Yes, it is 24 year old Nicolas Naess, I just read. Wonder how Heerenveen found him. Did his agent drop his name around? Edit: Just read on Voetbal International they were following him for some time already. So he probably was on their radar before he went to MLS.
AD Sportwereld rating: SC Heerenveen – PSV 2-0 SC Heerenveen: Hansen 6,5; Dumfries 7 (68. Schmidt -), Høegh 6,5, Pierie 7,5 (82. Nass -), Woudenberg 7,5; Schaars 8,5, Kobayashi 6, Thorsby 6,5; Ødegaard 6,5 (77. Rojas -), Ghoochannejhad 6,5, Zeneli 7,5. PSV: Zoet 6, Arias 5, Luckassen 4,5, Isimat 4,5, Paal 4,5, Van Ginkel 4, Hendrix 5, Ramselaar 5 (60. L. de Jong 6); Bergwijn 5 (80. Pereiro -), Locadia 5, Lozano 5. Arbiter: Blom 5 Man of the Match: Dat SC Heerenveen vorig seizoen ver terugviel na de blessure van Stijn Schaars blijkt achteraf geen incident geweest te zijn. Met de captain, tevens oud-PSV’er, op het middenveld is de ploeg van Jurgen Streppel meer in balans, zo bleek ook vanmiddag weer. Na de snelle 2-0 voorsprong ging Schaars voorop in de strijd om te laten zien hoe het duel vervolgens vakkundig en volwassen uit te spelen. Hij was met liefst 100 balcontacten de absolute motor van de Friese ploeg.
to me, it shows that the lack of americans getting signed in europe is more about red tape and bias than quality. its not like naess is some kind of MLS beast....but he has euro status...so bring him on over!!
They didnot notice him in MLS. He, from the info I got, was on their radar before he moved there, and with all the defensive sales of Heerenveen they needed a known and scouted addition to the selection. Heerenveen has a very deep network in Scandinavia.
The "bias" is mostly just work rules. Euro passport players are easy to sign. No payment minimums etc. and easy to sell. If you buy an Ami who does not have Euro WP, even if you're willing to pay him the foreigner wage, if they get hot, and you can sell for a profit, they have to be USMNT to get Brit WP, which is where the money is. So, it's not like no one will ever sign promising single-passport Americans, but it does add some issues to the deal that not all teams want to work through.
And the Eredivisie minimum wage for non-Euro passport holders raises another barrier. An Ami/Canuck with potential or who you know will be at least a squad regular, with upside potential is a bit too risky: at 450k Euros p.a. minimum (IIRC), he has to be - at least - rotator standard when he signs. Belgium doesn't have that kind of minimum, but it's a backdoor to Europe for East Europeans and Africans whose third-party owners often have a big say in the running of a Belgian club(s); an Ami/Canuck who's Euro quality will be/is getting to be more expensive than those players, and the Scandinavians aren't paying that much better than MLS these days for the same quality player. There's not a lot of places for the over-21 Yank to go to in Europe if he's not being picked up by clubs form the big leagues or the big boys from the smaller leagues (Benfica, Basel, Copenhagen, Ajax, etc.).
No, I said they didnot have to scout there at all, as he was already in their books to approach when needed. They needed a CD addition and took the one already scouted and assessed. You're not going to scout for a spot when you already have done that. And as I stated they have an affinity with Scandinavia, as many Dutch clubs have, because of the cultural and mental resemblance of the Scandinavians with the Dutch. For smaller, lower budget clubs the USA isnot an option to scout because of the high Non-EU citizenship minimum pay. Moneywise it doesnot make sense for clubs to scout the USA.
Yeah, that's what I meant by "foreigner wage." Generally, if a player is clearly good enough to be worth the extra money, they're also already getting looks by other leagues and/or a decent MLS offer. Teams will take some chances (Agudelo, Rubin, Ngyuen, etc.) but in general, they can get similar players for cheaper or "better" players who can be sold to England for the same/similar price. I think the ered would grab more US players if they could, since they tend to be good investments, but only at closer to MLS entry salary, not at ered foreigner minimums.
As noted in the Yanks Behind the Dikes thread, Pierie made it into AD Sportwereld's Eredivisie team of the week. Here's a recent brief scouting profile on him. Discusses his dual-nationality and how U.S. Soccer is undoubtedly watching him. (Joey from O When The Yanks/USA Prospects has tweeted about him, for what it's worth.) http://www.football-oranje.com/top-50-eredivisie-u21-stars-watch-kik-pierie/
Feyenoord, PSV and Ajax want Kik Pierie. He himself said he considers Feyenoord and Ajax, but doesnot want to go to PSV.
He better choose Feyenoord as the chance he will put on the pitch is\bigger than at Ajax at the moment.
He was asked about interest in him, so he responded. He's quite level headed and his parents are highly educated persons, so he's not going to embark on untidy adventures.
Starts: Trainer Jurgen Streppel laat basiself ongewijzigd voor uitduel Excelsior. #exchee pic.twitter.com/azdFIW81CG— sc Heerenveen (@scHeerenveen) September 16, 2017
Well, he's got two of the 3 he should not go to... Let's just say, "norther is better..." Of course, 'veen is norhter than all 3 of them... 17 year old Pierie gets his 3rd ered game of the season. 'Veen pull it out 2-1 to stay tied on points for 2nd. This kid is a real talent. Probably too real at this point, for 'veen or US.
AD Sportwereld rating: Excelsior – SC Heerenveen 1-2 Excelsior: Kristinsson 5,5; Karami 5,5, Mattheij 6,5, De Wijs 6, Massop 6; Faik 6, Koolwijk 6, Messaoud 5,5 (63. Fortes -); Caenepeel 5 (85. Vermeulen -), El Azzouzi 5,5, Bruins 6,5 (75. Van Duinen -). SC Heerenveen: Hansen 6,5; Dumfries 5,5, Høegh 5,5, Pierie 6 (86. Naess -), Woudenberg 6; Schaars 6, Thorsby 6 (67. Rojas -), Kobayashi 6; Ødegaard 5,5, Ghoochannejhad 5,5, Zeneli 6,5 (82. Veerman -). Arbiter: Lindhout 5 Man of the Match: Op de doelpuntenproductie van Arber Zeneli was de voorbije seizoenen regelmatig kritiek. De buitenspeler kwam in de eredivisie nog nooit boven de zes treffers in een jaargang uit, maar staat nu na vijf duels op twee goals. De Kosovaar mag dan niet altijd op het scorebord verschijnen, voor dreiging zorgen doet hij vrijwel wekelijks. Was met drie schoten op doel en drie keypasses ook weer de gevaarlijkste speler aan Friese zijde.