Tottenham have completed their fourth signing of this summer:
Today we have confirmation that Spurs have locked up Liverpool target and Seattle Sounders star DeAndre Yedlin.
Mauricio Pochettino has beaten Brendan Rodgers to the punch. The Guardian reports that Yedlin will join up with his new team in time for the 2015/16 season,
Usually MLS and EPL links go the other way. A former Premier Leaguer comes across the pond to finish out his career while he’s past his prime. However, sometimes a player in America’s top flight does get promoted to the English Premier League.
In the post David Beckham era (or maybe a return to the Becks era as he’s pushing for his expansion Miami franchise), MLS has grown but still remains a feeder league – with most young star players it produces leaving for more lucrative contracts in Europe. Yedlin would be a prime example.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber wants to change that, and Clint Dempsey (Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur) and Michael Bradley (Aston Villa on loan) return home to play on U.S. soil.
“We want to be thought of the way the Premier League is thought of, Serie A is thought of, La Liga is thought of, the Bundesliga is thought of,” Garber said. “When people think about the best leagues in the world, everybody knows who they are, and we want to be one of those leagues.” (these quotes from an associated press report)
That’s a very idealistic and bold goal to have. It’s admirable to shoot for the moon, but there’s a long way to go.
Dempsey and Bradley each returned to MLS from Europe in the past year. Jermain Defoe joined Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill as the league’s top international attractions. David Villa and Kaka already are signed for 2015 and Frank Lampard may be on the way from Chelsea too. USA World Cup fever won’t translate into a boost for the MLS though (for reasons I’ve outlined here)
Jurgen Klinsmann has changed the culture in America, and for the better. In this post we explored that. We also previously looked at the inroads the sport has made within the younger generation, and the penetration of the English Premier League into the American market.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. He’s also a special contributor to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Bankshas been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, CBS, the History Channel and more. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)