River Plate’s young midfielder Diego Buanotte is currently in the hospital, recovering from injuries he suffered in a car accident in which he was involved on December 26. Buanotte was lucky; three friends traveling with him in the car were killed. Buanotte’s father told the media that, in addition to fearing for his son’s physical health, he worries that about psychological trauma that young Diego will likely face.

Diego Buanotte’s car after the accident (photo: Olé)

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When England recently announced the potential host cities that will host games if that country is awarded the 2018 World Cup, one stood out: Milton Keynes. The MK Stadium that would host games is home to MK Dons, among the most controversial teams in England. MK Dons are controversial, of course, because they are the first “franchise” club in that country. As Tom Dunmore has chronicled extensively at Pitch Invasion, the club formerly known as Wimbledon FC was taken over, moved from London to Milton Keynes, and attempted to claim the club’s long history (ultimately unsuccessfully). What makes MK Dons – and thus the potential staging of World Cup games at its stadium – so controversial is the novelty of its history. It is the only team to have broken the longstanding connection between clubs and the community in which they grew up. Indeed, this connection is part of what gives many clubs in Europe their unique character (think, for instance, of Barcelona’s Catalan identity). So strong is the connection that Premier League trial balloons about the possibility of staging 39^th games around the globe were shot down by outraged fans, incensed that clubs were putting profit over everything else.

The Football Supporters’ Federation protest sign against the 39th game (photo: Football Supporters’ Federation)

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Any list of soccer meccas in the United States would have to include Nevada Smith’s. The bar, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, has bringing in the soccer faithful of New York since 1994. Today, on any given weekend day, the bar shows games from morning till night. Matches from England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United States and beyond (catering to a group of supporters of SK Brann, Nevada Smith’s even shows Norwegian league) fill the bar’s many televisions spread over two floors. Weekends are “a constant coming and going of people,” Nevada Smith’s owner Jack Keane told me recently. “On a busy Saturday, there’s no doubt that we have between 2000 and 3000 fans that come through the doors.”

Fans at Nevada Smith’s (photo: New York Daily News)

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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. While this strategy was key in our development as a soccer nation, it is far, far less common today. The 1990s saw the US scour European leagues for players with American connections, coming up with gems such as Ernie Stewart and Thomas Dooley (both of whom had American servicemen fathers) and duds such as David Wagner and David Regis (the latter was a Frenchman whose late call-up into the 1998 World Cup squad led to great friction within the team and was a large part of the team’s horrible showing in that tournament). But since the turn of the century, the US has invested a tremendous amount of money into youth development, and nearly all of its players have been born in this country. Despite this, the image of the US as a sub-par team that must import foreigners to achieve success has lingered. Yet ironically, in recent years the US has helped to develop several players who have gone on to play for other countries internationally.

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When Kosovo declares independence on Sunday, the number of countries to have risen from the ashes of the former Yugoslavia will reach seven (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia being the other six). Kosovo’s independence – supported by the US and many EU countries, but strongly opposed by Serbia, along with its ally Russia – will be a return to the international spotlight for a region whose recent time in that glare has been for all the wrong reasons. The bloody Balkan Wars of the 1990s brought about the new phrase ethnic cleansing to describe the atrocities that occurred in the former Yugoslavia.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci plays soccer with ethnic Serb boys (photo: Visar Kryeziu /AP / Christian Science Monitor)

The 1990s were a particularly bloody period in the history of the Balkans, but far from the first time the region has gone through instability. It is perhaps because of this instability that countries in the Balkans have sent so many of their people abroad. Among these Balkans living outside of their ancestral homeland are quite a number of talented soccer players. Some were born in the Balkans, others to parents who have left their homelands.

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In the past few years, the number of American players plying their trade abroad has increased exponentially. It wasn’t that long ago that knowledgeable American fans could easily count all of the “Yanks Abroad” (personally, I remember scouring for newspapers that would have a one-sentence blurb on the exploits of Tab Ramos at Real Betis). Today, knowledgeable American fans know all about the high profile players in Europe, such as the Fulham Five.

Hilarious parody from Oz City Soccer

While Fulham’s expats are relatively high profile, there are many Americans playing abroad who are anything but. It’s a truly dedicated fan who knows Eric Lichaj of Aston Villa, Michael Enfield of Sydney FC in Australia or Tighe Dombrowski of IK Sirius in Sweden.

But while teams abroad are snapping up American players (among other reasons, the falling value of the dollar makes them a good bargain), they appear reluctant to look at American coaches. Only one native-born American coach has held a major job abroad (Steve Sampson, who was in charge of Costa Rica’s national team from 2002 – 2004). Scouring the depths of my brain and the Internet for examples of American coaches who have worked abroad was only able to come up with three, all of whom are naturalized Americans born in other countries.

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