Another yank from the U-17 residency program is heading overseas. Jarey Jeffrey is joining Club Brugge in Belguim, which is one of the top clubs in that league. Here's the yanks abroad thread on this news. Only Big Soccer news for now, hopefully we'll get confirmation from a more reputable source shortly. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=636308 Personally, I feel there is going to be a flood of US youngsters going to Europe very shortly. Not necessarily good for MLS, but that's not what the US forum is about.
And the Belgian league is an interesting option. It's a shopping district for the top leagues. If you play well there, you can move on to bigger things if that's what you choose. More and more yanks are going to be going to these leagues (Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, etc.) due to the $$$$$ it provides over MLS. Not necessarily for the quality of the competition, although we can argue about that one. Right now in Belgium we've got Gooch at Standard Liege Greg Dalby at Charleroi Alecko Eskandarian has reportedly been offered a contract by Standard Liege And now Jared Jeffrey moving to Club Brugge. In the Eskandarian thread a Belgian poster has told us the minimum salary there is 75k euros (i.e. ~150k dollars) for a first team player. Who knows if he's right (too lazy to check myself).
Thanks, too lazy to look that up too. I was thinking in pounds. You can see the difference there between MLS and even the Belgian league. The top talent in MLS gets paid well, but the average player could make more money by working as the assistant manager at Ruby Tuesday's. In Belgium the MINIMUM salary is 100k.
Yeah. It sucks. I think the minimum for MLS should be 75K. At least we could make guys think about going over seas with that kind of minimum.
The move is reputable. Youngsters ... and oldsters too. I'm surprised more news about the recent U-17's have leaked out yet. Only Jeffries and possibly Sheanon Williams so far. (Lambo story has been around for a long time) You'd think there'd be a few more in the upcoming weeks, especially as the kids will be nearing their 18th birthday.
Hi, I'm a supporter of Club Brugge. Is it for sure Jared is coming to Brugge?? Cause haven't heard much about it here... And is he any good?? Don't know anything about him...
The key is what constitutes a first teamer. A lot of these guys that are good enough to attract foreign interest are not developmental type players and are or shortly would be making 50k -100k+ in MLS. If they are not a first teamer in Belgium how much difference would there be?
Hi, I'm ardent Club Brugge supporter from Belgium. Here's some background on the Jared Jeffry story. Indeed, it seems like he is movin to my favorite team. Club's sport manager Luc Devroe admidts that he was suppressed by this guy and Club Brugge is following him for some time now, Luc Devroe reportedly has been in the US on several occasions (in fact it's looking like He's setting up camp there to spot young talent for my team). As for Jared Jeffery, he has earned a ticket to join the A-team on their trip to Turkey in January, where they will play in a little tournament. The idea is to evaluate how he is integrating into the team and doing on training. When all this goes wel they will offer him a contract the moment he turns 18. Some words about Club Brugge : It is indeed one of the 2 all-time top teams in the Jupiler Leage (Belgian soccer league). We were champion for 13 times already and when all goes well we'll celebrate our 14th in May this year. Every year Club Brugge plays in eighter the Champions League or the UEFA cup. 2 years ago Club Brugge was selecte the most popular brand in Belgium leaving behind it biggies such as ********** and Google. At the moment about 70.000 Belgians favor this team (hey we are a small country) More info http://www.clubbrugge.be/home/en/
Better yet, if we had MLS mimimum's at a decent level, more top players in the US would make soccer their career. Right now the average MLS developmental player needs to have another full time job just to pay basic bills. Even the average MLS first team player makes less than an assistant manager at Walmart. ANy player leaving college has to sacrifice some serious money making potential to go MLS instead of moving into a career from their degree.
http://www.americansoccerdaily.com/news/jeffrey160208.htm Jared Jeffrey has officially signed with Club Brugge on a three year deal as reported by ASD. We're going to continue to see more US youth internationals going abroad.
Didn't Zimmerman sign with Hannover while he was still 17? I believe there were certain restrictions on what he could do until he turned 18. He couldn't play any official games. Also there were restrictions on how long he could stay in the country.
He hasn't even signed in Brugge... maybe that article says he did, but nothing is mentioned on the official site of the club. I really doubt whether that article is correct or not.
FIFA has a rule against the international transfer of children. From the Zimmerman case, apparently, a player and a team can sign some kind of pre-contract. But, frankly, it's of dubious legality. It's a slightly more formal equivalent to a high school junior's commitment to play college basketball at school X. I'll bet anything that if for some reason Zimmerman had wanted to sign elsewhere, he could have.
The European teams created this problem. They were taking underage kids from Africa and dumping them in the streets when they don't PAN out. This is one of the main reasons FIFA changed the age to 18 for non EU players. The post above is absolutely right. Obi Mikel signed one of those at 17 with Man U and he got out of it because he wanted to go to Chelsea.
A club can pay a player on a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly basis but the player can't be tied to a pro contract until turning 18. For all practical intents and purposes, someone like Jeffrey will be out of his mind to leave Brugge between now and his 18th birthday unless he gets a mega offer from a German or a Dutch club. Otherwise, he is at a situation where he is wanted and that's half of the reason of being anywhere to begin with. Zim was on an amateur contract as well and even had to leave Germany every few months to abide by his tourist visa.
Video interview linked through No Short Corners: http://www.noshortcorners.com/2009/01/kickin-it-with-jared.html
Thanks for the link. That was good for me, as I read these forums, but rarely get to see games or players since I only have basic cable and live in the Pacific Northwest. I am excited to see how he progresses. Scumby