4. russ

    russ Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Canton,NY
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well ,the deadline is August 31,so movement is still possible.

    Berhalter did have a deal to go to Greece,but apparently hosed himself.There was a long thread on this in YA ,and Buff had a column on this on CSN.

    There have been offers for the MLSers,but as Jacen noted,not enough to be worthwhile for the league.
     
  5. Topo

    Topo Member

    Feb 15, 2001
    Not "no" offers.

    The word you should have put in was "low."

    "Why low offers for WC players."
     
  6. Maczebus

    Maczebus New Member

    Jun 15, 2002
    Dare I say it but... perhaps no-one wants them?

    A flippant opening sentence but with reasons:

    Those that are already overseas (Friedel, Reyna etc) are well, already overseas.

    I saw on a previous post that the state of European football coffers weren't great. At Lazio and a few other big teams this may be the case. However this is in regard to the $40-50 million transfer fees and astonishing wages demanded by top European and South American players. It's these players that are messing the clubs up in Europe. Spending $10 million on a good MLS player and honouring him with a bigger wage than he recieved in the US (though still relatively small), would make more sense. What I'm trying to say is that money problems (I believe) aren't the reason why US players aren't being snatched up.

    Linked to that is the fact that European clubs may well be biding their time. Always, post WC there is the race for new talent from the top leagues in the world. They might simply be waiting for the prices put on US players to come down after the glow of the WC has faded. Of course the prices might not come down because US players are trying to be encouraged to stay in MLS (but thats a seperate issue, or at least something that has been mentioned quite a lot on other threads).
    Foriegn teams and their management may simply not see the great players the US fans do. They are reluctant to spend a huge amount on any talent MLS has. Again they'll see players as over-priced and know they can find much cheaper players from smaller European based teams. Much like Liverpool have done signing a few Senegal players.

    Whatever the reason is, you're right, there is no exodus of US players going on, but then again, I get the general gist that this isn't such a bad thing anyway.
     
  7. Mississippi Flash

    May 19, 2002
    Mississippi
    I agree, but I do feel sorry for a guy who is 30 and has done a lot for MLS (McBride) not being let go. He's near the end of his career, and this is probably his last chance to play for a name team in a major league. Treating him generously might be the best for all concerned in the long run.
     
  8. TeamUSA

    TeamUSA Member

    Nov 24, 1999
    Tianjin, China
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I wish that other companies would treat me nice at 30 and pay me more money too. -personal note off


    It does seem kind of strange, but maybe it's a waiting game by both players and clubs. I would bet that as the European season gets underway and some clubs begin to struggle they will be calling on MLS players that are match fit from the summer here to help them out.

    On the other side, we did see a few countries that really surprised us too, such as Turkey, Korea(spit), Senegal, and Japan. Maybe these guys are cheaper? I haven't searched or read about what kind of activities the clubs are doing presently.
     
  9. Maczebus

    Maczebus New Member

    Jun 15, 2002
    He used to play for Preston in Eng Div1 also remember something about him getting a blood clot in his armpit or something. Rather an odd place, but still did for his chances ..

    I don't know what sort of money they are asking for McBride but unless it's pretty low, I can't see many top league teams wanting to stump up a large sum of money for a 30 year old who hasn't played top level club football. I don't know what you consider a 'name team' or a 'major league' to be, but I'm afraid he may have to settle for the level he has been used to while playing in Europe.
    Again, it might be realistically more of a case of major clubs not wanting him to a significant degree, rather than his chances being stifled by the US system.
     
  10. Mississippi Flash

    May 19, 2002
    Mississippi
    An article in today's USA Today suggests that financial problems with European clubs coupled with MLS's awareness of the value of various players to the league has slowed any transfers. The MLS spokesman did say they were willing to work with any player who really wanted to move. He sounded sincere FWIW.
     
  11. atlantedf

    atlantedf New Member

    Jun 19, 2014
    There are solid players
     
    ChrisSSBB repped this.
  12. AutoPenalti

    AutoPenalti Am I famous yet?

    Sep 26, 2011
    Coconut Creek
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    CEO of bumping an 18 year old thread...
     
    superdave, striker, DHC1 and 2 others repped this.
  13. ChrisSSBB

    ChrisSSBB Member+

    Jun 22, 2005
    DE
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    First post. Must be starting at the beginning.
     
    bigredfutbol repped this.
  14. KALM

    KALM Member+

    Oct 6, 2006
    Boston/Providence
    Interesting to see people's hopes and concerns about that 2002 squad from back then. A bunch of these players did improve their club situations, but it took a little longer than some might have expected after the World Cup.

