Wake Forest striker Cody Arnoux is set to join the American revolution at Everton.
Arnoux, pictured above (right) during his trial at Everton in March, is set to sign a contract with the Liverpool-based club today, making him the second American player to join Everton this summer. Midfielder Anton Peterlin, pictured on the left, signed earlier this month.
SBI first reported Arnoux's decision to leave Wake Forest on Wednesday, and now the All-American forward will be joining U.S. national team goalkeeper Tim Howard with the Toffees. Arnoux and Peterlin are expected to be with Everton when the club faces the MLS All-Star Team on July 29th in Utah.
A top prospect last year as a junior, Arnoux passed up a chance to sign with MLS after last college season in order to stay in school. He was projected to be a top three prospect in the 2010 MLS Draft, but will now join former Wake Forest strike partner Marcus Tracy in Europe.
Here are some other stories to get your Thursday going:
Eto'o agrees to Inter Milan move
Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o has agreed to terms with Inter Milan, paving the way for the highly-anticipated swap that will send Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona.
Eto'o is expected to join Inter next week.
Barcelona signs Keirrison
FC Barcelona is in the process of landing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but the signing it completed on Thursday could wind up having the bigger long-term impact.
The UEFA Champions League titlists signed Brazilian sensation Keirrison on Thursday, landing one of the best young strikers in South America. The 20-year-old Brazilian youth national team star has been starring for Palmeiras before making the €14 million move.
With Barcelona set to add Ibrahimovic to Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi and Bojan Krkic, Keirrison is expected to be loaned out during the upcoming season.
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What do you think of this news? Sad to see another American player skip MLS, or happy to see another American making a move to Europe? Think Barcelona is upgrading significantly from Eto'o to Ibrahimovic, or will the champions regret dumping the African striker? Do you see Keirrison being the next great Brazilian star?
Share your thoughts below.
Shmenge:
Arnoux has been “given a sniff” by the National teams; check out his bio on Wake Forest’s site
@fubar, pretty sure Peterlin’s mom is Danish and his father is Slovenian.
@Posted by: Shmenge | July 23, 2009 at 10:48 AM
The only hole, and it’s a giant one, with your argument is most of the guys who jump ship to Europe early from college don’t have university degrees. I mean if you are there for 4 years and got no sniffs it’s pretty much a done deal that no one in Europe wants you since you are already about 23 by that time.
So yeah, if you are intent on being a footballer I’d still rather take the $20K developmental salary for 2 years (which is the maximum amount of time you can be at that rate if you get regular playing time) as opposed to the $0 salary I’m getting at college.
As for Peterlin and Arnoux, I hope them all the best but considering neither has even been on the youth or senior team’s radars I kinda question how much success we can really expect out of them. I hope they tear it up and bring more talent to the Senior squad but something tells me Everton is taking a shot in the dark on a cheap player and seeing what happens. If either remains Everton property for more than 2 years they should feel very proud of their accomplishment.
I think we all agree though that the ‘SuperDraft’ is kinda being made a dinosaur by the international nature of the game. Drafts make sense and work in the other sports here because we have far and away the best leagues in the world but soccer is too hard to do it in. I’m sure most people would be mad once it was done away with and NY, LA & Chicago were top of the table every year but for the good of the top to bottom quality of the league I think it needs to go and let players sign where they want/can.
No offense but Zakwani is making 300,000 a year, many GA’s make six figures these guys would be GA’s or top senior level players not development guys. Look at pontius, I’ll put money down now that pontius has a better career then both these guys because he’s going to get to play. I bet pontius makes more than 50,000. I just think people are mis informed when we talk about the cap the guys who aren’t ready make the least amount not the guys who can play and these two can obviously play.
Peterlin def did not play at sb he went to the glorious cal poly slo where he soul crushed in the center. Funny to think I played pick up with him like six months ago. He’s a good guy. Unlike chamo.
its awesome i use to practice with and play against cody back in club and high school years. I think its great because now he is in the best position to push him to new levels and get him on the national team which I’m sure he would love to accomplish.
Everyone concerned about suddenly losing tons of young players to English and European contracts needs to take a step back and realize that the only development players that are being poached have European passports . . .
The idea that US College play is a “shop window” for Europe and Latin America is ludicrous. Now that said, the starting salary of non-generation Adidas MLS players is equally ludicrous, so anyone with EU ties is VERY likely to jump straight across the pond.
As a footnote, one has to wonder if Gooch would have been picked up by AC Milan if he had occupied a foreign slot on the field. It’s likely he would have been fielding offers from Livorno with only a US passport . . .
Sad he wont be in MLS, but glad to see young American talent attracting the interest of world class managers like David Moyes.
Any chance that one of our younger, Euro based forwards could make the WC squad? If Bradley brings 4 strikers to South Africa, the competition for the last spot is wide open behind Altidore, Davies and Ching. If Arnoux, Tracy or Zimmerman have a good season in Europe I’d rather see them make the trip than someone like Conor Casey, Davy Arnaud or Kenny Cooper.
While I am happy these two are going to Europe, I am concerned that, especially in the case of Arnoux, they are losing potentially years of match practice while already in their twenties. Arnoux just might be good enough to be getting first team minutes in the Colaship, to say nothing of the MLS or the Danish Superliga. Instead, he will be a reserve for Everton for quite some time unless he’s an absolute phenom.
I see these signings, again especially in the case of Arnoux as he’s probably less of a project, as analagous to Lichaj’s signing with Aston Villa – except that Lichaj is half a year younger than Arnoux after almost two years as a professional. Lichaj hasn’t been loaned out, nor has he made a first team appearance. Instead, he has been consistenly playing on the reserve team ever since (I think) he recovered from injury. We should expect Arnoux and Peterlin to follow a similar path. That is, play with the reserves for at least some time so as to get used to the professional game.
In the long term, someone like Arnoux might be better off by starting his professional career with Everton, but he probably could have had options that would have put him further ahead in his professional development in two or so years’ time.
This good news that we importing new talent to the premier League but it is also bad news for us. 1st because it show that MLS doesn’t have the money to lure our younger players to come and play in the MLS. Our player don’t see any growth money wise, Level of the game is not great for them to growth technical. 2nd is because it show that National or Club we don’t have a good scouting new talent like clubs in other part of the world or even like baseball. So good luck to our young players “Arnoux and Peterlin” that are going to Everton make us proud and hope you guys keep it up cause you will be the future star of OUR BELOVED NATIONAL TEAM OF USA…
As for these signings, I have my concerns as an Everton fan. While other teams are signing first team-caliber players, the Toffeemen are signing players for the future.
Though Everton has one of the best reserve teams and youth system, signing solid first team-caliber players every transfer season is essential. Though it does help that Yak and Arteta are now back healthy with Jo back on loan.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get another good midfielder, a fullback, and another centerback.