Thierry Henry, Clint Dempsey and Charlie Davies discussing perception of American players in Europe
Read that a few years ago. Now, I’ve only been following football since '07 which is around the time time Dempsey made his move to Fulham. He was a thrill to watch and I’d reckon he def helped change some opinions around US players at the time with the likes of Pulisic or McKennie continuing to this day.
But just curious for a discussion, how prevalent are the stereotypes of US players today? Is it simply just banter or are there still managers who just don’t rate US players all that much.
I wouldn’t say much at all tbh. There’s a US International playing for Crystal Palace Today and most probably don’t even know that he is. Pulisic was considered decent when Chelsea signed him. Tyler Adams had interest in the Summer. Dempsey, McBride etc were always considered to be solid Premier League players. Not to mention the amount of quality GK’s we’ve seen.
Was there ever really much noise about players from the US to begin with though? I’d say it’s been more around owners and managers. The media have had digs at the likes of Lerner, Kroenke, Boehly etc and Bob Bradley had a lot surrounding him. The players? Not so much…