I find the recent explosion of Americans abroad to be very impressive, particularly in England. Currently, by my count, there are 12 Americans in the EPL who actually see the field from time to time (with J. Smith being very borderline in this category): Dempsey Gooch McBride Bocanegra Convey Hahnemann Demerit J. Smith Beasley Howard Gibbs (if he were healthy, he'd see the field IMO) Spector And with the recently departed Reyna this makes a near 13. Considering that only Dempsey, Gooch, McBride, Bocanegra, Convey, Beasley and perhaps Gibbs won, or could've potentially (with good timing) won, or got very close to winning, a work permit with the 75% USMNT games rule, the rest of the players had to somehow find a way past the work permit hoop. My question is, with work permit rules being a significant limiting factor, what is the maximum number of Americans that could be playing in the EPL right now if all the top Americans wanted to be there? I'd assume that Donovan, Cherundolo, Keller, and Reyna could all be there for sure and would pass the 75% rule. So that makes it 16. But if you look at players with the talent to impress a team on trial, and who could somehow get an EU passport or get around the work permit rule, how many more? Throwing out names of young players that could potentially find a spot on a team if they got around the work permit issue: Feilhaber (getting Bundesliga minutes already), Bradley (Erevidisie minutes), Adu, Rogers (perhaps more of a long shot, but on par with J. Smith), Kamani Hill (getting Bundesliga minutes already) And then considering others who don't have a work permit issue and aren't there for other reasons: Lewis, Cooper, Simek (perhaps not talented enough, but perhaps just didn't have the necessary opportunities at the right time) And what about JOB? If he were healthy again and playing in top form, you'd have to think he has the quality to play in the EPL (Reyna did, and most USMNT fans think JOB is better than Reyna, including me). Mastroeni? Ricardo Clark? You can list a bunch of borderline players from MLS who have USMNT experience. Could there be 20? 30? 40?
Feilhaber has an Austrian passport so he'd be OK. Not sure if any of the other young guys you mentioned qualify.
In some cases (Hill, Rogers...oh I forgot Nguyen didn't I) being in Europe for a few years may get them EU status right? I think it depends on the country. Gooch did this via Belgium I believe. And I know Spain is pretty quick to get players EU status.
You missed Friedel - probably the best of the bunch. You also asked a question that you can answer yourself - look up the game reports for the last two years of full men's matches and count the rostered players... Not a bad idea for yanks-abroad.com to start a section like that actually - a "Yanks Are Coming?" section.
The whole thing is muddled by passports. A lot of Americans could get a passport from a European country with some effort. For instance Danny Szetela, Michael Parkhurst, Pat Noonan,etc. These are just guys that I've read about who could potentially get one. I'm sure there's a big long list. A lot of Americans could find a relative who came from Europe, a grandmother or something. By the way, did Kenny Cooper get a passport while playing for so long in England? Also, you forgot Guissepe Rossi in your list. For Yanks abroad purposes he's one.
Ha, I had Friedel listed. I think he got lost in the shuffle when I reorganized my initial post. Oh well.
Indeed...it becomes complicated when players can get passports. I don't know Kenny Cooper's passport status, but the fact he was there in the first place (post-youth teams) leads me to believe he doesn't have work permit problems. And Rossi should've been grouped in with Reyna as recently departed. Sorry, another omission.
unless i'm wrong Donovan is the only player on the MNT that currently meets the 75% rule. A lot of the players playing abroad started in other countries and got EU passports. Reyna, Friedal, Keller, Lewis are among some of the ones that I'm sure have EU passports by now, or if not at least an accent (I'm looking your way Friedal) which my confuse the WP board into granting them one.
Cooper has the English passport through his dad. Don't you guys read England66's posts? As to Yanks in the Premiership, the number is unlimited. A player who has established himself in Europe (the Top 4 - besides England - leagues preferably) won't have too much of a problem getting a WP. The situation with the US was that the MLS wasn't rated highly and one needed to get the caps in order to get into England. Well, MLS still isn't rated highly but, with the increasing number of YA's, many of them will be able to earn enough pedigree to get into the UK on merit alone.
To prove the above point: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...all.html?in_article_id=436476&in_page_id=1771 So, when you're bought for ~ $7M, your work permit isn't really a problem, caps or no caps.