Comments on: United States: Importer or Exporter of Talent?

By: oseni hakeem

oseni hakeem — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:32:55 +0000

my name is oseni hakeem alex, i have a football skill and talent but i need some to train me on how to develop it pleasde i need any out there to help me i want to become a football star.

By: Meat Pies and Orange Slices « Association Football

Meat Pies and Orange Slices « Association Football — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:13:30 +0000

[...] well. Grant Wahl explains. US exports soccer talent. The Culture of Soccer makes a great point: we now export soccer players. Giuseppe Rossi, Vedad Ibisevic, Nevan Subotic, and Arturo Alvarez all developed their skills in [...]

By: Sgc

Sgc — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:42:24 +0000

When I travel abroad, people often tell me that the United States is good at soccer only because they import foreigners to play for the national team.
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This misconception has been going on a long time. In the 1950 WC, English press erroneously reported that most of the US team was Scottish, when all but I wanna say 3 were born in the US.

It comes from foreign press that can’t figure out how we beat anybody.

By: Elliott

Elliott — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:48:03 +0000

I find the underlying assumption of such theories borderline offensive and at best ignorant – we live, and have always lived, in a society with open borders and fluid migration.

Great article and look forward to many more!

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:24:43 +0000

Great Post! I just found this site today as I found your post where you reviewed “Soccer in a Football World” by David Wangerin.

I think it is safe to say that for the 2010 Cup we are basically on our own now for the most part. Our top (most talented) players include born and bred Americans through and through (I consider the top five in no specific order to be Dempsey, Howard, Donovan, Bradley, and Onyewu). What will be key going forward for the MLS is if they want to focus on exporting talent (and therefore developing better American talent) or importing talent (short term focus) to improve the overall level of the league.

Looking forward to more from the site as I’m saving it now.

By: Murfmensch

Murfmensch — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:11:32 +0000

A team of diverse origins is no less poised to represent the US than France’s World-Cup winning squad. Feilhaber is as American as Chow Mein and Nachos.

There are a single-digit percentage of Germans who would question whether or not Jermaine Jones is actually German. He has every reason to feel at home on the US squad.

People who follow the game closely have a pretty positive stereotype of US players. They run through the whole game and generate less off-pitch drama. Many believe that we are mistaken when we do not pluck teenagers out of the youth system and have them battle full-grown experienced players. I’m not sure a better national team is worth destroying that system.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:18:04 +0000

Good article. I would also bring up Stuart Holden(born in Scotland), Benny Feilhaber(born in Brazil) and Freddy Adu(Ghana) as three more prominent USMNT members that we have taken as our own.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:16:28 +0000

Thanks for the interesting post. It’s nice to see you writing about soccer again, even if your come-back post pulled the scab off the Rossi wound