Section30 said:
As I read more articles about the way American players are required to prove themselves over and over in Europe(Bradley,Dempsey)I can see why American players choose security and a big increase in pay over the perceived value of playing in Europe.
Bradley was making $1.1 million and paying Italian taxes. He goes to Toronto and makes around $6+ million, has opportunities for endorsements, and he has better job security. I don't blame the players at all.
It looks like Bradley had interest from other teams in Europe but Roma put such a high price on the transfer that the only team willing to pay was Toronto. If European teams won't bid on American players unless they are paid minimal salaries is that really a benefit for American soccer? If they only pay you 10% of what other players are making it is easy to bury you on the bench.
Some ideas that I am throwing against the wall
Maybe the way to get American players noticed is to get rid of parity in the MLS. 2 or 3 superteams that win international tournaments with the best players playing together year around.
Approach friendlies in a serious and take no prisoners manner and be willing to play anyone, anywhere.
We should support our players abroad with a national program of legal and physical support. Any player who is appoached by a foreign team can call the best agent and lawyer available to leverage the best contract. We should have scouts in every country identifying opportunities for American players as well as promising foreign players that we can convince to "try America".
Make a super League with the best 12 teams from Canada/USA/Mexico/Central America. Apply the promotion/relegation system to this league.
The best way, of course, is to win significant games in the World Cup.
One of the major problems with exporting American players to Europe
en masse is that Americans face structural disadvantages that the vast majority of their competition for places can ignore. I'm not even talking about biases against American soccer or that sort of thing -- I'm sure it still exists in milder forms in pockets around the continent, but whereas it was a legitimate issue 15-20 years ago, it's not a major factor now.
What I'm talking about are foreign player quotas in the major leagues. Here's what we're up against. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to talk about "EU players". By this, I mean players from common European labor market countries which includes non-EU members like Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Iceland and may exclude some players from recent EU entries.
England: Non-EU players need a work permit. You can only get a work permit if you are a regular NT player or if you pass the poorly-defined "special talent" clause.
Netherlands: Non-EU players are subject to a salary floor of (I believe) €500k. Smaller Eredivisie clubs can't even afford this.
Spain, Italy, France: Limit on number of non-EU players that you can register. Italy's rules are a little more complex, but the upshot is that there just aren't many non-EU players allowed.
Germany has few restrictions, but they also have productive academies flooding the market with solid and affordable players. They also tend to be run with more financial responsibility and won't spend much on the transfer market if they can find equivalent talents domestically on frees or for cheap.
Belgium & Scandinavia have very few restrictions, but the league quality isn't a step up and neither is the pay, for the most part. There are exceptions like Anderlecht and Copenhagen, but the quality in the Belgian league, for example, peters out quickly as you descend the table.
Portugal is basically three rich clubs and a bunch of broke-ass teams with no fans. Not much money or great competition outside the big three.
African players have an advantage in France and Spain, where they are counted as domestic players thanks to various agreements like Cotonou. Latin American players often have an easy road to citizenship in Spain, which makes it easy for Spanish clubs to establish a pipeline. Same for Brazilians in Portugal, I believe. (Vinho will correct me if I'm wrong!)
North Americans and Asians don't have advantages anywhere. Why is Bedoya the only American in Ligue 1? Well, you don't just have to be good enough for Ligue 1 if you are an American. The club must have confidence that the opportunity cost of signing an American to fill a precious non-EU slot is a worthwhile decision.
It's a tough world out there. There are always going to be Americans who chase the dream in Europe. But the structural advantages are such that this is always going to be a limited number. Guys like Kyle Beckerman and Graham Zusi are good enough to contribute in a good league, but they aren't good enough that clubs are going to fall over themselves or pay a big transfer fee to sign them. Whether they go abroad or not really just depends on being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.
As such, there are always going to be some pretty solid American players in MLS. Rather than trying to turn MLS into an export factory (which is swimming against a legal/quota tide), why not make MLS a worthy destination for American players? Right now Bradley and Dempsey are overqualified, no doubt, but a message has been sent.