If Mathis Leaves, MLS Could Lose Its Shirt
Sometime before summer turns to fall, Clint Mathis is going to score a goal, rip off his jersey and reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with these words: “Ich Lieber Munich.”
Then again, if things work out differently, it could be: “Amo Perugia.”
And if they don’t work out at all, well, there’s always that old standby hanging in the closet. You know, the T-shirt that reads “I Love New York,” which Mathis displayed when he joined the New York/New Jersey MetroStars after leaving the Galaxy three seasons ago.
These days, Mathis is the United States’ hottest scorer, with five goals in his last eight games for the national team going into today’s match against Uruguay at RFK Stadium.
Much to the dismay of Major League Soccer, he is also the hottest American property in the league and, as such, has caught the eye of several clubs in Europe, most notably Bayern Munich of the German Bundesliga and Perugia of Italy’s Serie A.
If Mathis has a good World Cup--in other words, he scores two or three goals against Portugal, South Korea and Poland, the U.S. team’s three first-round opponents--his price will rise.
So the Germans--who saw Mathis score two goals against their own national team in March--and the Italians are trying to strike a deal now.
Mathis visited Munich in late April, just before joining the U.S. team for its 10-day camp in Cary, N.C. His agent, Craig Sharon, afterward stopped by to see what Perugia had to offer. The transfer fee Mathis could command might approach the $6.5 million that Sunderland of the English Premier League last December paid Rangers of Scotland for U.S. midfielder Claudio Reyna.
Nick Sakiewicz, general manager of the MetroStars, said any club interested in acquiring Mathis would have to pay “well north of $3 million,” and MLS, which controls all player contracts, is likely to ask even more for one of its marquee Americans, especially if it is expected to release him before the end of the MLS season in October.
So far, the buzz surrounding Mathis’ future is not affecting the U.S. team’s preparations for the May 31-June 30 World Cup.
“It doesn’t impact us and hopefully it’s not impacting him,” Coach Bruce Arena said Saturday. “Since he’s been with us [in camp], there has been no interference by outside people as far as I’m concerned.”
Arena, who won two MLS championships while coaching D.C. United, said he had only one piece of advice for Mathis.
“Play well in the World Cup,” he said. “Score 10 goals and have everyone in the world after you. That would be my advice.”
Mathis, who makes roughly the league maximum of $270,000 as an MLS player and could earn at least double that simply by sitting on the bench in Europe, is keeping things low key.
“I’m letting my agent deal with it,” he said. “My main focus right now is the next few weeks, the next three games and preparing for Korea. I don’t need to worry about anything else and be side-tracked.
“At the end of the day, it’s not really going to matter unless I play well, so I need to keep 100% focused on my training sessions, the games we have coming up and what’s ahead in a few weeks.”
After today’s game, the U.S. plays Jamaica at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Thursday and the Netherlands at CMGI Field in Foxboro, Mass., next Sunday. The team leaves for South Korea on May 23.
Two of Mathis’ U.S. teammates, former UCLA players Joe-Max Moore and Frankie Hejduk, both chose to leave MLS and play in Europe, Moore with Everton in England and Hejduk with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.
Both said Saturday that if given a chance to switch continents, the 25-year-old from Conyers, Ga., should do it.
“I think it’s a great idea for him,” Moore said. “The Bundesliga is one of the top three or four leagues in the world. And for him to go over there and prove himself with one of the top clubs, I think it’s an opportunity he can’t pass up.
“For an American to be able to say he’s played for Bayern Munich, that doesn’t happen very often. If it pans out, I wish him all the best. He’s got to take that chance.”
Hejduk agreed.
“If you want to play against the best, that’s where you go,” he said.
But there is a cautionary note here too.
On Wednesday, Bayer Leverkusen will play Real Madrid of Spain in the European Champions Cup final. Hejduk is earning a good salary and enjoying life in Germany but he will watch the game on television from New Jersey because he has yet to make the German team’s starting lineup.
And Bayern Munich is an even bigger club than Bayer Leverkusen.
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Today’s Game
What: World Cup warm-up game.
Who: United States vs Uruguay.
Where: RFK Stadium, Washington.
When: 11 a.m., PDT.
TV: Ch. 7, delayed at 1 p.m.
Update--This is the first of three games the U.S. will play in eight days before leaving for Korea/Japan ’02 and the only one against another World Cup team. Coach Bruce Arena was in a rhetorical mood Saturday when asked about their importance. “I don’t know,” he said. “How important are they? If we win three of them do we go in as the favorite to win the World Cup? It would be nice to get some results. Is it critical to get three results here? No.” Arena will be without goalkeeper Kasey Keller and midfielders Claudio Reyna, Eddie Lewis and John O’Brien, all of whom have European club commitments, and defender Carlos Llamosa, who is recovering from a hamstring injury that could threaten his World Cup place. “He missed 10 days of training and we need to see if by the end of next week he can be ready to play and contribute,” Arena said. “If not, we might have to make a change in our roster, but we hope he’s going to be OK.” If a change is needed, former Galaxy defender Greg Vanney, now with Bastia in France, is the probable replacement for Llamosa. Uruguay, which holds a 2-1-2 edge over the U.S. in a series dating from 1924, features such standouts as midfielder/forward Alvaro Recoba from Inter Milan, defender Paolo Montero from Juventus and forward Sebastian Abreu from Cruz Azul.
Grahame L. Jones
