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Cropper signs new 1-year deal with Southampton

Cody Cropper

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By TIM FONTENAULT

Upon his arrival at Southampton FC, goalkeeping coach Dave Watson made keeping goalkeeper Cody Cropper one of his top priorities.

The 21-year-old American will be staying with the Saints for another year after signing a new one-year contract with the club.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for me as a player to come in and work hard under the new staff and hopefully earn another contract,” Cropper told the club’s website. “The environment you’re put in is one of a kind. Everybody has been saying that the new building here is five-star and it only looks to be getting better.”

Cropper has been climbing the ladder with both Southampton and the United States national team. He was called into the national team for friendlies against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine and trained with the team ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

As he looks to increase his value to the national team, Cropper could be in line to be the starting goalkeeper for the United States at the Olympics in 2016.

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What do you think of this news? Do you see Cropper becoming Southampton’s starting goalkeeper in the future? What do you think his future with the national team holds?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Glad to see this. Cropper looks like our GK future for 2022 (depending on how Hamid and Johnson end up). The kid is only 21, so give him 4 years or so and we will see.

    Reply
      • Anderlecht is a way better team then anybody in the MLS but I know what you mean Travis. Belgium as a league is not somewhere we want out starters to be at but Yedlin is really young and Anderlecht has a good history of developing players

      • I think one thing is clear, as a next step, he would have a lot more exposure in Belgium than MLS..and he would have an opportunity to flourish abroad and prove himself outside mls. Not a bad first step for Yedlin. Others…maybe other leagues.

      • I think the MLS has gotten good enough that unless players are going to top tier leagues, ie Spain, England, Germany, Italy, I would almost rather they stay home. In the short term Yedlin may grow as a player faster at a team like Anderlecht, but I think long term we need exciting players to stay in MLS.

      • I would add France, Portugal and the Netherlands, but not Denmark, Sweden and places like Norway, All three of these countries have shown a great ability to take players to the next level and give them much greater exposure to the coaches in the nearby countries to see them in person as well. If it was the right club with good pedigree in developing players from those countries, I would go in a heartbeat.

  2. Anyone know when olympic qualifying starts? After watching Yedlin and Green and getting ansi to see the other talent in the pipeline.

    Reply
    • Add brooks and The pipeline pretty much ends there. No goal scoring striker, winger, or 10 coming through unless you count washouts like lleget and Gyau.Cropper better come throu or our tradition of elite keepers is over.

      Reply
      • Ignoring the troll because of a man named Brad Guzan, I’ll just keep my excitement thank you. The better question would be when will Cropper shave his head to continue our tradition of elite bald keepers.

      • Finally, some sane conversation on the SBI blog.

        Max, it doesn’t look like Cody’s far from it….I think they all gradually work towards it. I think that Keller and Friedel have a meeting and decide when the youngsters can go full monty on the shave. Then they call the player secretly. I think Guzan got his call at an early age.

        Surprised Rimando hasn’t called up the boys to ask for special dispensation. Probably feels some real resentment.

      • Junior Flores @ Dortmund
        Ben Lederman (15?yrs old) @ Barcelona
        Marc Pelosi @ Liverpool
        Paul Arriola @ Tijuana
        Emerson Hyndman @ Fulham
        Joshua Pynadath (11yrs old) @ Real Madrid
        Gedion Zelalem (I’m fairly confident he’s picking USA) @ Arsenal

        Just to name a few prospects for a future squad in 2018

      • I would not even mention an 11 or a 15 year old at this time. While having potential, there are so many other players to talk about right now other than those. Luis GIl at Real Salt Lake, Diego Fagundez at New England is a star if he chooses the U.S. over Uruguay once he is eligible which will be in about 2 or 3 years (he already has his green card), Gyau at Dormond’s 2nd team, certainly Gedion and the other players you mention, and there are others who are currently on the U21, U19 teams.

      • ???. There are a number of players. To start with, what about Gyau who is now on Dortmond’s 2nd team?

      • 22 yrs old an now at bundlsliga 2 does not inspire hope your better off with lleget, it’s apparent neither will be special as hoped. None of those other guys are special maybe Zelalam whose not even with US yet.

        Names like Zardes, Pineda, Joya and Bowen were names thrown out before and still none are good enough to be regular MLS starters

    • If last cycle’s qualification process is any indication, Late March 2016 is when the fun should begin. I don’t know when the age cutoff for eligibility would be, though.

      Reply

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