Yanks find lack of international interest
By Luke Cyphers and Doug McIntyre
The market is down.
And, no, we don't mean this one. Or this one. We're talking about the international market for American soccer players.
After the World Cup, plenty of pundits speculated U.S. players would be in demand, including us. After all, World Cup years traditionally bring on a spending spree by European clubs, and Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey all starred for a team that won a qualifying group, gained plenty of respect from foreign coaches and media, and generated the sincerest form of flattery: rumors. But with the transfer window closing Monday, exactly two players on the U.S. World Cup roster, captain Carlos Bocanegra and left back Jonathan Bornstein, have signed with new teams this summer -- Bocanegra moving from Stade Rennes to St. Etienne in France, and Chivas USA's Bornstein signing with Mexico's Tigres, where he'll play beginning next January.
<OFFER>
Nobody has yet met MLS' asking price for Donovan. No team has moved for Dempsey. And there's been no sign of a deal for Bradley. Rumored interest in Benny Feilhaber has yet to materialize, so he's still stuck at AGF Aarhus, relegated out of Denmark's top league last spring.
Meanwhile, Yank vets Jay DeMerit and DaMarcus Beasley, whose contracts with their former UK teams expired, are still without jobs.
So what gives? Nothing.
Which is the problem.
With global finances tight and the first-world economy stuck in recession, and with dozens of clubs feeling pinched after a decade of overspending, few teams in Europe have much money to throw around. And unless you're Manchester City, none to give away. That's made for little action this summer, for Americans or anyone else.
"Outside of Man City, there has been very little movement due to the economic realities of the time," Donovan's agent, Richard Motzkin, told Insider. "In past years, we have seen far more movement, particularly with the stars of the World Cup such as Landon." Motzkin and others believe the new EPL 25-man roster limits slowed things down as well. But money, or lack of it, is the main culprit.
Once-free-spending clubs like Liverpool now struggle through rough financial straits thanks to accumulated debt, and lower-revenue clubs down the table are in worse shape. (Interestingly, the source of this bad market for Americans is ... Americans? After all, the financial crisis started with big U.S. finance firms, and some of the most over-leveraged and cheap owners in the Prem are Yanks -- the Glazers, George Gillett, the suddenly stingy Randy Lerner and Tom Hicks, the man who gave baseball the A-Rod contract. But we digress.)
The result? Teams are looking long and hard before taking on new players. Stare at something long enough, and you can find a flaw, and that's been the case with the Americans.
Donovan last winter found an EPL club that loved him, Everton, but it's one that can't afford to buy him from MLS. Like Donovan, Dempsey, who'll be 28 at the end of the season, isn't likely to command much re-sale value on the transfer market in a few years because of his age. And these days, teams won't pay transfer fees just to help them win games now. Feilhaber is in the final year of his contract, so he can be had without a transfer fee next year. A cash-strapped team like Rangers, which has scouted Feilhaber, would rather wait. Or take on a surplus Man City player on loan, which they just did with Slovakian youngster Vladimir Weiss.
Bradley, though only 22 and coming off a breakout performance in South Africa, may still be worth more to his current team, Borussia Monchengladbach, as a vaccine against Bundesliga relegation than as transfer bait.
That's not to say there will be no action, for these players or for others. Oguchi Onyewu might be worth a loan if he can't crack AC Milan's lineup, and Jozy Altidore could be in the same situation with Spain's Villarreal.
It's important to remember Bolton Wanderers forced ex-Houston MLS star Stuart Holden to go through a tryout and wait weeks before signing him. Sure, some late-in-the-game, under-the-radar moves could happen, like Onyewu's stealth recruitment by Milan last year. But Bolton's hesitation with Holden, who's gone on to earn a starting job, should have been a warning that no matter how well U.S. players fared in South Africa, this summer wouldn't be like the good old days.
And we may not see a better market for a while. "Until the world economy turns around," Motzkin says, "I believe this stagnation will continue."
Notes
• Beasley might not be unemployed for long. According to Germany's Bild, the former PSV, Man City and Glasgow Rangers winger's reps are trying to negotiate a deal with Bundesliga mainstay Hannover, where Beasley's U.S. teammate, Steve Cherundolo, was recently named captain.
• During a guest appearance on Fox Soccer Talk this week, Donovan confirmed rumors that his camp had been approached by "Dancing with the Stars."
But with the Galaxy heading down the stretch before the MLS playoffs, up to three U.S. friendlies before year's end and perhaps another short-term loan to a European team in early 2011, don't expect to see the U.S. star dancing anytime soon. "While we appreciate the interest," Motzkin, Donovan's agent, told us, "the timing isn't right."
• Bob Bradley reportedly will meet with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati and secretary general Dan Flynn on Thursday to discuss his future with the national team. Meanwhile, Aston Villa is expected to make a final decision on its head coaching vacancy during next month's international break.
• Despite scoring in league action over the weekend, Sacha Kljestan didn't dress in the second leg of Anderlecht's Champions League qualifier against Partizan Belgrade on Tuesday. Coach Ariel Jacobs might regret his decision to sit Kljestan for both games, though, after the Belgian power lost on penalties. Elsewhere over there, Jonathan Spector went the distance in West Ham's 1-0 Carling Cup victory against Oxford United, while Holden played the final 24 minutes of Bolton's 1-0 win against Southampton in the same competition.
