A bit unorthodox topic, I fear, but I was recently considering who would be identified as the best American player who never played abroad. For me, Eddie Pope is the obvious choice, as he clearly could have (should have?) had a great career in Europe. Who else would be on the shortlist of candidates? Mastroeni, Balboa, Ralston, Kreis? who am I missing?
Pope is the clear number one for me. He's probably in our top 5 best USMNT players of all time or very close to it.
Balboa played in Mexico, so he's not on the list. Pope and Pablo are the two who jump out at me. If Armas had ever managed to stay healthy through a whole World Cup cycle, he might be in the discussion as well. Sam goes for Robin Fraser, who ended up getting about 100 fewer caps than he should have.
Eddie Pope. He could have had a long career in Europe, but he chose to play in MLS. And for that, US fans should be very thankful.
Eddie Pope is the run-away winner. But for me, a case could be made for Chad Marshall. Between 07-09 he was every bit as good IN MLS as Eddie Pope was. He never performed for the US the way Pope did, but he showed a lot for the Crew that suggested he'd maxed out here and was ready for a greater challenge. Also, Kevin Hartman and Nick Rimando. Hartman at his prime could have gone to anywhere in Scandanavia or the Belgium and Holland while Rimando, with his foot skills, could be a star in net in Mexico (and not count as a foreigner, either).
Another name is Robin Fraser. He spent his 20s playing in the lower divisions here before MLS while American defenders like Lalas, Balboa, Cle Kooiman, John Doyle and even Mikes Burns and Lapper were playing abroad. Then MLS starts and - whoah - turns out ol' Robin is every bit as good as they are and in most cases, better. That's why he has 2 MLS Defender of the Year awards and none of them (save for Doyle) don't have any and Fraser has more Best XI appearances than the guys listed above do combined. (Lalas and Doyle one each - Fraser four.) If those guys made money playing abroad, than Fraser should have been able to, too.
What were the circumstances surrounding Pope staying in MLS? Was he just that committed to the league?
Yes. Had ample chances to go. Part of his staying was to be a role model for black kids, especially in the DC area and his home in NC, to see a soccer player making good money in this county that looked like them.
Pope is #1. You can't even debate that. A couple of unmentioned names: Steve Ralston, Kevin Hartman, Chris Wondolowski (though it may happen), Chris Klein, Brian Ching, Mike Petke, and Jason Kreis must have all had chances at some point but for whatever reason were career MLSers.
For me it'd have to be Wondo though he may just get to Mexico or some non top5- European league. I never saw Pope/Balboa/Mastroeni/ play but heard of how great they played. Question though, why did Pope never play abroad? Did he just prefer MLS?
What, no one said, Landon Donovan? Maybe he was in Saint Quentin ... c'mon, think positively about your fellow posters.
Unlike a lot of these who didn't have actual offers to go abroad, Mike Petke once had offer/s from a Bundisliga club/s and instead of taking them leveraged them to get a better offer and stay with the MetroStars.
Jimmy Conrad did the same thing - had an offer from Norway, used the offer to up his KC pay. (Mathis used this tactic when returning to MLS, Wolff when signing his $400k/y deal)
Years past that. Just wasn't a USMNT fan until 2007 and have only followed MLS a tiny bit over the recent years.