Daniel Johnson at West Ham Utd

cool story.

 

Wonder if he's WP-eligible and, if so, how.

Looks like he's a '95.

 

I don't think it matters for youth teams but if he wants to sign a pro deal at 17-18 he'll need one.

He seems happy either way if he stays at West Ham or goes back home. At least he isn't pinning all his hopes on a scholarship with the academy.

 

Still haven't found a mention of him on the West Ham site, but it may be that he hasn't risen to that squad level yet.

 

New article from TDS:

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/play...85/Georgia-player-growing-with-West-Ham--Pt-1

Sounds like next year will be a quite important one for him.


Part 2 to be posted tomorrow (Dec 22nd).

 

What are the residency requirements for U k citizenship? By the time he turns 18 he will have lived there at least 3 years, maybe that'll help.

 

5 years.

 

Regarding the work permit, from Part 2 of the article:

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/play...86/Georgia-player-growing-with-West-Ham--Pt-2

 

If he went there as a 13 year old then he will have the 5 years for citizenship once he turns 18.

 

He will have to get leave of remain first which I believe takes 5 years (3 if you're married so his parents could qualify first). Once you have leave of remain you can start the actual naturalization process.

There is also the issue of the amount of time they've spent outside the UK during their 3-5 year period.

 

It occurred to me while watching the Louisville-Wake Forest game that the Cardinals' Daniel Johnson is this guy, who transferred from U-Md.

http://www.gocards.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5304

http://www.gocards.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5304

Looked like a good college player -- an aggressive attacking midfielder who seems to have a lot of responsibility on this year's Louisville team. He's started every game, scoring five goals.

 

Snip:

The consensus top player on Day 1 of the Combine, Johnson left his family and friends behind in 2009, when, at the age of 13, he moved from his parent’s home in Atlanta to London to join the academy of English Premier League club West Ham United. Barely a teenager, he lived at his boarding school, the Brentwood Academy, progressing with West Ham until, after three years with the club, he landed a contract offer in February 2012 to join their U-18s.

Johnson, who was then 16, was eager to accept the offer, which would’ve seen him spend two years with the U-18s before moving on to a full professional deal. There was a wrinkle, however. Because he’d moved to England without his parents for the sole purpose of joining West Ham’s academy, Johnson and the club were violating FIFA’s child protection laws. The English FA approved his contract, but FIFA nixed it. When a final appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport was denied, Johnson was forced to return to the US.

“I would’ve spent two years with the Under-18 team with opportunities within that to move to the reserves, to move up and the understanding with that was that I’d be moving forward with the reserves and the professional team after two years,” Johnson said on Sunday. “So getting denied, it really was a dagger.”
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http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/...lleges-and-now-mls-combine?platform=hootsuite

I wonder if he explored other professional opportunities before heading to Maryland. Does not appear so, but you never know.

 

Balls! He can go back. When he's a grown up.

 

ExtraTime Radio has been referring to this guy as one of the best at the MLS Combine.

 

He signed with the Fire, who drafted him.

 

Here's one more take on the story -- which, unlike probably 99% of all profiles of professional soccer players around the world, includes the word "svelte":

He was just 13 when he moved from Duluth to England to play for English Premier League team West Ham United’s youth academy. He trained with club’s youth teams and attended and lived at the Brentwood School.

“It was tough to go away so early,” Johnson said. “But I had a dream I wanted to chase and I had something that was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down, being able to go over there despite being so young. It was scary, but I just had a bigger goal that sort of kept me preoccupied. West Ham took great care of me and sort of developed like a second family over there. As the years went on, it just got easier being away from home.”

In addition to adjusting to life on his own without his family — he has three brothers (Zack, Nick and Drew) — Johnson also had to adapt to playing soccer across the pond.

It wasn’t easy for the svelte midfielder, but he said it made him a much better player.

“Definitely working defensively,” he said of where he improved. “Going over there and working on discerning when is the right time to dribble? When is the right time to play? Improving that awareness and as you move up levels the game gets faster, so just being able to cope and adjust to that and adding other things to your game. Being able to take a guy on, but also being able to play one- and two-touch. I think that’s the biggest aspect that I’ve worked on.”

Johnson’s master plan seemed to be coming to fruition in 2012 , when at 16, he was offered a contract to play for West Ham’s U-18 team. The opportunity would have allowed him to work his way up further with the club and perhaps the chance to play in the EPL.

But the contract was blocked by FIFA, which said Johnson and West Ham had violated the global soccer organization’s child protection laws since he moved to England without his parents for the sole purpose of playing for the academy.
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http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/sp...cle_e0f567f9-5655-5684-bf6e-e2a0f1862b15.html

 

Not that he's a YA, but since he got a somewhat substantial sub runout today, figured I'd say that he looked pretty good (lively, assertive, good skill, ideas, not a one-note player) though the game itself was sort of a mess given the weather and the early red card (and subsequent two-goal lead) for NYC.