Friday, January 22, 2010

Dealing with the MLS

This Is American Soccer's Adam Spangler talks to U.S. Youth International Lee Nguyen, who has been plying his trade in Vietnam but was wanting to make a move back to MLS in 2010 but won't be doing so after failing to come to a deal with the MLS.

Most people don't know who Nguyen is unless you follow the U.S. Youth National Teams on just about every level, but is not on the full national team radar. The motivation for Nguyen may have been to get back on the national team radar and redirect his career. But according to Nguyen, all that was offered was a league minimum contract for five years--a very long time for the 23 year old. Not even performance based contract, i.e. a contract that rewards him for minutes played, goals, scored, etc.

This is a problem with the MLS, they tend to be so frugal that they drive off decent talent what actually want to play in this league. Sort of a strange homecoming for a young man who four years ago was actually courted by the league and offered a Generation Adidas contract for the former high school player of the year and college freshman of the year.

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