Robbie Findley played out his MLS contract in search of a European contract and appears to have secured one.
The U.S. national team striker and former Real Salt Lake forward has signed with English League Championship side Nottingham Forest, the club announced on Thursday.
Findley will join Forest pending receipt of a work permit.
Findley played out his contract with RSL last fall and will join Forest on a free transfer, assuming he is able to secure a work permit on appeal. He falls short of the number of U.S. national team appearances needed to qualify automatically for a UK work permit, but he has played in 10 of 14 U.S. matches in 2010 and stands a good chance of winning an appeal.
In other Nottingham Forest related news, Houston Dynamo midfielder/defender Geoff Cameron will be joining the club for a training stint. Forest manager Billy Davies became familiar with Cameron having spent time with Dynamo visiting his brother-in-law and former Dynamo assistant coach John Spencer (now the head coach in Portland). Davies made it clear that Cameron is going over for training, and not a trial.
What do you think of Findley joining Forest? Think he can do well? See him flopping and returning to MLS?
Share your thoughts below.
Jeff Cameron will be joining Nottingham for a “training”? I don’t know what I these “training” trips….They look a lot like trials…wink…wink
Congrats to him. Hopefully it will hel phim improve.
I think people fail to realize, in the WC he was given one specific job– try to be Charlie Davies.
Why?–
Because we had massive success with Davies-Altidore.
Of course, (at the moment at least) he simply does not have the all around soccer playing ability (read:finishing) that Davies had at his prime, but he was put into a very awkward and unenviable position.
Of course, he could have done better at the WC, but that may have been due to lack of confidence more so than lack of ability. All it probably took was one training session with the likes of Gomez and Buddle to realize that those guys were far better natural finishers than him. But he fit the system, not them. It also can’t be easy when the guy you’re up front with is probably wearing a T-shirt beneath his jersey of the guy whose spot you took. Which is why I thought they should have put Beasley up front instead of Findley. But that’s academic at this point.
Good spot!
+1
Dude had one bad year.
I wouldn’t call 25 necessarily young (most players have come into their own by then), but I agree he has potential(perhaps as a winger rather than a center forward.
I echo the positive sentiments here; this is good for Robbie’s wallet and probably good for the depth on our national team…if he gets some polish and works on his finishing, he could be useful over the long slog of WC Qualifying. He should have been nowhere near the starting 11 for our South Africa squad, but that’s in the past.
Good luck to him
Robbie takes way more grief than he deserves.
He’s got tons of potential and he’s young, he did HUGE things for RSL in 2009.
Love him – GL RF10.
Should have went to Finland to work on his Finnish. Here all week fellas…
the Conspiracy Bob theories are great!
And your point is?
You might as well also imagine what it would be like if MLS TV ratings were 25 times higher, or if the average attendance league-wide was 50K, or if the salary cap was $50M per team, etc., but since it isn’t our best players go where the money is.
Just like they do from most other countries.
They were pretty good when they left MLS. Clark is only now getting playing time in Europe so I don’t know how much credit can be given there. And Holden was quality from the word go.
In fact, you could argue that if they had gone to Europe earlier – where they have a perception that for all but the elite prospects, the talent pipeline is clogged and therefore they do not need to be patient about development – they would not be as good as they are now. MLS helped them develop, rather than slowed them.
Imagine how much better MLS will be as more young players continue to replace our foreign based players and improve and then go on to Europe leaving room for more young players to take their place………It’s a constant evolution and takes place in every other league in the world. Get over it.
Good for Findley. I hope he can go the way of Movsisyan: pretty good in MLS, but doing really well in a lower-level European league. Needs to get his mojo back.
Is a training stint at a European club the cool thing to do in the MLS off-season? It sounds like a lot of players are taking a working vacation in Europe. Great way to increase their stock, and the international impression of the league in general.
He can thank BB for that 10/14. Who knew Bob’s secret plan all along?
Luke Rodgers was a striker at Forest. Does this mean that he will do at least as well for RBNY as Findley did for RSL? I mean, are they comparable talents?
You are correct, it seems England is picky about the grandparent. It does have to be a parent.
However, there is the Ancestery Visa which requires a grandparent that has citizenship. The visa is valid for 5 years.
He made nearly $100,000 last season. With Nottingham he should be making like $500,000 a season and probably will be 1 of their bigger stars. He sucked at the WC but i doubt any other NF players have ever been to 1.
It’s good to know even our crappy players can play for teams abroad.
You are assuming guys like Holden and Clark would have gotten as good as they are now by staying in MLS. Not hating on MLS, I love my league and support it fully. Just saying.
Hmm…I’m pretty sure getting a British passport through a grandparent isn’t as routine as you think. I know you can do it in Ireland and Poland, and you can probably do it other countries as well, but I think you have to have a parent born in the UK to get a passport.
