Galaxy should be looking at the South Africans

Mphela
Shabalala

 

I agree with your statement, but something tells me it's going to be the other way around. South Africans (and many others who play on the continent) will probably try to figure out how to get to the Galaxy.

...or settle for another MLS team. Imagine Chivas loaded with Africans!

 

Chivas USA's owners would go bonkers.

 

The African continent is well-scouted by the Euro leagues, and has been for years. Drogba? Essien? Not likely LAG or anyone in MLS is going to pick up a superstar for peanuts.

 

True, but the majority of the South Africa squad play in their domestic league. We might be able to grab one or two of those players. (Of course, the South African league is quite a bit wealthier than most African leagues, so we might not actually be able to make a better offer.)

 

I'd love to see Guzan shut out Mexico, or Kljestan or Bornstein score a game-winner against Mexico. Hated them all in Chivas shirts, but I have nothing against any of them in the USA shirt. And it would certainly drive Vergara nuts.

 

Superstar, no, but scouting the World Cup is good fun. Besides, you never know what might happen. I mean New Zealand did finish above Italy undefeated, so anything is really possible.

 

I thought that we worked out a South African player in '08 or at least I remember him being rumored to come here.

 

Yeah I forget his name but he was a left midfielder if I recall correctly.

 

Yes, because the Drogba's and Essien's are what we'd be able to sign

For all of the attention it has received, the African continent still hasn't been tapped in terms of the overwhelming depth of talent there.


Mansally, the Nyassi duo, Ekpo ?

While not world beaters, they've either got great potential or have already shown that they can be very productive players in the leauge. There are literally thousands of guys like this all over Africa and I'm going out on a limb here, and I'll say that there are at least a good number in the hundreds that lay between the Ekpo's and the Drogba's of African football.

 

JAPAN/ S. KOREA

the African nations do have a lot of talent but these guys in the J. League are pretty sick. while there is no chance of us signing a Honda, there are some other good players out there that we should look at. the same problem stands in our way here as it does in S. Africa, and that is their domestic leagues have just as much money invested if not more so our offers might not be accepted.

although if i remember correctly a year or two ago there was a post in the forum here about signing a young Japanese player, would be funny if it was Honda but i cant recall

 

The good news is that MLS seems to be rapidly becoming the destination of choice for Gambia's best young players. After Mansally and Sainey Nyassi, it seems the rest of MLS is combing Gambia for talent, and getting there ahead of the Europeans.

On the other hand I'm not sure everyone here realizes how much of a shock the Ekpo signing was. Ekpo was on the Olympic team before he joined Columbus, and was on the radar of quite a few European clubs. At the time he signed, I saw Nigerian fans on various message boards saying they thought it was a terrible move for him considering his other opportunities.

 

That's an interesting thought. But the question is: can we actually get younger players from those leagues? The only East Asian players who have played in MLS are Hong Myung-Bo, who was over the hill, and Kosuke Kimura, who played college soccer in the US and stayed here.

The USL had a big influx of Japanese players last year, but I think every single one of them was over 30 and probably looking to retire here.


Another idea: we might actually be able to get a player or two from Uruguay. They've got several players based in their domestic league in their World Cup squad, and a lot of the Uruguayan league is in financial difficulties.

 

I agree. This is great for a whole host of reasons. Not to mention there is clearly some quality there.

 

Getting some players from the K or J Leagues would be awesome, but on the whole they pay more than MLS does. I don't really know what we could offer a player in the J or K Leagues to get them over here. Similar quality, prestige and exposure in all three leagues (give or take a bit, I'm not here to debate which is better). Given that, why would a player from the J or K League sign for MLS?

Still seeing Honda (yes, not a J. League player anymore) or Endo in MLS would be awesome. I would have loved to see Nakamura join MLS instead of going back to Japan (or even to Espanyol when his Celtic contract expired). We'd have to give any of those guys DP contracts for them to come over here though.