    Gregg Berhalter was the first to move, completing a transfer from Crystal Palace in the Championship to Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga shortly after this thread was made, near the end of the transfer window for the 2002-03 season. They were relegated that season, but Berhalter captained them back to the Bundesliga a few years later (before moving onto and captaining another Bundesliga II club -- 1860 Munich).

    A month later, in September 2002, Eddie Lewis completed a transfer from Fulham to Preston North End. Lewis went from being a benchwarmer at Fulham to establishing himself as a top-end Championship player, helping PNE and later Leeds nearly achieve promotion to the Premier League, but coming up short two years in a row in the Promotion Playoff Finals. He eventually did end up starting in the Premier League for Derby County, albeit in a one-and-done season where they were relegated right back down to the Championship.

    Next, Brian McBride went on loan to Everton during the 2002-03 winter transfer window, where he scored 4 goals in 8 games for David Moyes before returning to MLS. McBride then transferred permanently to Fulham in the Premier League the following winter (during the 2003-04 season), where he would go on to score 33 PL goals and win Club Player of the Year honors multiple years in a row. All this despite transferring at the age of 31.

    Clint Mathis had already received an offer from Bayern Munich prior to the 2002 World Cup, but MLS had blocked the move. His next opportunity came during the 2003-04 season's winter transfer window, when he completed a move to Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga. Mathis started out strong, scoring 4 goals in his first 5 games, but his form dried up entirely after that, culminating infamously the following season with Mathis scoring a late game winner off the bench, pointing to his wrist in anger at the manager who had benched him, and (essentially) never appearing for the club again.

    It took two years after his breakout performance in the 2002 World Cup for DaMarcus Beasley to find his way to Europe, but he made quite a splash when he landed at PSV, brought in as a replacement for Arjen Robben in 2004. He won two league titles with the club and scored a number of important goals for them in the Eredivisie and Champions League. To this day, I believe that he remains the only American player to ever start or appear in a Champions League semi-finals. The rest of his time in Europe (Man City, Rangers, and Hannover) was marred by repeated injuries.

    Landon Donovan, still technically a Bayer Leverkusen player despite playing four seasons on loan in MLS, was finally recalled back to the Bundesliga in the winter window of the 2004-05 season, though perhaps somewhat reluctantly on his part. After a little over two months of sporadic playing time at the club (not to mention a disastrous 2nd leg Champions League performance against eventual champions Liverpool, where Donovan, having only started one game previously, was quarter-backing a makeshift Leverkusen side already down 2 goals on aggregate), Donovan decided he had had enough and returned home to MLS. Some people...questioned that decision at the time. He returned to Europe three more times, in equally brief loan spells. Two of them actually went quite well.

    Eddie Pope had already turned down an offer from recent Champions League winners Borussia Dortmund shortly after the '98 World Cup. He apparently turned down one or two offers from Southampton in the Premier League at some point in the '06 cycle as well (I remember reading about their interest in January 2005, but Pope claims they came calling two years prior in early 2003).

    Josh Wolff is I believe the one player who featured for the USMNT in Japan/South Korea who only transferred to Europe after the 2006 World Cup, when his USMNT career was essentially over. After a move to Derby County in the Championship failed to materialize in 2006 due to work permit issues, Wolff ended up at Bundesliga 2 side 1860 Munich during the 2006-07 winter transfer window just as he was entering his 30s. My recollection is a little hazy, but I believe he found himself in and out of the starting lineup, and I don't think his time there was particularly memorable.

    Note: I'm not counting guys like Friedel, Keller, and Reyna who transferred laterally after the 2002 World Cup, but who were already established players in the Premier League prior.
     
    owian, olephill2, WrmBrnr and 3 others repped this.
  15. ChrisSSBB

    ChrisSSBB Member+

    Jun 22, 2005
    DE
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Nice summary!
     
  16. GiallorossiYank

    GiallorossiYank Member+

    Jan 20, 2011
    NJ/Roma/Napoli
    Club:
    AS Roma
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Clint was pissed MLS blocked that Bayern move
     
    Pedro Rondon H de Sá repped this.

Share This Page