SPECIAL REPORT / SOCCER IN AMERICA : Oh, by the Way: Where Will MLS Get the Players? : Personnel: Top U.S. national team members are already committed and transfer fees will be high.
In considering who will play in the fledgling organization known as Major League Soccer, perhaps the simplest and quickest way of defining the situation is to answer the question with a question.
Who won’t play?
For starters, we’ll take a look at the World Cup roster of the U.S. national team and start crossing off players who have been under contract and might be returning to teams in Mexico and Europe.
They include goalkeepers Brad Friedel (England) and Juergen Sommer (England), defenders Thomas Dooley (Germany) and Cle Kooiman (Mexico), midfielders John Harkes (England) and Tab Ramos (Spain), forwards Eric Wynalda (Germany), Frank Klopas (Greece), Roy Wegerle (England) and Ernie Stewart (Netherlands). Midfielder Hugo Perez seems set to return to Saudi Arabia, where he played the 1992-93 season.
There are other Americans who could have been on the World Cup team if not for injury or other rationales but are also under contract to European clubs--goalkeeper Kasey Keller (England) and defender Brian Bliss (Germany), to name two.
The success of the Americans in the World Cup was double-edged. It promoted awareness and marketability of the top players, but, at the same time, teams from across the pond couldn’t help but notice certain individuals.
Barely a week into the World Cup, then-national team General Manager Bill Nuttall said there was a great deal of interest in at least four Americans. Defender Alexi Lalas is negotiating with England’s Coventry City, Italy’s Padova and Germany’s FC Bochum, although reports Saturday that a deal had been finalized were premature.
German clubs are said to be eyeing defender Marcelo Balboa and fleet forward-midfielder Cobi Jones. Injured midfielder Claudio Reyna appears on his way to Bayer Leverkusen. In addition, Joe-Max Moore has been loaned to Saarbruken of the German second division.
Lalas and goalkeeper Tony Meola are the sort of charismatic, trend-setting players leagues like to build on. Meola might be available this spring. He signed with the New York Jets as a kicker.
“Our top concern is to have players who are capable of an approach to entertaining, attacking soccer,” said Sunil Gulati of MLS, who was the chief international officer for World Cup ’94. “Their first responsibility is selling the sport on the field. We do plan to work with the community, but their primary work has to be on the field.”
Despite his probable departure, Lalas was impressed with the MLS. “They’ve looked at past leagues that have failed and why they failed and the leagues that have succeeded--like the J-League in Japan,” he said. “The organization and research has been tremendous. It pays for me to be optimistic.”
Any conservative count of the U.S. team provides only two players--Mike Burns and Fernando Clavijo--not committed, or soon to be committed, to contracts elsewhere.
Where are the rest of the players for the proposed 12-team league coming from?
Gulati said that three foreigners a team will be allowed, possibly four for the first season of play. That’s 48 more players.
“The idea is to build the league around U.S.-based players,” Gulati said. That would be the opposite of the late North American Soccer League.
But if it’s clear who won’t be in MLS, who will?
“Nobody can give you an answer because they don’t know. Because there are no players,” says Al Mistri, soccer coach at Cal State Fullerton.
Mistri and others suggest the players might come from the post-college ranks. Of the 33 All-Americans each season, about 20 or so are seniors and eligible for the MLS player pool.
But there will be competition for those players, just as there is for every other player. The American Professional Soccer League has a large pool of players under contract. And even its officials are conservative on estimates of capable college players available.
“There are maybe 20 to 25 players who come out of the U.S. college system every year who can play top-level pro soccer immediately,” said Alan Hinton, president and coach of the Seattle Sounders.
William De La Pena, APSL commissioner and owner of the Los Angeles Salsa, says that number is closer to 10.
For players, there are other concerns besides money. There has to be a high level of play.
“The most important thing for me is that it’s got to be competitive,” Harkes said. “To give all that up to come back here, that’s going to be a difficult decision. They’ve got to make it worth my while.”
Wynalda, who recently signed with Bochum, said the new league could not afford him. And he’s right. There’s not only the issue of salaries but also of transfer fees, the money that must be paid to a player’s club for the rights to his contract. And the MLS appears to have underestimated the cost of international stars. Its total budget for transfer fees is $20 million. Roberto Baggio’s latest transfer fee was $24 million.
“They also have to realize they have to compete financially,” Lalas said. “I’m not naive, the money has to be right. I’m as pure as anybody else, but you still have to make a living. And athletics are so different. The frame of time when you make your money is so short.
“But they have to realize they have to compete with player salaries and they’re going to do that and they’re going to have to pay.”
The marketplace is crowded. So many teams, so many leagues, and so few quality American players to go around.
