Sounders minority Owner & GM Adrian Hanauer, Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz and several other sources indicated that there is "growing frustration within the league over the advice" U.S. men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann and U.S. Soccer Federation staff "are giving to youth national team and MLS academy players," according to Jeff Carlisle of ESPN FC. Sources said that at issue "is an approach whereby Klinsmann and his surrogates are advising those players to sign with European clubs and bypass MLS." USSF has been "organizing training stints and trials for various youth national team players, the better to showcase those players for overseas clubs." This "raises the possibility that MLS teams may miss out on signing some of their own academy players to professional contracts, and that the investment clubs have made in these players may be for nothing." But Klinsmann insisted that there "is no one path for players, and that his advice reflected this." On the surface, there seems "nothing untoward about what Klinsmann and other coaches on the USSF payroll are allegedly doing." But several MLS owners, who "have invested heavily in their academies in a bid to produce professional players for their clubs, are irate with Klinsmann." Hanauer said, "We are investing millions of dollars in youth development. It's hard enough to compete with foreign teams who are trying to poach players in the U.S. and Canada. I'm certainly not happy if our federation and its representatives are in any way pushing our players to sign with a foreign club and bypassing our professional environment." Sakiewicz in an e-mail wrote, "It's disturbing to us, because we can't afford to have our best players leave" (ESPNFC.com, 11/14).
JUST DOING HIS JOB: In Miami, Michelle Kaufman wrote it is "hard to argue with Klinsmann," whose job is "to make the national team as good as it can be, to elevate the level of the elite players in our country, and it makes perfect sense that the way to do that is to have as many of those players as possible playing in the most elite leagues in the world -- which happen to be in Europe right now." Klinsmann "was not hired to promote MLS." He "has gone out of his way to say over the years that MLS is growing and how good that is for American soccer, and how that will help grow the pool of players for future U.S. World Cup teams." But the top leagues with the top players "are not here." If MLS owners "are upset that they are spending millions to develop players in academies and then losing them to Europe, they should do what clubs do around the world -- sign those kids to contracts at a younger age so they are committed to stay, or if a foreign club wants them that club would have to compensate the MLS club" (MIAMI HERALD, 11/16).
