The coming boom in multi-eligible player recruitment

Old biases and prejudices die hard in some.

They can’t accept the true level of MLS and youth improvement compared to Europe.

They see a guy like Zimmerman and say if he was good he would be in Europe. At least on some crappy German team (I have seen that multiple times BTW) The ignorance of that post and lack of understanding isn’t worth the effort. Dumb is dumb.

Yup, the best of the best will make real impacts there, duh. Have to have those to improve, but those middle of the road guys?
That’s not even close to what it used to be. Will take a lot of folks a long time to change their mind and understand that. They will just keep raging on ignorantly.

 

I suspect Cowell obtained the Mexican passport if his brother is playing for Mexico’s U-15’s, but maybe that’s inaccurate.

 

Agree. Would be really easy to apply once you have one application done.

 

Marcus Ferkranus is Canadian-American. I’d like to keep him around the US program because he seems like exactly the type of player that has the potential to eventually in 5-10 years be the mid/late 20’s MLS CB that puts it all together and makes the USMNT (Besler, Gonzalez, Zimmerman), but he may eventually decide at some point to consider playing for Canada.

@CANPRO

 

I agree with you.

The problem for the U.S when fighting for dual citizen recruits against a country like Canada is that the player is not going to wait around for years for country #1 if country #2 comes calling as they have a need in that position and are consistently going to the world cup and have big name stars they can play with.

In past years the U.S was often in the opposite position (ie Germans)

Speaking of late development - The CPL is really shining in that regard. 21 year old Victor Loturi just secured a transfer to the SPL and 23 year old Diyeddine Abzi just moved to Ligue 2 in France. There's another CPL transfer coming next week - a Canadian late bloomer who has already suited up for South Sudan because he thought Canada would never happen.

A bit too old for the u20 program, but hopefully some of these guys keep improving and can contribute to the CMNT. Development happens at all ages.

 

Two of the three dual American players on Guatemala’s U20 team are carrying the offense so far. Guatemala is seeing the success that El Salvador is having and thinking “why aren’t we recruiting harder in American academies’?

 

A few people got mad with the "he's only 14" stuff.

All I'm saying is that if a smaller country cap-ties a player at youth level provisionally, it almost never ends up with them playing for the bigger country.

If Guerra suits up for Guatemala at U-17 qualifying, he goes into the "unlikely" camp if you are assessing which dual-nats will play for us.

It'd be nice for us to finally have an easy victory with a hispanic dual-national. We have way too many tough battles with Mexico to retain players developed entirely in the USA. Guatemala hasn't even ever made a senior WC.

This should theoretically be an easy victory, but maybe it won't be. We'll have to wait and see what happens. I wouldn't be ignoring it though.

 

This result is big for the battle over Koleosho because *if* the US U20s take care of business (knock on wood), his native US will be his only option for the U20 WC. He could make the team. Even if he doesn't, he could get into a camp or two while Canada U20 can't do a thing.

— ChuckMe92 Soccer (@ChuckMe92Soccer) June 27, 2022

 

Anybody have insight on Antonio Leone? He's a huge prospect that has been developed and lived in the US but has been playing for Mexico U20s. He's arguably Mexico's best player. Elite passer and defender from the center back position.

I'm curious how open he still is to representing the US. As of a couple of years ago, he seemed completely open to either. I wonder if he has settled in with Mexico for good or if he's watching the US with some interest. I'm very curious given how big of a talent he is.

 

I think he prefers to play for Mexico. He's been invited to US camps, and I believe what happened was he turned it down to play for Mexico. He was with USYNT's a couple of years ago, but then we stopped having youth camps for a few years, Mexico didn't, and now he's content to play for Mexico.

I don't think it's that big of a loss. I've soured a little on his game this year. He's become a little more consistent, but the upside I thought I saw in prior years hasn't continued to materialize. Part of it may be that he's not gotten much more athletic in prior years. He was an incredible athlete with very good technique for his age years back, but he may have been an early developer athletically and the technique hasn't gotten much better either. He's still good in those areas, but combine that with a guy who isn't an excellent defender, and you have a good, not great 18 year old CB prospect. I don't think he's better than Neal or Craig. Is he better than Ferkranus? Probably, but I'm not convinced he's one of these dual-nats that we cannot lose.

 

His passing in this tournament has been exceptional -- definitely better than Neal, and I think better than Craig, but maybe not. Haven't seen him defend a ton, but seems very good there. I'll defer to you though as I haven't watched him nearly as much. Thanks for the info.

Either way, I hope he's open to a fresh consideration after the U20 cycle. Will be interesting to see how/when LAFC integrates him (same with the LAG guys and Craig at Philly, for that matter)....

 

The thing is if he's 14 he might not quite be ready for the US U17 team. Sure they should call him up for the U15s, but he may prefer to try his hand at the older age group. There's not a ton you can do about that. That doesn't necessarily mean he prefers Guatemala or that we can't flip him at an older age group.

I think it matters more when it comes to Mexico, but the time to really worry when it comes to a dual national battle with Guatemala is when a player is close to playing with the senior team. Which he is not at current.

And at the end of the day we're going to lose guys no matter what we do. Look at France who have lost players like Aubameyang, Mahrez, Koulibaly, and Mendy among others.

 

I agree he shouldn’t be in the U-17’s, but he hasn’t been called up to the U-15’s. It seems like almost everyone believes he’s better than all the U-15 players at his position. It’s a weak position for the ‘07 age group. He should’ve been in one of the first few U-15 camps.

I agree it’s more important to worry about later on, but the way to make sure these situations don’t get to the point of where you are worrying about a few years down the road is to be proactive now. If he’s hypothetically a 16 year old with 60-65 first team minutes at LAFC, that’s not going to get you a USMNT call up. It might get you some senior call ups with Guatemala. There’s little you can do at that point, unless the player simply prefers to play for you and will wait. There’s something we can offer now.

That’s my point for this situation and all of them where we identify a player is a top talent in their age group. We don’t want another situation where we could’ve provisionally cap-tied JoGo at youth level, and the coach preferred Adam Armour. If you think this’ll be something that comes up in 2-3 years, try to deal with it now.

 

Not sure what is so great about playing with a senior Guatemala team. Getting to dead end full speed?
Killing your international career before it started? Making you granduncle happy?

 

I think most people would prefer to play for the US vs. Guatemala all things being equal. But all things aren’t necessarily equal. Maybe a player wants to be a key player for Guatemala versus being a bit player for the US for instance. Or someone may be a late bloomer who gets tied by Guatemala because they may think they’ll never have a shot with the US but later proves good enough. Aaron Herrera for instance is going to have a decision to make at some point next cycle.

 

Aaron Herrera coming to mid twenties and for whatever reason has been totally ignored, would be a smart move for him. And congratulations to Alex Roldan on his move. But at 14/15 all the reasons are wrong.

 

Well to be fair no one is getting locked in at 14/15. But Guerra may pick the Guatemala U17s over what he’s being offered by the US (which may or may not be a potential call up the U15s).

 

As long as he isn't getting locked in everything is fine.