Ulises De la Cruz was bought from Aston Villa from Hibernian. James McFadden was brought up through the ranks at Motherwell - now is at Everton. A few more I remembered.
Ulises De la Cruz is from Ecuador and I think was 27 or 28 when he came to Scotland, so hardly a product of Scottish youth development... As I have written then ther are scouts from the EPL looking for talents, but if you want to judge poor youth development, then just have a look at the Scottish NT's. The A-NT coach hardly got a player to pick from, outside England and Scotland. As for the youth NT's then here are the latest standings from the qualification to the European U21 Championship : http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/Under21/Standings/index.html You will find Scotland at the very bottom of group 5... and remember that Scotland with a population of a bit more than 5 million is about the size of Croatia (4.5 million), Norway (4.6 million) and Denmark (5.5 million) : .
But my point is that those kids have been there since birth. If i am 20-22 and I am getting first team minutes, SPL is a great way to get yourself noticed by Celtic/Rangers or EPL or Championship clubs, which pay more and play at a higher level. You have a better chance of being noticed in SPL than MLS IMO and the SPL also pays better.
From reading this thread, I'd say you have your mind made up, and I wish you luck. Learn Scottish Martial Arts before you go. Keep us posted.
True, the $ is bigger, and you probably dont have all that much competition from the domestic talents, but you would still be moving to a rather poor league with low chance of improving your skills. And as an unknown American, you would surely not have the attention by big European clubs, like well known names as e.g. Bronckhorst and Gattuso... Rangers and Celtic on the other hand, are fairly big clubs that would rather sign a big foreign "name" or if possible a domestic talent, instead of signing an unknown American playing in one of the small Scottish PL clubs. In any case it's very few American players who have a chance of getting a work permit in Scotland and England... Ther are other places in Europe where you can get a work permit in no time, where the wages are better than the MLS and where you as a young player would have a much better chance of improving your skills, while also getting the attention of scouts and agents from all over Europe... .
Rangers signed Claudio Reyna.... But yeah I agree. Heath Pearce is being smart and honing his skills in the top division in Norway, he'll be a top defender at Bundesliga from what I hear in 5-10 years.
You can say the same thing about every European leagues. I think you have a better chances with Bundesliga.2. It might not get the exposure of Rangers or Celtics, but you are playing in a league with twenty or more American players. Some of them have been the USMNT picture. Bruce Arena or someone big in American soccer will come over and check a certain American player.... instead, they spot you.
If I were going to go somewhere to play abroad, I would do a Heath Pearce(he's smart IMO) starting in top division in Norway to gain experience for a few seasons, then go somewhere bigger. But If I wasnt good enough for that I'd play in the Eircom League!!!
Let's say you'd grown up in Kilkenny, and I'd been raised in the States. Who do you think would play for K. City if we were both just the same otherwise? It just doesn't make sense to put yourself in that much worse a starting position... For no competitive reason. It's like starting all over, but moreso... Just sayin'.