The official "Some site says this guy is a Yank" detective work thread

James scored a nice goal on his debut for the senior team in an 8-0 thrashing of Harrogate Town in the Carabao Cup. Highlight starts around 2:02 mark.

 

I’m on my phone and I can’t embed the tweet for some reason but here is the text from @burnerusmnt

CONFIRMED by a Tier 1 source exclusively to burner staff

James Edmondson IS eligible and is currently working on a few things to represent the USA #USMNT

 

Transfermarkt says Bayern Munich '09 GK Leonard Prescott was born in New York. He recently moved to Bayern from Union Berlin (here's an IG announcement on that).

Didn't easily find confirmation of his birthplace, but I did see that he's recently played for Bayern's U15s where he got a note for a good save ("Strong save from Bayern goalkeeper Leonard Prescott! The goalkeeper stands still for a long time and then reacts brilliantly against the Juve striker who is ready to score")

He also got a DFB callup:

#FCBayern U15 players Leonard Prescott, Leeron Danioko, Jonas El Allali, Erblin Osmani, Mohamed Sahid, Nderim Zogaj and Simon Schaff are called up for the first #DFB U15 camp of the 2009 age group.
Luca Babl and Valentin Beckert are on call. pic.twitter.com/TmchGvJZEP

— BayernTalente (@CampusVid2) August 10, 2023

 

Others from Transfermarkt searches that couldn't easily be confirmed:

• Alexander Staff - '08 CF with Eintracht Frankfurt and German U16s. Has been starting for Frankfurt's U17s
• Daniel Ciesla - '05 defender with Polish second tier club Nieciecza, on loan in the Polish fourth tier
• Raymond Ntiege - '05 midfielder with the U19s of a Polish club called MKS Polonia. Looks like his club plays in the same league as Rakow, Legia Warsaw etc
• Daniel Gomes - '04 GK with a Portuguese club called Vilar Perdizes. Formerly was at Porto
• Sacha Serog - '03 right back with Werder Bremen III. Spent some amount of time at Occidental College

 

About all I could find about Bennett Wilp is that he is on Union Berlin's U16s:

https://www.fc-union-berlin.de/de/nachwuchs/teams/u17/

Front row:
Sadou Barry, Pepe Kischke, Bennett Wilp, Oskar Welsand, Samuel Kühn, Oskar Engel, Richard Langer, Kolja Esser

Bennet Wilp recently completed a move to Union Berlin

Wilp is eligible to represent either Germany or the United States

He is a 2008 primarily a central midfielder pic.twitter.com/Ge3FVVRYNp

— Youth Soccer Central (@yscentral) September 3, 2023

 

Pretty good at the 2022 Dallas Cup. #9

 

Sparta Prague youth player Robert James Fritz, sometimes referred to as Robert Fritz, is noted as American by Transfermarkt and Voetbal. Listed as an '06 forward with their U19s.

Not sure how definitive Voetbal is on nationality, but they do have stats from Czech youth matches so that’s not too shabby on that end at least lol. Also found a club profile but it doesn’t give any further info. Didn’t find anything else related to eligibility when searching.

His name seemed familiar... though I didn’t see it in any forum searches (unless my search missed something).

Or maybe it's because I had seen his name on rosters with Yanks Abroad Lukas Saal and Nicholas Demmer, both also now with Sparta Prague U19s.

So if he's a Yank, that would make it three Yanks on Sparta Prague U19s!

Seems like all of them have come up through the Czech system, so it's not like they were consciously scouting dual-nat Americans or anything. Guess it's just three players who happen to be dual nat Czech Americans on a Sparta Prague youth team, pretty wild... or maybe there's more to the story with it, who knows.

Also tagging @Canadian_Supporter given his expertise in the area.

 

Another Micah W. find:

Thomas Dean Coulombe Montenegro

New American abroad! Thomas Dean Coulombe Montenegro is a 🇨🇱🇪🇸🇺🇸 tri-nat currently playing for RCD Espanyol. The left back is on the club's Cadete A squad. Born in Spain to Chilean mother and American father. Credit to (IG) @/chilenosxelmundo._ and @Legionarios_slv

— micah w (@micahw1718) September 7, 2023

There are several profiles for him out there, but no citizenship info.

