Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg I'll write Landon 2.0 in as starting RM in the World Cup right now. In pen. Too bad he doesn't exist.
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg To the extent that two young forwards were identified and acquired by German teams, the stories are similar. But, IMHO, Zimmerman is a much better player than Casey. He moves outside with the ball, hits better crosses, acts as a target and is generally much more mobile. Yes, he needs seasoning, but I think there is a very good upside to this signing.
Same as all the other stuff as far as I can tell, but I don´t read or speak German. -American Preston Zimmerman will join HSV January 1st, 2007. -He played at IMG (Bradenton), is 17, and will start off with their reggionalia (sp?) team
Preston's deal is for 3 years. I'll have a story up a bit later today, along with pro info on some other residency players. Some basic facts are on here for those interested. http://tdsbeautifulgame.blogspot.com/
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg In Zimmerman's case, HSV are also reaching down a little more, trying to get this kid as early as possible. Casey was, what? 19 when he went to Hannover; but being earlier by a couple of years, especially for a forward can be of great benefit.
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg As I said on some previous "work permit" discussion, a German player is not limited to Bundesliga, so it's been a silly rule trying to limit the foreign imports there. But the previous reversal was strongly endorsed by the then German national coach Rudi Völler, who blamed the foreign players for the lack of talented German youngsters. Somehow, these youngsters are coming out of wood work for Klinsmann however. The German reverse - largely prompted by Bayern and Werder - makes it roughly the 5th league to abandon stringent non-EU policies (England, Belgium, Holland and Spain would probably qualify as fairly open to the imports as well). As Karl Heinz Rummenigge said, the German teams were tired of losing to the big Spanish, English and Italian clubs that had virtually no limit on the number of foreign stars. And I think you and I agree that open markets would benefit everyone involved. Including the US. And even MLS, if they approach this properly.
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg I'm pretty sure La Liga has a non-EU player limit. Ronaldo recently gained Spanish citizenship in order to open up a new spot. I think it is either 3 or 4 foreign players per team. Unless that has changed very recently (i.e. within last 2 months).
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg 3 non-Euros but they'll naturalize Latin players within 2 years, so it's basically an all-out invitation for the entire South America to come in and the SA imports fit the Spanish soccer style and culture in general more anyway.
A site in English. Guess we have 2 American Hamburgers. http://www.yanks-abroad.com/content.php?mode=news&id=001413
IN one of my old tapes ...was watching Italy- US match in the U-17 WC yesterday.... Having watched other games back when the WC was happening...... It's funny that, Preston struck as not that impressive..but this is certainly a great thing, as he is still young and (even in 07) woulld probably not have gotten in MLS the kind of chances at development he would at HSV.. Great for the kid, great for US soccer
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg If so, then Casey had no business even being on the Olympic team, never mind playing the majority of minutes. But I think you're selling the teenage Casey short.
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg I don't think a MLS team would sign him, since he's definitely gone in a year, and he can't help any team now... but would USL1 be a possibility? Can those who have seen Zimmerman play a lot comment on whether or not he'd be able to get USL1 minutes somewhere?
I was almost sure that was English I posted in 2 1/2 hours earlier full story is up on the full site btw, along with the shorter version linked to the blog above.
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg Hey, John! you are more or less right. He had no business playing ahead of Donovan. Casey is a big guy who was/is not pushed around much, but Donovan is and was so far ahead of Casey talent-wise, it's not funny. And, the difference between them was evident to most people during the Olympics. Clive Charles had his own reasons for playing Casey just like Sigi had his own reasons for playing Dalby in the U20's last summer. Most posters here disagreed with both decisions based on what they saw in each circumstance. Casey did very little in the Olympics except show "potential" to some folks, and I was not one of them. He has so far met might my expectations based on his Olympic performance and has done well in the 2Bl., but not at the Nats or the 1Bl. level. Donovan should have played a lot more in the Olympics and showed that clearly in the few (relative to Casey) minutes he had.
Re: Zimmerman signs with Hamburg He didn't want to play MLS anyways, so my guess is USL1 is a big fat NO as well. I have said many times on this board he had no intentions of playing MLS, he would have gone to college. It pissed some people off, but if a kid has "higher goals" why settle for less. Seems he set his sights higher and worked at it and achieved them..
While Hamburg can't pay PZ till he's 18, there's nothing stopping the kid from signing a shoe deal. I don't know what outfitter Hamburg has a contract with, but I won't be at all surprised if said company - most likely Nike, adidas or Puma - signs Zimm to an endorsement contract.