As mentioned above, Gooch had a Euro passport and Serie A was a lot tighter in those days on the foreigners.
This, plus the free transfer made it a "what do we have to lose?" signing. Turns out, broken ribs for Ibra.
What is your point here? And what evidence do you have that Gooch was a "big name" in the USA, and that's the reason he was signed?
Gooch also put off a potentially big move earlier while at Liege. A number of big clubs were interested to make an offer, but he stuck with Standard and Prud'homme to battle to win the league. He had some good luck - and some bad luck. But what an interesting career.
I wonder how many Gooch shirts Milan actually sold? More or less than what our other global superstar Boca sold for Rangers? Sounds like an idea for an investigative piece. Maybe from the same guy who recently wrote that "MLS went out of business in 2001" article.
Boca actually had jerseys sold when he joined Rangers? Now I can believe Bradley sold some jerseys when he moved to Roma or Dempsey to Spurs and of course Howard to United but i don't see Boca moving to Rangers selling any
Even though it was only 7 years ago the USMNT was nowhere near the popularity level it is now. And that is saying a lot considering it still isn't very popular. Signing an American, even if it was one of our best players at the time, was not going to move the needle simply because there was no needle to move. Even LD didn't reach any broad mass appeal amongst American sports fans until WC 2010 and we all saw how many folks started snatching up Everton kits in 2011 .
Gooch. He hasn't officially retired and yet what does he do? Train privately? Host tours for US soccer?
I wish he had not gotten so big with the weights. At the beginning of his career he mentioned how all of his colleagues told him to lay off the weights. If he had been 10-120 lbs lighter, even if he was not as strong, he might have been quicker and a better player. It is rare that you see as muscular a guy as Gooch playing soccer because all of that upper body weight has to cut down on quickness and agility.
I don't know enough about it, but I think a look at his career makes it pretty clear that 2009 is the dividing line, and that was when he blew out his patella tendon. Before 2009 he was at least twice Juliper top XI, a championship or two with Liege. Loan to Newcastle, transfer offers from Real and Milan (among others reported.) He had 4 clubs in 8 years. almost 200 1st team games in Belgium and England (and a few in France). After 2009 - journeyman. 6 clubs in 6 years. <50 1st team games in Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, England and Spain. I blame the knee, mostly. (Now, did the knee blow because of muscular-skeletal issues? That is above my pay grade.)
Never was a huge Gooch fan because agility was always lacking. Juliper top 11 is good but not so different from MLS top 11. There is no doubt that his injuries hurt and I agree that the muscles may or may not have contributed. But my point was that he MIGHT have been a better soccer player if he was not so freaking muscular. That cant have helped his quickness and agility.
I really have no idea. Mr. Bolt is not hurt by his muscles but perhaps some are. So while I dunno about the muscles, it's clear Onyewu was never the same after the knee. And while in the Juliper he was second (on many lists at least) only to Kompany. But injuries are part of the game. I give him a lot of credit for staying in the game and trying to contribute where he could.
Hard to imagine at 1 time Kompany was a lesser known star to Gooch. Bad career moves didn't help. Moving to an EPL side in relegation trouble in January is never a good idea.
The Newcastle move might have dimmed his star among fans, but my guess is it did nothing to dim his star professionally. He might have stayed at Liege too long, but it was out of loyalty to coach and club, so you can't really fault him for that. Really, it's impossible to say what would have happened without the injury. My guess is Milan was always a bridge a bit too far. Onyewu just never had the technical footskills and speed of play to make a great impression in Serie A, but was a very athletic, strong tackling, smart in position and dominant in the air. But as he was never the quickest player before the injury, anything that took reaction time or even added hesitation to his game was going to be hard to overcome. My guess is he was always just short of a top team CD. While in some ways he was as good as or even better than, say Tony Sanneh or Gregg Berhalter - at least in the tackle, in the air and at smothering clever attackers - he never had their touch, technical skills or "total football" sensibility (Sanneh being helped by having been an attacker and wide mid as a youngster, Beerholder hurt by his lack of speed and quickness, but always had a good touch and technical skills.) He was always a bit too much a 1-way CD (aside from throw in and attacking corner kicks.)
I remember that summer after the Confed Cup he had lots of interest. Wolverhampton, some French clubs and Turkish big clubs interested in him. I guess the appeal for playing for AC and the possibility of trophies and $$$ (despite the likelihood of him riding the bench for most of the time he was there) was strong.