Photo by ISIPhotos.com
University of Michigan freshman Soony Saad, the leading scorer in NCAA Division I men's soccer in 2010 with 19 goals, has left Michigan to pursue a professional career. Saad confirmed his departure from Michigan to Fox Soccer and SBI on Thursday.
The Big Ten Freshman of the Year helped lead Michigan to the Big Ten Championship as well as the NCAA College Cup Final Four, partnering with senior Justin Meram to form one of the best striker tandems in the nation.
the 2010 Gatorade National High School Player off the Year, Saad carried over his high-scoring ways from high school to college, where he immediately established himself as one of the most dangerous forwards in the nation.
Saad identified four clubs he is in talks with for trials. Bayern Munich, Anderlecht, SC Freiburg and 1860 Munich are teams he has plans to spend time with in the coming weeks as he searches for his first professional contract.
What do you think of this development? Disappointed to see him leave college? Think he's ready to make the jump to the pros?
Share your thoughts below.
Well, this does happen in the NFL. But it is regrettable, none the less.
And of course the NFL doesn’t have direct competition, either.
I think a lot of U.S young players are deciding to jump to the professional level because they feel that coming out of college in their early 20’s seems to be a bit too old now a days. We all know the dream of a futbolero is to play in the best leagues and the best teams in the world, and playing in college hurts their chances just a bit since Europe teams usually are looking for 15-20 yr old stars. Good for them. My advice would be, try Europe and if it doesn’t work out, hey, you are still just in your mid 20’s,.. MLS considers that rookie material!;) Can’t lose!
You really think that a guy that even trials for a club like Anderlecht couldn’t pull a gen adi contract? It’s mostly because he probably didn’t commit because he was always wanting to go over seas. This guy was a stud on every level.
I’d rather see him in MLS as opposed to riding the pine in Europe. It’s crazy to think though that the majority think its a bad move when a young player goes to Europe as opposed to MLS. It used to be the other way around. It shows how far we’ve come in w short time.
Or maybe the u20s are stacked with good forwards?
Guys who have scored 4 goals in the Milk Cup?
Guys who already have senior national team goals?
Guys who are about to get pro debuts in Germany?
Guys who already have 10 pro appearances with a storied club like Derby County?
No, there are no sensible explanations: US SOCCER IZ IDIOTS.
He is a gifted goal scorer and has scored at every level. Even his brief time with U-20s netted a goal. About time US coaches recognize a natural goal scorer than trying to make an athlete become a goal scorer. Not surprised he was cut by U20s. We recycle the same coaches and make the same mistakes in player development. 19 goals as a freshman in the Big Ten. That is rediculous! When is the last time a freshman in a BCS level conference scored 19 goals ?
hahah that is the best comment ive read
Can’t stop inflating this player every week we come out with a new players. This is getting to common and that’s bad because I’m pretty sure many of these supposed rising stars are not going anywhere. Sorry is a sad reality let’s face it.
Not true. Even in the game when Meram scored a hatrick, Soony did great and created for Meram… Both good players on their own.
Getting cut from the U20 is not the worst thing in the world… He’ll pop back up in two years and everyone will be asking for a January call-up
…Coming from a PSU fan that got crushed by these guys in the Big Ten final.
Yeah, I wish more players had more American sounding names. Like Oguchi Onyewu. And Tabare Ramos. And Lee Nguyen. And Herculez Gomez. And Juan Agudelo. And Mikkel Diskerud. And, my God, you’re a moron.
Ever watch soony play??? he is not that good and was lifted by miram’s play all season. The reason he didn’t go back to michigan is because his flaws would eventually show and why not strike while the iron is hot overseas. Hence why he didn’t get a GA contract either….too much question on his capability long term. Not to mention he got cut from the U20 USMNT earlier this year.
Can I be the first to say let’s just ignore this post.
It’s not like kids would start coming out freshman year just because… there would obviously have to be good reason.
They could do it just like the NFL: go in front of a draft evaluation committee that projects your position, and you go from there. If it’s an N/A or undrafted, stay in school. Pretty simple
Uh, the salary difference between a USSF D2 side and Anderlecht is just a teeny tiny bit apart.
Soony Saad, there’s a good old fashioned American name.
Turns out there are outcomes in between “ussf d2” and “the freddy.”
Some of these outcomes (“the cd9”) can actually be quite favorable.