 

Transfermarkt says Sligo Rovers '07 GK Kyle Gabbidon is American. Didn't find anything more on that. He's made the bench for three League of Ireland Premier Division games this year.

https://www.transfermarkt.us/kyle-gabbidon/profil/spieler/1142273

Some sort of past Irish involvement:

Academy players Kyle Gabbidon and Conor Langan were part of Republic of Ireland Under-15 assessment last week in Dublin. #bitored pic.twitter.com/0SgqDKD5Dv

— Sligo Rovers (@sligorovers) June 22, 2021

 

Gave this some digging again and it turned into quite the interesting journey. There's A LOT of name variations for him.... among them I saw:

-Xanti Oyarzabal
-Xanti Oyharcabal
-Santi Oyharcabal
-Xanti Oyharçabal

And I think there were more honestly, too, throughout like a bazillion open tabs.

But that last variation brought me to his Instagram where in his bio he has USA, Colombia, and France flags:
https://www.instagram.com/xanti_10oy/

So yep however definitive that may be in his specific case, he does have that USA flag up in his Insta bio. Looks like he personally uses Xanti Oyharçabal based on that as well.

As a note, he also now has a club page under spelling variation Xanti Oyharcabal:
https://www.realsociedad.eus/fr/team/player/real-sociedad-cadete/xanti-oyharcabal

 

Did some searches across livefutbol.com and came across some potential American youth players in Ecuador:

• '06 Andy Pazmiño of Tecnico Universitario U17s
• '06 Jimmy Guaman of Orense SC U19s
• '05 Juan Hilbron of Guayaquil City U19s
• '04 Brandon Loarte of Macará U19s

For reference I did Google searches of "site:www.livefutbol.com Nacionalidad: Estados Unidos Nacimiento 200X" with changing the last number of the birth year a few times. Dunno if that was the most efficient/effective way to do it though lol.

Also not sure how that site sources data from Ecuadorian youth players and matches. It seems to be in the same family of sites as voetbal.com (which showed Robert Fritz as American and had stats from Czech youth matches) and whichever others are in that newtwork FWIW. Though searching across them brought back different results...

Like Google searching "www.voetbal.com nationaliteit: Verenigde Staten geboren in 200X" brought back different players including Antonello Matthew Buono but didn't give any of the Ecuadorian players.

So maybe they have different databases per region/site, or maybe something with the search query too, but yeah dunno. Might be worth to keep an eye on them from time to time if not already!

 

'08 Graham O'Hara, a goalie listed with Hertha Berlin's U16s on the team site, has both German and American flags in his Instagram bio.

https://www.herthabsc.com/de/mannschaften/hertha-bsc-u16

https://www.instagram.com/grahamohara_official/?hl=en

 

Another Micah W. find:

New American abroad! 18 year old CM Lukas Sae-Saue is a 🇸🇪🇺🇸 dual-nat, currently with 3. Liga side SV Waldhof Mannheim. He seems to have moved over this summer, following his graduation from a Dallas area high school

— micah w (@micahw1718) September 21, 2023

Not a ton of info on there on him, but TM says he is Swedish-American.

Lukas Sae-Saue

• Date of birth/Age: Oct 11, 2004 (18)
• Citizenship: Sweden United States
• Height: 1,78 m
• Position: Central Midfield

https://www.transfermarkt.us/lukas-sae-saue/profil/spieler/1172234

He was playing HS ball in Dallas and graduated in 2023.

He does have a Kicker profile, but no info: https://www.kicker.de/ama-102642828/spieler

There is a Jayson Sae-Saue who is a Stanford PhD now at SMU in Dallas, but he is too young to be his father. Possibly this brother.

 

Another Micah W. prospect:

New American abroad! 🇫🇷🇨🇫🇺🇸 Chris Tamro Mbaï-Assem is an 18 year old CB/LB currently playing for Ligue 1's RC Strasbourg Alsace. Born in North Carolina. He joined Strasbourg this summer from fourth tier side Stade Briochin. He has already debuted with Strasbourg's U19 side.

— micah w (@micahw1718) September 22, 2023

Chris Tamro Mbaï-Assem

TM profile: https://www.transfermarkt.my/chris-mbai-assem/profil/spieler/1106988

Date of birth: 12/08/2005
Place of birth: North Carolina
Age:18
Citizenship: United States Central African Republic
Position: Defender

 

One more Michah W. find:

New American abroad! 🇰🇷🇺🇸 18 year old Nathaniel Kim is a CDM currently with Rayo Vallecano in Spain. Originally from California, he left Irvine Strikers in 2020 to pursue football abroad. He found himself on a few lower league sides before finally landing at Rayo this summer.

— micah w (@micahw1718) September 22, 2023

Nathaniel Kim

Not sure this is his college profile because this Nate Kim from Irvine is a GK: https://www.cmsathletics.org/sports/msoc/2021-22/bios/kim_nate_tsfc

Too many other Nate/Nathaniel Kims online to find much more info.