The FC Dallas and U20MNT midfielder is reported to have an offer from Germany Hearing that there is significant interest in U.S. U20 MNT mid Weston McKennie from a Bundesliga club. Long-term deal offered.— J.R. Eskilson (@JREskilson) July 7, 2016
It looks like you're right. To my credit, official outlets frequently make the same gaff. http://www.ussoccer.com/search#q=weston+mckinnie http://www.fcdallas.com/post/2016/06/28/ynt-craft-mckinnie-called-u-20-usmnt-camp http://www.fcdallas.com/post/2016/0...ie-scores-us-u-19s-advance-slovakia-cup-final
Bundesliga interest is legit. He's not signed by FC Dallas yet although they are pushing hard on a homegrown offer
FCD twitterverse types suggesting that the German club "in" on Weston is Schalke, and its a done deal. FCD made a significant push, but couldn't get a deal done. Consider it a rumor. Sources are unknown to me, so should be considered highly questionable. Other sources that I recognize more as being reliable are saying its "agent speak." Of course, that would inherently suggest he's hired an agent, and that should tell us something................... Hopefully we'll hear soon. Weston's 18th birthday is in August.
If he's got an agent, wouldn't that make him ineligible to play in NCAA? I thought I remembered hearing that rule when it came to basketball, should it be the same for soccer as well?
Timing of his bday is good, Weston can jump right into Schalke's reserves in August. Bummer that FCD gets zilch for his development, but it's yet another reminder for MLS teams to present legitimate opportunities (and respectable contracts) to top level homegrowns
That is indeed the case. If he's hired an agent formally than it would mean he's forgoing the NCAAs. He had committed to UVA. Mind you................this is all coming from rumors I'm seeing on twitter. Nothing yet from the guys I would consider in a position to actually now. They're being asked and are all staying silent on the issue. Perhaps McKennie is waiting to make a formal announcment until Dallas' run in the U18 DA playoffs is complete. I think that ends this weekend.
Its a tough one. McKennie seems to be one of these kids who's been in USYNTs for a while, but who's stock has really skyrocketed over the last 6 months or so. I haven't heard anything concrete with regards to McKennie, but the homegrown contracts FCD has been giving out recently have been respectable. At the start of this season both Coy Craft and Alex Zendejas were on higher salaries in terms of "guaranteed compensation" than Michael Barrios and Mauro Rosales. I wanna stress again that I know nothing about this situation, and am irresponsibly spreading this Schalke rumor I've seen in a couple places on twitter. For all I know he'll sign a homegrown contract with FCD this weekend!
They offered both, I'd imagine, but it obviously it won't be enticing enough/they were too late to the party if he signs abroad on a free. I'm not singling FCD out here, they're the crown jewel of MLS academies, but the amount of recent MLS academy alums that have shunned their home team to sign abroad is alarming. Rubin, Lennon, Arriola, Wright etc. I have a lot of issues with MLS, but I do want to see our best prospects get MLS playing time early and generate transfer fees for academies to be incentivized to keep the wheels churning.
To be fair, some of those guys (Arriola, Rubin) were poach jobs who may not (esp Rubin) have felt much of a connection with their parent MLS team anyway. With a long-time player like McKennie, that'll hurt a bit more.
MLS is in a hard sport when it comes to these younger players. If you wait until the players are 17 or 18 to sign then you run a tremendous risk of losing the biggest prospects to Europe. If you sign the player when they are around 16 then they really have little chance to help your team and shelling out 50-150K to land them per year is a lot of money for an MLS club. MLS basically has to treat it as an investment that they can recoup down the road if the player turns into either a player that can transfer out for a fee or transition into a quality MLS player. Just thinking out loud, I wonder if MLS can get creative and offer a 14-16 year old a contract that is say $250-500 per week on a contract that runs through their Year 18 season, but give them a larger stake in the transfer fee of say 15-20% and give the player control of accepted/declining all transfer offers over a agreed upon value. Pros Club - Smaller investment of only $25-50K per season, which mitigates risk of signing players early - Control players rights so they don't lose players for free Cons Club - Giving up a portion of the transfer fee - Giving player a transfer friendly contract through age 18 (although this is better than not being under contract) - Lose control of the transfer process if you give player ability to accept a transfer that is Pros Player - You get some money in a situation where otherwise you likely get nothing for the same "work" - You get a player friendly contract that allows you to transfer or sign a better deal at age 18. - You get a nice portion of any transfer fee where you would get nothing otherwise. Cons Player - Give up NCAA eligibility for little up front money - Teams may be less likely to purchase you if they have to pay a fee versus free - Team still has some leverage. Likely not thinking of some angles here as well. Glad to see MLS pick-up Carleton and Goslin, Smart business for the league I hope.
Not sure that is the case if you sign a player to a USL Contract. I know USL has no players union, but not sure what a player who signs with FCD II and not FCD and is loaned to FCD II is subject to the rules of the MLS collective bargaining agreement. You would hope a win-win idea for both parties that is mutually agreed to by both club/player would by OK (not saying this proposal is it) and could be approved by the union, but probably not likely unfortunately.
McKennie hasn't been playing for FCD in their recent U18 DA playoff games. [FCD qualified for the final last night.] This has led many to speculate that he's indeed signed with a foreign club. I don't know............but I know that no such thing as FCD II exists Also, I'm not sure that any combination of MLS/USLPro as the development path is as attractive to some players as a Bundesliga path. FCD could offer McKennie a Jordan Morris-type of contract and I don't know if he'd sign it. I'm gonna leave this picture here, because I like it so much and it hasn't been posted on this thread yet. This is indeed little Weston McKennie. It comes from a fan meet-and-greet in 2006 at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. [The fact that it was taken in Germany also makes one wonder if McKennie has access to a German passport somehow. I don't think so, but I don't know.] http://www.stripes.com/news/u-s-men-s-soccer-team-pays-visit-to-landstuhl-ramstein-1.45610#