I think this is a great thing for his development. If you are already a top player in your class, Pro training will benefit you immeasurably more than college playing. On the other hand, when you are a late bloomer and not ready for pro-training, college is adequate as you continue develop your skills. For players like Saad, he should be in a proper training environment to reach his potential.
I’m just glad we have so many forwards that show promise at this stage. Let him do what he wants; we just have to hope one of them turns into an international quality striker. World class can wait.
*now that he’s decided to go pro.
Agreed.
M go-blow 🙂
MLS absolutely did not get this one right. Does this happen in football? Basketball? Why would soccer be any different?
For all those predicting the loss of Saad, may I point out that this is a trial with Anderlecht. There’s no guarantee they make an offer and no guarantee that he accepts one.
Remember that 5 MLS teams decide to skip the Bingham lottery. This would be exactly the kind of opportunity they envisioned. MLS shouldn’t this out. I’m fairly certian that DC United would love to have Soony. THe team and the league should be aggressively pursuing him now that he’ decided to go prop.
Why don’t any of these guys sign with USSF D2 sides if they don’t get Gen Adidas? They will get playing time and can move up to MLS in a year or two. That seems like a better option than pulling a Freddy Adu and languishing on every bench in Europe before realizing you should have stayed home. Plus, I’d much rather drive to the HDC to watch our younger players than have to get up at 4:00 am to watch some obscure channel that costs more per month than going to the game at the HDC.
As a Wolverine, I am very sad to see him go (not to mention Meram graduating) but as a US soccer fan I am hoping he does very well at the club level and eventually becomes the world class striker that the US Men’s team has never had.
You’d over flood the system. Instead of a usable sum of quality players, you’d get 500 a draft with real quality picks slipping through the cracks purely because MLS doesn’t have enough teams to get everyone. And once you apply for a draft, NCAA rules say you can’t play college ball again so they lose that too.
MLS got this one right.
Too soon-y…
+1000000000
is there any reason why they don’t already? is it just because of low amount of draft picks?
Yeah, he and Meram were all the Blues had, really. Rough spot for Michigan soccer.
My only concern would be if Traffic had signed him.
Watched a couple of games of his on the Big10 network cause I was hearing about his teammate, the other forward. Thought he was really good.
Hmmm. i watched his game against Akron in the NCAA semifinals, and I was a bit underwhelmed. For a small kid, he doesn’t seem that fast, which isn’t a good combination. He has a nice touch true, but I was more impressed with his teammate Miram. I think he’s jumping the gun here. That being said, I wish him the best!! Like they say on Staten Isle…SOOOOOOOO(ney)!!
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, let him make the roster for the upcoming U-20 world cup first.
Yeah, just because you’re not offered a Generation adidas contract doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be allowed to declare yourself eligible for the draft.
MLS can’t offer every promising underclassmen a Gen Adidas contract. Supposedly they way they do it now is by soliciting input from MLS coaches on whether they think a guy is worth it, but even still there is only so much money to go around.
you could say the MLS is soon-y saad about this situation
Only if they are offered Generation Adidas.
Can’t they already?
+1,000,000
MLS can sign underclassmen to Gen Adidas contracts after the draft, just like they did with Bingham. Nothing stopping them from offering one to Saad — actually nothing to suggest that they haven’t, either. That he’s trialing with Anderlecht *and* had confirmed that he’s not returning to school suggests that maybe he has an offer on the table already.
If I were MLS brass, I’d be encouraging kids to check out their trial opportunities in Europe. Why? Because with the return of the development league in MLS these kids will have *at least* as much playing opportunity here as they would abroad. Actually, with the upside of Gen Adidas kids generally, they probably have more. No better way to get that point across than to have some coach at Anderlecht tell the kid directly.
Belgium is a good place for young players to go. If you live there for 3 years, you can apply for citizenship and get an EU passport like Gooch did.
Not good for Michigan. But I think he will find a good club to develope with. Just wish he had played a couple of more seasons for Michigan.
I hope we will soon see Soony on the USMNT.
I hope it works out. A chance to train and play professionally at a young age could be very good for his development. If he makes it with Anderlecht he’ll have the chance to play in some very high level matches. If he does he could be another option for the USMNT.
MLS will need to think about letting underclassman declare for the draft if they don’t want to keep losing good young players to other leagues.
how soon-y…..
how saad….
Disappointing to see that MLS let this guy slip. Hopefully, MLS will still have a chance to sign him up.
good choice, was that the first place he was on trial, any others planned?