It's a simple question that I've always had. I'm sure some Americans played in Canada prior to MLS. And there are Mexicans and Canadians playing in the USA. Why don't many, if any, Americans play in Mexico or even further south? I am sure a few American-born Mexicans have played down there, but why hasn't a non-Spanish speaking player ever signed with a Mexican or South/Central American club? You'd think at least a few of our players would get that attention. If I loved soccer, and couldn't make the MLS, I'd pack it up and head to Mexico or somewhere south. Why not.
Yeah, Tab played for Tigres while on loan from Betis, I believe, before coming to MLS during (?) the inaugural season.
However (almost) every single one of those rarities happened during 1995 after MLS was pushed off a year and they had nowhere to play. Cle was the exception having been at Cruz Azul where he played well enough to be named team captain. There are a lot of US players in the top two divisions in Mexico now, but every single one of them is Mexican-American, IIRC. I think it's a very valid question and I think the answer has to do with a certain nationalistic pride and a lot of ignorance with a touch of subtle racism.
Racism on the part of Americans or Mexicans? I could see Mexicans not wanting (white) Norteamericano's on their teams. Is it hard to get a permit to work in Mexico? I think more American baseball (beisbol) players play in Mexico, though I could be mistaken. It just seems really odd to me that you could have a ton of players who actually might live closer to some of these Mexican sides than the guys on the roster not even be in the player pool.
The non-Latinos don't have the "foreign player" exemption, so they count against the 5-player limit. And, with the Mexican league having a lot of money to throw around, they seem to like the 2nd tier (sometimes 1st tier at the end of their careers) South American stars. Do note, a lot of their coaches (Diaz, Brailovsky, Lavolpe, Mohamed, Romano, Gallego, Brindisi, Peckerman, Menotti, Ruggieri, Passarella) over the years have come from Argentina and there's a very definite Latin style to the Mexican league.
Good one. Did anybody else catch Jose Torres's play for Pachuca against Dynamo? The kid has got talent (Great service on those corners!) but he's very raw. Not ready for our Olympic team but man, I hope he is on our radar screen because he has been decent throughout the Superliga and he can only go forward. We didn't lose much by letting Edgar Castillo get capped. And what's the status of Jesus Padilla at Chivas?
The two Yanks I'm interested in from Mexico and will be keeping at eye on is Michael Orozco and Marco Vidal. Michael, obviously, will play a big role for our Olympic team but I'm eager to see him continue to progress at San Luis. He's a lock in their line-up and a key member to their sound defense. The second is Marco Vidal, from Indios,a promoted side. Marco apparently played extremely well in opening match of the Apertura manning the center of midfield. Though they lost to Tecos, reports mentioned Vidal's stellar play. He was called up for the U-23's for Olympic qualification but had to pull out because Indios were in the promotion play-offs at the time.
I think there are plenty of Americans playing in Mexico. Edgar Castillo (New Mexico), Santos Sonny Guadarrama (Texas), Morelia Daniel Hernandez (Texas), Jaguares Sammy Ochoa (California), Tecos Michael Orozco (California), San Luis Jesus Padilla (California), Chivas Jose Francisco Torres (Texas), Pachuca Marco Vidal (Texas), Indios All these guys have played first team ball for their respective Mexican clubs and are still on their books. All these guys were born in the US. Plus, recent California HS grad and US U18 national team player Jose Gonzalez just signed with Atlante. I haven't looked it up, but I bet there are more Americans playing in Mexico than any other country besides England, Germany (counting lower divisions) or Norway.
I could not disagree more. If Castillo had chosen to play for the US, he'd be the starting left back in Beijing and afterwards would be pushing Heath Pearce to start for the US in WC qualifying. Now, part of this is LB is the US' weakest position, depth-wise. But Castillo is a good player. Defends well and is very good going forward and started for the Mexican league champs as well as being one of the best players in their failed Olympic qualifying run. He may not have had a strong showing in the SuperLiga, but don't let that fool you. He's a very good player.
Thanks for this. i played in Honduras' second division for two years - as a light skinned Honduran American, I can tell you it is not easy to be a "gringo" playing down there. FIFA's "say no to racism campaign" makes me laugh compared to what you deal with there. I'm sure Mexico is even worse.
Someone in the past wondered why Mexican teams do not sign American goalkeepers. I think sidefootsitter's comments about the foreign player limits are right; they make it not worth it to sign American field players. But why not go for a guy like Matt Reis? If the excuse is that they want to develop Mexican goalkeepers, I submit Miguel Calero as exhibit#1.
Johnny Walker played for a long time in the Chilean league, Catolica, Huachipato, and I think even a year with Colo colo. I suspect that Americans who don't get into MLS don't seem interesting to MExican clubs, and they probably can't pay enough for that level of talent. And Americans don't draw in Mexico. Clearly, some mexicans draw in the US.
I think it has to do with economics, the only players capable of playing well are the top players like Parkhurst, Clark, Donovan, Conrad but if they wanted more money they would just go to Europe. The style of play has a lot to do too, down there they care a lot more about your talent than your ability to run up and down the field for 90 mintutes. In the past, Boca had interest in EJ, Independiente in Hejduk, and few other interesting rumors. But the fact is that apart from the top clubs it doesn't pay to play down there. This is like asking why don't more English players play in continental Europe, its all about $$$.
I'd say they just missed the boat on that. This is like my peeve about the Belgian league not signing Yanks - you see what's been happening with Norway, once it's essentially dropped its foreign player limits. Sure, Schifloe is partially responsible for the Yanks going there but the Belgian clubs have had this opportunity all along and have rarely bit. Back to the Yanks GK - the top half of MLS should certainly be able to play in Mexico - Reis, Hesmer, Hartman, Conway, Busch, Cannon, Condoul (non-Yank).
There's many Americans ( non-mexican origin ) that played in mexico, but latelly mexicans should been smarter sign players like Recken or Jerome, develop them and sale they for high price. But mexican arrogance and nationalism keep they blind from youth american talent pipeline.
Mexican clubs don't want white US boys or dark brown/black US boys, they want light brown ones. Thats that. If you've been paying attention to DMN's posts over the past 2 months a shit ton of hispanic high schoolers have been heading off the Mexico this summer. And those are only the ones we are hearing about..............