soccernutter...fair enough. Alot of posters make these casual statements about how the USMNT needs more minorities, and I try to call them on it in a nice way. That's what I (wrongly) thought you were doing. Anyway, if you look at the different players who started for us in SoKo, it's clear that non-Hispanic whites were very UNDERrepresented. Tough question, as I don't have access to the books. Nor do I have any feel for how veteran players might react to a salary at a given level. Nor do I know Freddy's feelings on the subject. Nor do I know how realistic is the notion that a club has found a way around the FIFA rule. Nor have I seen Freddy play against adults, so I don't know how good of a player he might be in MLS. But I think the most I would ever pay him is the league max., with an equal amount off the books. I just can't imagine him being worth more than that.
Re: Freddy should stay here for a couple seasons OK, but this is tantamount to saying it would be foolish for an English team to sign him. They'd just be paying him to play for someone else, and by the time Freddy might be ready to play for them, they'll have to bid for him all over again. From FIFA.com "Art. 35 A player who has not reached his eighteenth birthday may sign a contract as non-amateur only for a period not exceeding three years. Any clause referring to a longer period shall not be recognised by FIFA or a national sports tribunal."
first of all, adu is worth whatever he asks for from MLS because when they sell him in a few years, they are bound to get... well who knows? triple that? quintuple? 10X? 20X? if he wanted $3M from me... you better believe i'd pony up and be glad i did i wasn't ROTFLMAO at the chelsea part, it was the 'DCU are probably the best team to develop him' mullarkey that had me rollin' - what color crack are you on? we all know AJAX is the best place for him to develop wow... that's a REALLY piss poor selfish view - and an idiotic one at that... after all, he would still play for the USMNT - WTF does that kid owe to you or MLS? nothing. zip. zilch. why not the same attitude towards JOB or cory gibbs? i'd expect better from you brother excellent excellent excellent point
Yeah i would say for MLS, I wouldn't really expect them to pay this kid more than 250K a year. Maybe some would disagree with that but if a 3 year, 250k deal to play in your hometown wasn't enough, and the chance at becoming an American house hold name...? Then I don't know if i could fault MLS for that.
Read Superdave's post. You can't sell what you don't own. There are two leagues that he has value to right now....MLS and the Ghanian first division. I'd argue he's worth more in MLS. Dave, One thing to think about. While it is still a risk, whomever signs him could renegotiate in a year for another three years, repeat the process until he's 18. No guarantee he'd re-sign, but if you sweetened the pot enough, you might be able to convince him. Now, how you get around the fact you couldn't sign him in the first place and the fact that he can't play in England, I have no idea.
The FIFA rule prohibiting players under the age of 18 from playing over seas was designed to stop teams from exploiting teens who signed for clubs outside of their home countries. These kids are often left with no one to look out for their interests but the clubs that signed them, and are easily taken advantage of. It was created to help protect the thousands of kids in youth programs that we DON'T hear about. I've read that many of the large clubs that have been trying to sign freddy(chelsea, Man U) are confident that they can sidestep this rule due to how high profile freddy is. They argue that, since freddy is so well known, and that he already has people guiding him financially and (i'd assume) emotionally, that he is not in danger of being taken advantage of.
Let's go to the FIFA rules again. You can't sign a child to a deal longer than 3 years. Remember that. Tattoo it to your palm. Got it? OK, good, we can move on. By the time Freddy can legally sign with a Euro club, his 3 season deal with MLS will have expired. So MLS will sell him for the same amount they sold David Beckham and Ian Bishop.
Dave...although you've made some very good points in this thread, given the fact that many articles have speculated that these clubs and Freddy's agent may have found a loopwhole in the regulation, including Grant Wahl. What the heck makes you think that you can speak with the kind of authority on this issue that you are?
Where did you read that? http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/w...ode=&contentId=A55957-2003Aug13¬Found=true Kershaw works for the ManU youth academy. Greddy, what you're saying makes logical and moral sense. But FIFA didn't write the rule to give a loophole if the child's deal was for a million Euros minimum or something. Plus, you're only half right to begin with. Another purpose of the rule is to protect African and South American club football. I don't think the African confederation (the SA confederation only has 10 votes, so who cares about them) will take too kindly to FIFA giving up this rule, and let's face it, Africa is a pretty strong confederation politically.
they can find a away to make sure they get the transfer fee (sign a pair of two-years, whatever) - i know the rules, you don't have to be so condescending... ok maybe if i was sonicspride you would
Nobody (except GersMan) can ever say what the loophole is. Plus, if you go back to all of the threads around the time of the U-17s, it's clear that Freddy's agent was the source of most of the rumors. That's my polite reply. My rude reply is, what kind of a dumbass thinks me just asking how it's gonna happen is speaking with authority? All I do is quote the rules, and ask how the clubs are going to get around it. You're a perfect citizen for John Ashcroft's America. Asking questions is considered out of bounds. We should all nod obediently. So for the slow ones out there, I'll write it again. How is it gonna happen? I've seen one great idea (contract to take effect on his 18th birthday) and one decent idea (Freddy signs a deal with MLS brokered by, for example, ManU, with an exclusive buyout clause for ManU. In return, ManU pays MLS for this clause, and MLS launders the money and passes it on to Freddy. I'm not sure how that gets around the 3 year rule unless Freddy signs with MLS after his 15th birthday.) So I'm not a fundamentalist about this. I just want an answer better than "money talks."
