Former US U17 defender Nico Carrera has signed with Holstein Kiel of the 2.Bundesliga. The well-sourced Dallas-based 3rd Degree says he turned down a USL contract from FC Dallas, as well as offers from Santos Laguna, Pumas, Tigres, and Pachuca.
FC Dallas is running into a challenge where they are generating more solid prospects than they have room for on their MLS roster. They are trying to convince guys to sign USL deals, so they can lock them down now, before bumping them up to the MLS roster when they are ready. However, a number of players aren't biting.
Since losing McKennie to Schalke a number of years ago, they've retained most of their very best prospects (e.g. Pomykal, Ferreira, Tessmann, Pepi), but they've lost a few other blue-chippers like Jonathan Gomez (signed with Louisville and will probably go overseas when he turns 18) and a lot of players whose potential is viewed as maybe one notch lower like Carrera, Johan Gomez (Porto), and Diego Letayf (Tigres).
It's a problem, but not the worst problem to have. Hopefully they'll sell Cannon very soon, and then probably Pomykal. The only thing they are missing is solid proof-of-concept that signing with FCD is a good developmental choice that will ultimately get you to Europe. Until they have that, players will be rightly skeptical. And anyways, they need to steadily sell players to make room for the next wave or else the prospect backlog will be totally swamped.
https://3rddegree.net/carrera-holsteinkiel
A rather obscure American winger named Joe Efford quietly spent three seasons in the Greek second division with Ergotelis on the island of Crete. In this past abbreviated season, he was the league's leading scorer. He just moved to Belgium on a free, signing with Waasland-Beveren. He even got a three-year deal out of it — nice security for a lower division player — but the club were just relegated so he'll begin year one in the Belgian second flight.
View: https://twitter.com/WaaslandBeveren/status/1285243570304286727
FC Dallas is running into a challenge where they are generating more solid prospects than they have room for on their MLS roster. They are trying to convince guys to sign USL deals, so they can lock them down now, before bumping them up to the MLS roster when they are ready. However, a number of players aren't biting.
Since losing McKennie to Schalke a number of years ago, they've retained most of their very best prospects (e.g. Pomykal, Ferreira, Tessmann, Pepi), but they've lost a few other blue-chippers like Jonathan Gomez (signed with Louisville and will probably go overseas when he turns 18) and a lot of players whose potential is viewed as maybe one notch lower like Carrera, Johan Gomez (Porto), and Diego Letayf (Tigres).
It's a problem, but not the worst problem to have. Hopefully they'll sell Cannon very soon, and then probably Pomykal. The only thing they are missing is solid proof-of-concept that signing with FCD is a good developmental choice that will ultimately get you to Europe. Until they have that, players will be rightly skeptical. And anyways, they need to steadily sell players to make room for the next wave or else the prospect backlog will be totally swamped.
https://3rddegree.net/carrera-holsteinkiel
A rather obscure American winger named Joe Efford quietly spent three seasons in the Greek second division with Ergotelis on the island of Crete. In this past abbreviated season, he was the league's leading scorer. He just moved to Belgium on a free, signing with Waasland-Beveren. He even got a three-year deal out of it — nice security for a lower division player — but the club were just relegated so he'll begin year one in the Belgian second flight.
View: https://twitter.com/WaaslandBeveren/status/1285243570304286727