USMNT Transfer Watch - Movers and Shakers

Portland must think Zendejas is Mexican. No way they sign an American.

 

There will probaby be some moves there....................
I mean, is Atlanta going to give up on Emmanuel Latte Lath already?
They might cut loses and move on.

There are some other teams that DO have DP slots open right now.

One of them is his developmental home, FC Dallas. I'm not sure if he fits, but that's never stopped Dallas before.

 

There is some debate on that actually. At first he was from El Paso and then when Chivas wanted to sign him all of a sudden he was from Juarez. Weirdly it never seemed to matter but if he was born in Mexico he would have had to get US citizenship. My guess is he fudged about the Juarez part and Chivas went along with it.

 

Q&A: Alex Zendejas Discusses His First Call-Up To The USMNT
ussoccer.com: For those who may not be familiar with your story, can you tell us where you’re from and where you grew up?

Alex Zendejas: I’m Alex Zendejas, I was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and I grew up in El Paso, Texas.

ussoccer.com: How are you eligible to represent the USA despite being born in Mexico?

AZ: Yeah, my dad took his citizenship test when I was underage, so because of that I automatically got a U.S. passport. I think I was around 13 years old when that happened.

[Alex started at the FCD academy in El Paso. And like a lot of those kids, probably travelled back and forth across the border to some degree. He wasn't a US citizen. When we do the timing and calculation, he moved up to the Dallas academy in Frisco not too long after he obtained citizenship thru his father. And he started with USYNTs shortly thereafter at the U15 level.]

 

@Clint Eastwood do you have any insight why he chose FC Dallas over the local Mexican team?

 

That's interesting, I hadn't really thought about that too much. I guess it is similar to the situation some Americans find themselves in regard to their high MLS salaries.

I wonder if you or anyone else has compared the number of Americans that have gone from MLS to EPL to the number that have gone from Championship via transfer (free or otherwise)?

Most of the recent Americans I can think of, off the top of my head, that have played in EPL have gotten there through a league not named Championship or MLS. Aaronson via Austrian B1, Reyna B1, Trusty Scotland, Richards B1, Adams etc. A few others have been signed by big clubs in EPL and then loaned out....

 

This thread is about to become all Freeman, all the time

 

I think Bogert said the other day Villarreal continue to push very hard.

 

Zero.

There really hadn't been a big Liga MX club in Ciudad Juarez. Right?
There was a club called Indios that went under. There was a gap, and then FC Juarez started up about 10 years ago? [If I remember correctly, its more correct to say the owners purchased another club and moved it to Ciudad Juarez. LOBOS BUAP.).

Kids used to travel over the border from Mexico every day to train at FCD El Paso club.
I don't know if Alex was one of them. Before it even became part of the Dallas system, there were guys like Omar Salgado training there when it was called El Paso Fire. A well respected and well run club.

There are kids from that El Paso-Las Cruces metro area that go to Liga MX. The most notable perhaps being Edgar Castillo. Do pepole remember USYNTer Alonso Hernandez?

You don't hear about FCD El Paso much anymore. I don't know why. Maybe its recruiting competition with Ciudad Juarez and El Paso Locomotive. I don't know. The last big name to come thru FCD El Paso was Ricardo Pepi.

[There was this time when all of the mls academies and youth affiliates were starting up that we thought a lot of talent was going to come from the Rio Grande Valley as well. Houston and Dallas both have affiliates there. That hasn't happened at all. We may have two El Paso area natives on the World Cup team, though. ]

 

I think Villarreal would be a good level for him, but I wonder if they're going to get priced out. You have to think that some of the big clubs are paying attention to him at this point.

 

He joined Dallas in 2014.

FC Juarez was founded in 2015.

 

He signed a homegrown deal with Dallas in 2014.

He's been in their organization for much longer than that. He grew up playing at the FCD El Paso affiliate and moved to the Frisco DA academy team in 2012.

......................he would have been an academy kid in El Paso when Indios was still around.

I don't think I've ever seen an explanation of why he played for Dallas as opposed to Indios. There were kids in that region who played for Indios. The aforementioned Alonso Hernandez was one of them.

But anyway, Dallas sold him to Chivas. And Chivas had wanted him for a while. That led to a weird vagabond existence for both club and country for some years.

As far as that MLS transfer rumor...........why not? Why wouldn't clubs be interested in Alex Zendejas? They'd probably have to pay America quite a bit. If Europe isn't interested, and we haven't seen any recent rumors in that regard, maybe America cashes in on Alex via an MLS sale.

 

As for Freeman there's a ton of speculation based on what Munoz himself has said that post WC he's leaving Crystal Palace. The RWB is wide open. Freeman could be a relatively cheap option to an EPL team. He'd also probably work as a straight RB or RCB depending on what happens with Glassner.

 

Monterrey have put in a bid for the Fire’s Gutierrez.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6821384/2025/11/19/monterrey-bid-brian-gutierrez-chicago-fire/

 

Just saw a paper linking Pulisic to Man U for 60 and just yeeted my phone.

I went and picked it up, it’s fine still. Debating if I should heel stomp it now though

 

Not the end of the world. United seem to be starting to gel. Unlikely though.

 

Weah scores 4-0 in a route over derby rivals Nice, 58th minute. They really are doing their best to keep pace with PSG

 

5-1 now, still a great day at the office for Weah and Marseille

 

That would be a good landing spot with Richards already there who would be RCB to his RWB and also help him settle in.

 

Of course, Richards might leave. I think it's the last offseason before his contract expires, which is usually when clubs transfer players if they don't think they can keep them long term.

 

With Palace fifth in the table Richards should stay and Palace should try and keep him.

 

It's a good spot for him but could be someone makes him an offer he can't refuse and he still plays the same amount of minutes.

 

Yeah, as a guy who is probably an above-average PL starter right now, and yet who you still expect to improve some more, I could see an executive at a big-ish club making the kind of salary offer Palace can't match and/or the kind of fee they probably don't want to turn down for a contract that could expire the following year.

 

Palace have the best defense Ive seen in the premiership from a non top team in a long......long time. Maybe even including top teams.

 

Eh, Palace has a keeper who is having a career season so far (1st in the PL in goals prevented (3.9), 1st in PSxG-GA (4.0)). In front of him they've been good but hardly historically great. Hell, they have almost exactly the same xGA as Fulham and Brentford.