Don't feel like you can't express your mind/opinion on here, plenty of people do just look at the Freddy Adu threads! Prowazekii is right about the low ball offers from MLS. MLS will never admit it but they really seem to low ball a lot of players who skip out on MLS to pursue options in Europe to start their career. I don't blame you or anyone else that does it. There are so many more options in Europe as you know.
You don't have to give specific $ amounts but what would an offer from a Swedish side be compared to the minimum MLS offer?
Yo Nate. Greg here. I like the all access idea. Sorry things didnt work out in Chicago. It would gave been nice to see the games on tv but I guess it was not meant to be. I know you didn't get much playing time, but you have played in enough places that im curious what you think of the MLS level as compared to Sweden, Latvia and Ireland. And I'm talking about soccer, not the ladies.
the reason I'm doing this is because I'm being honest.. we can speak of anything you want.. I want you all to see what I'm about so you will be more interested in not only following me on Monday, but also telling others to follow me. in MLS the minimum is 30 before taxes..then you also have to use that money for food and housing. on paper 30k isn't bad at all, but with all things considered, but in europe any club will give you an apartment and some sort of meal plan...** so if you would get let's say only 1k/month from a EU team, but they pay your apartment and 3 meals a day it's not too bad. **this is something most people don't think about. I am in NO WAY bashing MLS! I think it's an incredible league and the facilities and clubs are great, just for a young player it's easy to be swayed in a different direction.**
Just so you all know, in case you haven't seen the other threads.... Here is a sample of what I'm going to be doing. Twice a day I will try to have video like this as well as video showing where I am and interviewing players/coaches/ etc on what they think of american soccer players http://www.twitvid.com/NJHRC
how's everyone doing? I played well enough in tenhult this last few months to get some teams that invited me intro training during July. The first team I'm going to is vasby united, who are the 2nd team of AIK. As before, I will have the camera with me when I can so everyone can follow on twitter. I did an interview with yanks abroad yesterday, but I figured I'd let everyone here know first what I'm up too. http://twitvid.com/LBITD
I am playing in a game with Sirius Tuesday against Leicester City. Sven goran ericsson is the trainer at leicester so it should be fun. After training with Vasby they are sending a scout from AIK to watch me and they will make a decision after that. On twitter I will have the can on so you all can see what it should be like. If there is anything you guys want to see/know.. let me know and I will do my best to meet that request. I think it's definitly one of first times I know of that someone updates everything as its happening so I hope you all find it interesting.. All the best. Nate
Nate is currently on trial with Örebro He also has interest from Superettan side Landskrona as well as the previously mentioned IK Sirius
Weiss tour has now taken him up into the far north of Sweden. He has arrived for a trial with third tier club Umeå FC. The team is currently in first place of the table with zero losses in 13 games and seem to be heading for promotion to Superettan. In a newspaper interview Weiss say that Umeå is the best option for him and if it was up to him he'd like a three year contract. He also compliments the manager and says that it's up to him to decide whether or not to sign him.
New interview with Weiss (in Swedish). Mostly things we knew. Unfortunately nothing new on the hunt for a club. Few tidbits: His favorite club in the US is Chicago Fire. His favorite club in Sweden is Djurgården. Sweden is the best place he has lived in Europe - nice people, great standard of living, etc. His best soccer memory was winning the Latvian Cup. Biggest soccer influence was Roy Keane.
Yep. FYI I did the intervew and I'm the one who wrote the article too. I sincerely hope Nate will find a club in the higher leagues of Sweden, it'd be fun to see him play in Superettan or Allsvenskan.
Good work. Did you get a sense of how he views his chances of finding a club soon? Is he looking at any clubs outside of Sweden as well?
Necessarily not - But I guess he wouldn't say no if the offer arrived. Apparently Sweden is satisfying for him which is good.
I spoke to Nate recently and he is playing on a short-term contract with Raslatts SK in the 3rd division while he tries to work out something longer with some of the teams he has been on trial with. I know he likes Sweden and he seems pretty positive about his ability to make something good happen there next year. Raslatts SK has been doing well in the regional Smalandscupen and plays today in a semi-final match against Husqvarna FF, a division 1 team, I think.
sorry for keeping everyone out of the loop! in the transfer window I have been training with a few different teams because they wanted to have a look at me for the following season.. all the teams I was with have said they want me to continue with them in the preseason.. I have offers to return to vasby, vasalund, orebro, Umeå, and Landskrona. **When I played in a game with orebro the team we played against Eskilstuna also called me and asked if I would be interested in joining them.** I said that I would be revealing when I first came on here so I will do just that. **It is difficult for clubs to make midseason signing because most of thier budgets are depleted and unlike mls, the contracts are guaranteed, so if they were to sign me it means hey would have to release players they already have. ****The plan was that I would train with these teams then finish out the season with tenhults, however tenhults was paying for my working visa and it was a lot more money then they previously thought. I could have stayed with them, but it would have been for whatever money they have left in the budget which would have been considerable hard to live on. **A local team called raslatts sk, which plays in the 3rd divison (where you don't need a visa to play) **offered me a good deal if I played the last 2 months of the season with them. ** Raslatts is very confident I will be signed **to one of the afformentioned teams, so they have thier trainer working with me every morning to get me in the best possible shape when I go back to these other teams.** so I am literally training twice a day with our coach so I will be ready So far everything has been great and i have been able to help raslatts out with points and also finishing top 4 in the smålands cup, which qualifies them for the Swedish cup next season. Since I have been here all the clubs I was with during the window have called me to check up on how im doing and reiterate that they are expecting me back in November.** I just wanted to give an explanation as to why I am here and didn't want anyone to jump to any conclusions.
Anybody like to bet? Raslatts SK (div 3) was a 19/11 underdog this weekend and they ended up winning 9-0. I am wary of these betting sites but after last week beating the first team in their division I decided to give it a try and they crushed the opposition. Since Nate arrived there for the second half of the season they already have 14 points after getting just 11 points in the whole first half of their season. He is playing mostly from the right back position now and he has one goal and a bunch of assists - when I spoke to him recently he said the team has really come together and he's killing it there right now. Here are a couple of recent articles about the team scoring 22 goals in the last 5 game. Translation from Swedish required. http://www.jnytt.se/nyhet/42524/raslatt-fullstandigt-krossade-linkoping http://www.jnytt.se/nyhet/42081/raslatt-tog-viktig-seger
Interestingly enough, Preki played for Råslätts SK near the beginning of his outdoor career (which is funny because he was already 27). Keep on trucking Nate, hard work pays off.
According to his tweets, Weiss has had interest from Sirius, Lanskrona, and Vasalund. However, he has been in Germany training with Osnabruck and he would prefer to stay in Germany.