I think what Matt meant is that he’s another fast striker with poor finishing and creativity. He’s part of the reason why USMNT forwards scored 0 goals in WCup. Not sure he’ll have an impact across the pond.
And he’s off!
I couldn’t be happier for Robbie. He had a rough year in 2010, (to say the least)…here’s hoping he can come back into form and build on the potential we all saw in 2009. If he can get out of his current funk, he could potentially be contributing member of the US squad.
As for Cameroon — no way he could get a permit now. Forest might be looking towards a future when Cameron has the caps to qualify.
As for Findley — I guess it’s a good club for him. It’s hard to think of him as an EPL quality striker, but Forest is pretty well positioned to have a good shot at promotion. They’ve got 2 games in had over most of the teams ahead of them. If they can get 4 points out of those matches, they throw themselves into the promotion playoff mix. Not sure if that’s good for Robbie, as they might seek more established talent if and when they get promoted.
Still, it’s exciting. If he can bring up his finishing technique training over there — and there’s good reason to think he could be a lot better than he is right now, he might really surprise us.
Well if one of his grandparents were born in the UK it wouldn’t matter about T&T. His grandparent would be considered a UK citizen, not T&T. All Robbie would have to do in that case is get copies of birth certificates and fill out a British passport application. This of course if a grandparent was born in the UK.
I hope not. The fact that he’s going to a Championship side (over the reported Wolves) shows that more Americans are learning from past players mistakes.
England just wants him to run for them in the coming olympics.
T&T heritage would help if one of his grandparents were born in the UK. T&T is part of the commonwealth. I believe the same applies to Buddle if he were to get a Jamaican passport through his father and had a grandparent born in the UK.
I bet Bob Bradley will get his cut. That´s why he kept playing him.
Not an RF fan, but then my only reference was watching him at the world cup and a CCL match on a flooded pitch. The guy seemed to consistently get free, but the inability to settle ball, finish and or distribute was maddening. I’m like this is the guy who scored a boat load of goals in MLS a year ago?
My thought is that 2010 was a poor streak of form, and that talent evaluators including BB and the folks at Nottigham can see what was not apparent in 2010. All the best to him. He’s young and NF should be a great experience.
maybe he can finally learn how to finish
The Internet loves to mock him, but twenty-nine goals in ninety-one games with Salt Lake isn’t shabby. At twenty-five he still has plenty of time to improve his game, and the Championship is the ideal place foe him to do that (he’s lucky he didn’t sign with an EPL bottom-feeder). Best of luck to him, and I expect him to surprise a lot of people.
Another good young player gone from MLS!Imagine how better Houston Dynamo would be today with Holden and Clark running the midfield.Imagine how much better MLS would be today with all the players they let go!
Haha.
Just what England needs, another fast winger/striker that runs directly out of bounds.
good for him.
Findley has always had potential. Maybe it will blossom there. I’m not sorry to see him go, as an RSL fan, since he could not keep his head above water in 2010. But I’d love to see him find the success Mos has overseas.
Hopefully, this will do Robbie some good. Best to him.
I hope findley does well, just like i hope all americans abroad do well.
But does it feel like americans watching this unfold are barely stifling their laughter at forest’s expense?
Prove us wrong, robbie.
Ring, ring.
Jason Kreis: Hello?
Billy Davies: Hi, Jason, I’m the manager of Nottinham Forest, and I was wondering if you were open to negotiations for your star striker.
Kreis: Sorry, Saborio is not for sale. We just made him our DP, we’re keeping him for at least another season.
Davies: No, I meant Findley.
Kreis:…. Robbie Findley.
Davies: Yes, absolutely. Loved what he did at the World Cup.
Kreis:Yeah… So, I couldn’t let him go for anything less than 2 million.
Davies: Great, 2 million euros it is then.
Kreis: Oh, I’m sorry, I thought we were talking nickels, but sure, it’s a deal.
Wrong.
He’s much shorter.
Ha! +10
As a Derby County fan, I’m overjoyed at this signing.
I wish him all the luck in the world. Get promoted buddy.
maybe with some hard work they can turn him into a striker who can finish. never been a big fan but who knows and you can’t teach speed.
Interesting twist, Timbers coach John Spencer’s brother in law is the manager there. Coincidence or something perhaps facilitated by the team who holds his rights?
Good Luck to Robbie hopefully he can transform into a better player now that he might go to England.
Eddie Johnson Part Deux
Plus 10/14 equals 71% close enough for an appeal.
(SBI-If you consider that of the four he missed, one was due to suspension, one to injury and two to club commitments, his case is even better.)
Robbie Findley is a Tricky Tree. Good for him.
He should be able to get one on appeal. He can argue he played in the WC and we finished above England 🙂
I don’t think his T&T heritage helps him in this case as they gained independence from the UK in 1962. Now everyone is considered only a T&T resident, no ties to the UK. Of course if they never gained independence then it would probably work.
Good luck to him!