It's clear what line the agent is pushing, not clear why he's pushing it. ESPN really has no business acting as his mouthpiece, though. They've got plenty of native Spanish speakers on staff who could've offered an impartial review of the audio from Najar's interview. I do not believe that Schaerlaeckens characterized it accurately. EDIT to add that Schaerlaeckens doesn't characterize Najar's situation fully, since playing an official junior international would also cap-tie him permanently.
Well yes and no. According to the MLS article yesterday........ http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/najar-refutes-reports-honduras-commitment Although he has a green card, Najar does not have a US passport and is currently only eligible to play for Honduras and El Salvador. Blah, blah, blah .........so if he represents Honduras at the U20 level, he can still do a one-time switch to El Salvador. But not ever to the United States. It would be quite amusing if after all this nonsense, Andy chose El Salvador
There are two possibilities. 1. He is ready to announce a final decision because he wants to help Honduras with the U-20s this year. 2. He is ready to announce a final decision because he's sure he can get US citizenship in time for the 2014 World Cup. You're welcome.
Players who are decisive and clear about what they want and who without reservation commit from the heart to the jersey, colors and country are valued higher than those who are not sure and make it an intellectual process. Najar has competition with big hearts for the USA at the position he plays. He may end up as a bench player at best for the Nats.
Well, I think he's a damn good player..........but the point stands. There's no gaurantee that in ~3 years when Najar becomes available for the USMNT (hypothetically), we'd want him. The kid would probably be assured of a place on our U20 national team right now, but there's also a lot of other talent on that team. A lot can happen in 3 years.
So true.. I wonder how he would comapre to Gatt, Gyau, Renken and Gil is 3-4 years. Gyau appears to be a player very close to Najar.
Much more interested in Mwanga being on the USMNT than either Najar or Tchani. Quite simply, we have a dearth of quality forward options and the more potential we have in that position the better. We at least have some depth in the midfield.
Yeah, a guy like Tchani (who I regard as a quality player) was a guy that could've been an important pick-up in an earlier era, like Shalrie Joseph could've been in the mid-2000s had he been eligible. At this point, he'd be one of many guys fighting for a second-string role after Holden/Bradley/Jones//Edu, like Spector and Feilhaber and Torres and Kljestan and Clark and McCarty (not that all of those "other" guys are necessarily starting on the same footing; Spector has a leg up).
damn good thing that Earnie Stewart, Roy Wegerle and Thomas Dooley did not have your rules committed to heart! The USA would have been F$#@ed.
Really? We currently have four guys that start in better leagues than he ever played in. He's a great player, but we are strong at his position now. Back in the day... that's another story.
Depth ain't bad. If Tchani gets US citizenship, and still hasn't been looked at by Cameroon, then we'll probably take a look at him. All the guys you've mentioned have different skill sets, so it would just be up to the USMNT coach to pick the guys that fit his plan. Ask yourself this.......if he was eligible for camp cupcake this year..........would you have rather called up Tchani or Eric Alexander? For me the answer would have to be Tchani.
Meh. I saw Tchani play a lot last year. He was okay. Hopefully he improves on last season, cause if not I never see him being anything more than a capable MLS mid.
Totally. I'm not writing him off. I consider him a strong player. My point is that if he ends up with Cameroon, he's not a loss that I think we have to pine too much over. The loss of a guy like Mwanga (who has given every indication without explicitly saying so that he intends specifically to play for the USA once eligible), on the other hand, is a loss that would most likely be felt. We need finishers up top.
IMO, Joseph at his prime was in the same class as these 4 guys that you referred to. IIRC, his offer for transfer to Celtics (?) was turned down by the MLS.
That's correct. Of course, central midfield has been a position we've been relatively secure in with or without Shalrie Joseph. And there was exactly a zero percent chance we were going to get him anyway. Joseph was first capped by Grenada's senior team in 2002, before he had played a game in MLS. (remember that he was drafted in 2002, but tried to find a club overseas for much of that year.) If he was in the process of getting citizenship while he was playing at po-dunk Bryant & Stratton College in Syracuse.........then maybe he'd have been eligible in some reasonable frame of time. But there was zero reason for anyone to think that he'd be a USMNT-capable player at the time. There was certainly no reason for the USSF to call him up and say, "We realize you're essentially playing at ITT Tech right now, but just in case you defy the odds and become good some day..........perhaps you should start the process to getting citizenship?" That wasn't going to happen. I'm not sure Shalrie is a citizen right now, actually. These things happen. Same with Vedad Ibisevic, Bakary Soumare, and countless others. The chances were slim. Personally, I think the chances of us getting Najar are slim. We have to ask him to wait ~3 years........missing the U20WC, Olympics, Gold Cup, and perhaps the start of World Cup qualifiying.............while Honduras is calling him every day asking him to suit up for them in those competitions. Eventually he'll cave. Mwanga's a different story. I suspect our chances are really good to get him. [I'll add that I thought there was no way in hell we were going to get Bunbury. So what do I know? Not much.]
http://twitter.com/andynajar14/statuses/34759817474080768 Just saw this on the DC United Boards, thought it was interesting that he posed this question. I am surprised it hadn't made to this forum yet, its a week old over there.
crap......good player. was likely good enough for us, but we will never know now. yet another one I would have at least liked to look into, I think he could have been great in the destroyer role to replace JJ. Cannot blame him at all for taking this callup though given current USMNT climate