By Luke Cyphers and Doug McIntyre
The market is down.
And, no, we don't mean this one. Or this one. We're talking about the international market for American soccer players.
After the World Cup, plenty of pundits speculated U.S. players would be in demand, including us. After all, World Cup years traditionally bring on a spending spree by European clubs, and Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey all starred for a team that won a qualifying group, gained plenty of respect from foreign coaches and media, and generated the sincerest form of flattery: rumors. But with the transfer window closing Monday, exactly two players on the U.S. World Cup roster, captain Carlos Bocanegra and left back Jonathan Bornstein, have signed with new teams this summer -- Bocanegra moving from Stade Rennes to St. Etienne in France, and Chivas USA's Bornstein signing with Mexico's Tigres, where he'll play beginning next January.
<OFFER>
Nobody has yet met MLS' asking price for Donovan. No team has moved for Dempsey. And there's been no sign of a deal for Bradley. Rumored interest in Benny Feilhaber has yet to materialize, so he's still stuck at AGF Aarhus, relegated out of Denmark's top league last spring.
Meanwhile, Yank vets Jay DeMerit and DaMarcus Beasley, whose contracts with their former UK teams expired, are still without jobs.
So what gives? Nothing.
Which is the problem.
With global finances tight and the first-world economy stuck in recession, and with dozens of clubs feeling pinched after a decade of overspending, few teams in Europe have much money to throw around. And unless you're Manchester City, none to give away. That's made for little action this summer, for Americans or anyone else.
"Outside of Man City, there has been very little movement due to the economic realities of the time," Donovan's agent, Richard Motzkin, told Insider. "In past years, we have seen far more movement, particularly with the stars of the World Cup such as Landon." Motzkin and others believe the new EPL 25-man roster limits slowed things down as well. But money, or lack of it, is the main culprit.
Once-free-spending clubs like Liverpool now struggle through rough financial straits thanks to accumulated debt, and lower-revenue clubs down the table are in worse shape. (Interestingly, the source of this bad market for Americans is ... Americans? After all, the financial crisis started with big U.S. finance firms, and some of the most over-leveraged and cheap owners in the Prem are Yanks -- the Glazers, George Gillett, the suddenly stingy Randy Lerner and Tom Hicks, the man who gave baseball the A-Rod contract. But we digress.)
The result? Teams are looking long and hard before taking on new players. Stare at something long enough, and you can find a flaw, and that's been the case with the Americans.
Donovan last winter found an EPL club that loved him, Everton, but it's one that can't afford to buy him from MLS. Like Donovan, Dempsey, who'll be 28 at the end of the season, isn't likely to command much re-sale value on the transfer market in a few years because of his age. And these days, teams won't pay transfer fees just to help them win games now. Feilhaber is in the final year of his contract, so he can be had without a transfer fee next year. A cash-strapped team like Rangers, which has scouted Feilhaber, would rather wait. Or take on a surplus Man City player on loan, which they just did with Slovakian youngster Vladimir Weiss.
Bradley, though only 22 and coming off a breakout performance in South Africa, may still be worth more to his current team, Borussia Monchengladbach, as a vaccine against Bundesliga relegation than as transfer bait.
That's not to say there will be no action, for these players or for others. Oguchi Onyewu might be worth a loan if he can't crack AC Milan's lineup, and Jozy Altidore could be in the same situation with Spain's Villarreal.
It's important to remember Bolton Wanderers forced ex-Houston MLS star Stuart Holden to go through a tryout and wait weeks before signing him. Sure, some late-in-the-game, under-the-radar moves could happen, like Onyewu's stealth recruitment by Milan last year. But Bolton's hesitation with Holden, who's gone on to earn a starting job, should have been a warning that no matter how well U.S. players fared in South Africa, this summer wouldn't be like the good old days.
And we may not see a better market for a while. "Until the world economy turns around," Motzkin says, "I believe this stagnation will continue."
Notes
• Beasley might not be unemployed for long. According to Germany's Bild, the former PSV, Man City and Glasgow Rangers winger's reps are trying to negotiate a deal with Bundesliga mainstay Hannover, where Beasley's U.S. teammate, Steve Cherundolo, was recently named captain.
• During a guest appearance on Fox Soccer Talk this week, Donovan confirmed rumors that his camp had been approached by "Dancing with the Stars."
But with the Galaxy heading down the stretch before the MLS playoffs, up to three U.S. friendlies before year's end and perhaps another short-term loan to a European team in early 2011, don't expect to see the U.S. star dancing anytime soon. "While we appreciate the interest," Motzkin, Donovan's agent, told us, "the timing isn't right."
• Bob Bradley reportedly will meet with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati and secretary general Dan Flynn on Thursday to discuss his future with the national team. Meanwhile, Aston Villa is expected to make a final decision on its head coaching vacancy during next month's international break.
• Despite scoring in league action over the weekend, Sacha Kljestan didn't dress in the second leg of Anderlecht's Champions League qualifier against Partizan Belgrade on Tuesday. Coach Ariel Jacobs might regret his decision to sit Kljestan for both games, though, after the Belgian power lost on penalties. Elsewhere over there, Jonathan Spector went the distance in West Ham's 1-0 Carling Cup victory against Oxford United, while Holden played the final 24 minutes of Bolton's 1-0 win against Southampton in the same competition.