In a negotiation, there are two parties advocating for their interests. Why would Freddy sign a deal taking him past his 18th birthday, thus limiting his options?
Hopefully not too much above... The BBC is quoting the other papers, not doing any reporting on the situation or confirming the story themselves. Which, by my estimation, is pretty sloppy jounalism. The politics of this rule should be interesting. Didn't the African confederation support Blatter's opponent in the last FIFA election? And didn't the US support Blatter? If I'm right, it would be interesting to see the Africans and the USSF fighting together to have the rule upheld.
Found the link http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=274617&cc=5901 I'm not saying it's a sure thing, or even likely(in fact, I hope it's not), i'm just saying that it might be possible.
$0? $10,000? Come on. How can you be sure that Freddy will develop? It's a crap shoot. MLS can't afford to put all their eggs in one basked. They can afford the Stern Johns, the Damani Ralphs, the Carlos Ruizes, the DaMarcus Beasleys. They can't afford the risk associated with Freddy Adu. $3MM+ invested in a player who likely won't be ready for regular first team action for a couple of years. Even Wayne Rooney has trouble being a first team player.
1-takes money to make money 2-i'm sure some people refused to take the 'risk' when microsoft was at a buck a share - hell getting married is a risk, crossing the street, eating onion rings, etc. - no risk, no reward 3-you can't be sure... but you can use good judgement 4-rooney has trouble when exactly? that guy is better than half the premiership attackers NOW... and probably england's second best option upfront at 17 - he scores the big goals and creates like a #10
This was specifically one of the comments I was refering to from Wahl. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/grant_wahl/news/2003/08/17/adu_part2/ Liverpool director of youth recruitment Barry Whitbread told me, "There's always a way." What it may come down to is whether the FIFA rule is as amenable to exceptions as, say, the English work permit rules that allowed Tim Howard's transfer to Man United. For now, we can't know for sure. This is from my original post on this topic. If you want to bring politics into the equation, I'd say that you're the one with a more Ashcroftian view point of 'a rule is a rule is a rule.' I would say that I'm skeptical and hopefull that this rule will be enforced. Sure there's the posability that Freddy will be loaned back to MLS, but the enforcement of this rule is very important for the Project-40 program, or at least would make MLS' life much less difficult. If one is skeptical that this rule is going to be enfored I would say that the biggest evidence behind that is that there's seemingly so many clubs lining up to sign this kid. And to that I say, to what end? Wouldn't one assume that if the clubs or the agent are trying to shop the kid overseas they at least had some confidence that there'd be a way around this Fifa rule? FIFA media officer John Schumacher tells me that FIFA will not comment on any situation (Adu included) until a case is formally brought before the governing body. Since FIFA isn't willing to interpret the rule as it relates specifically to Adu, everyone else has their own interpretation. It's obvious that he wouldn't comment on it and say, 'yeah sure we're probably going to let it happn.' However, to me at least its telling that he didn't say, 'It's a non-issue as a that's the rule and we're not going to bend it.' This is often known as the Donavan Rule by some people around here, I would hate to see the Freddy case be the Adu exception.
from the same article: Ellinger (U.S. Under-17 coach): "They say you've got to be 18 to sign a professional contract, especially in the [English] Premiership. But if you can't play as a pro at 15, let's say, you can certainly still go to a club around the world at 15. You could just get a youth pass and a huge signing bonus that kind of makes up for not getting a pro salary. That hasn't happened to any of our guys yet, but I'm sure there's a way to make it happen. You've heard the thing about how the family has to move for non-football reasons to go into a country. I've talked to many FIFA agents, and you get different answers from each one. Their interpretations are hilarious. Depending on their clientele, they have different responses."
If I recall correctly, when a player on Europe is set to go on a Bosman transfer in the summer, a club wishing to attempt to sign this player can pay a first negotiation fee, or something like that. IOW, if, say (hypothetically) Howard's contract were to end with ManU at the end of this season, then another club, say Juventus, could buy the right to be the first club to get the chance to negotiate with him. Perhaps the same could be done with Freddy. Pay him 3 million now, advised him that they will have a contract for him when he turns 15, and sign a 3 year deal. When he turns 17, sign him to a longer deal. maxim-1 - thanks for the link - I had forgotten about that. dave - yeah, I realized those comments are made early and often. The reason for my correction.