Daniel Williams has never set foot in the United States, but the SC Freiburg defender had begun making waves among U.S. national team fans as the latest USA-eligible player to emerge as a potential national team prospect.
The son of an American serviceman father, Williams was born and raised in Germany, but recently stated in an in-depth interview with Yanks Abroad that he is open to the idea of playing for the United States. That revelation has American fans excited considering Williams' recent emergence as a starter at right fullback for the Bundesliga relegation battlers.
Early reviews of the 20-year old are positive, though it should be noted that Williams is being played at right back despite being a natural defensive midfielder. Freiburg's need for defensive cover precipitated calling Williams in from Freiburg's reserve team last month and Williams has made the most of that opportunity, starting four straight matches.
Williams is not yet officially eligible for the national team, but the Yanks Abroad feature suggests that this is a mere formality. While a shot at the U.S. World Cup team is highly unlikely, his age and early success with Freiburg bodes well for a potential role on the U.S. national team in years to come if he chooses the United States over his native Germany.
You must not be old enough to have watched the 1994 world cup….
Thomas Dooley!
Dealer2: You wouldn’t want to go back home after living here either. They breathe football in Germany.
If you only knew how many more Williams-like players we have over here that are heads and heals above the Bornsteins and other MLS by-products. But don’t blamethem,blame USSF fornottracking them down sooner.
Hmm…lemme think about this? Go to USA and play MLS or learn from the best in Europe….
Good point about Ibisevic, but Subotic was in our youth pool and Rongen gave him a shove out the door.
Personally, I don’t want to see anyone who has never set foot in the United States to play for our team. Sorry if you feel otherwise, but it doesn’t feel right to me.
We already have one of the best teams in the world. Last year we beat #1 ranked Spain and nearly knocked off Brazil in major competition. I’d rather focus on developing talent in kids here.
well we know how much Bradley likes defensive midfielders, should be a lock based on that alone
I find it amazing that I have followed this guy for the past three years over here as well as other Yanks, and no one has bothered to give him a shot over much weaker MLS candidates. Great scouting USSF!
Gunther Amadeus would fix everything.
Ives, you mentioned in the comments section in another post that there were potentially holes in this story. Since you’re posting this story, does that mean all is alive with Williams getting his passport and that he is eligible? What were those holes and what did you find out exactly? I’m sure you’re readers (myself included) would like to know. thanks!
(SBI-There are some unanswered questions that need to be addressed (and that isn’t an indictment of the Yanks Abroad story, which is what some folks tried to turn it into). I am working on getting those questions answered, but decided that it was time to get this post up so everyone who isn’t aware of Williams knew about him. I’m hoping to have a follow-up later this week.)
Ok, how about. “Who watched his dad coach soccer at Clifton High School.” Will you give me that?
(SBI-Of course. I interviewed Fernando enough times to fall into that category. Would have been great for Rossi to play for the USA, but it was his choice and he just never developed that connection to American soccer. That’s not the fault of U.S. Soccer.)
He was a superstar, he was dynamite and whatever he did (it)
Seemed to be alright.
And he drank (and) he cursed and he fooled around
But when the women would shout:
“Score for me” Amadeus,
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus,
Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus,
Oh oh oh Amadeus.
And we’ve said it before if his father is good enough for our armed forces he’s good enough for us. Besides considering bases are US territory who knows what when where how.
Plus the reality is these go back and forth.. you take the ones that go your way.
Stevie C has been a good mainstay for USMNT.. could be nice to see a ready replacement in the wings not named m.wynne :p
(SBI-Agreed completely on your first point. To your last point, last time I checked Jonathan Spector was still on the team, and he’s only 23, and he’s actually the first-choice RB at this point.)
Dude, I’d be hella stoked if we had a guy named Gunther Amadeus on the team
The first line in the article is that he has never set foot in the US. I can understand this kind if thing in Luxembourg or Andorra or something but come on we are a huge country, I think we should worry about creating our own talent not importing it from Germany. I respect that his father is in the military. But that fact that he has never set foot in this country just rubs me the wrong. way. I suppose if I were in his shoes I might see it differently.
Yeah, because if Rossi scores the winning goal for Italy in the World Cup final they won’t get excited about some little guy that played at Clifton High School.
(SBI-Not to get too technical but Rossi never played for Clifton High School. he moved to Italy to join Parma’s youth ranks before high school.)
That was different because we spent US Soccer money on him and then he decided to play for Italy. Plus we always kind of knew he wanted to play for them.
(SBI-“We spent U.S. Soccer money on him”? Really? When was that? He left for Parma’s youth academy at age 12)
Dude, chill out. He was born in Germany because his dad was an American soldier. If that’s not American then I don’t know what is. Also, he probably got professional offers and just stayed in Germany.
I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not they view themselves as being American despite never having been here. It just sounds off that you have players who aren’t able to get a sniff from the country they’re actually in and thinking… well I guess I could play for my second option. I read the article, here’s his quote – “If I get a chance to play for the US team I wouldn’t say no if I had no chance at the time for the German national team,”
I mean I’m not saying, forget this kid, I’m saying it’d be way cooler to be first choice.
Read the YA article. He is a US citizen and he was going on a trip right around 9/11 to the US and his dad canceled the trip. Who plans trips on their own to other countries when they are under 20 years old? It;s not his fault he hasn’t been to the US. His name is Daniel Williams. It isn’t like the article is about some guy in Germany named Gunther Amadeus who’s father was a US businessman over in Germany for Oktoberfest and hooked up with the beer girl and was never seen again.
(SBI-Gunther Amadeus. LOL. Great name.)
Williams is very much an American citizen since he was born to a US Military serviceman. He is merely a citizen who just doesn’t have his passport.
I guess serving your country abroad to make sure there isn’t a draft so you can have your daily job “isnt cool” with you.
just to be clear…i am not saying that williams should be playing in SA…i’m thinking of the bigger picture known as the player pool…..if we can get talented people to play then why not…this happens everywhere….higuain could’ve played for France and France tried very hard to get him, but he chose argentina…david trezeguet could’ve played for argentina (he was born and raised there) but wasn’t good enough to play for the national team (so it seemed and there was already a long list of very good strikers), played for france and helped them win the Euro championship in 2000…….
We’ll know the US is a true contender to win the World Cup when we don’t have to read stories like this anymore. I don’t think soccer fans in Brazil or Spain or Italy spend a lot of time excitedly wondering whether a converted right back for a cellar-dwelling Bundesliga side might be eligible to play for their country.
I saw a clip of a recent interview, in English, with Williams. You got the sense he embraces his heritage. Very much so. He’s not of these kids that his US serviceman father knocked up a German and isn’t in the picture. Quite the opposite. His family has continued to live in Germany after his Pops retired and left the service. Don’t let his remark about not ever being to the US sway your thinking that he isn’t “American”. That’s ridiculous. I know several “military brats” who had never been to the US until they moved back here in their late teens. It happens. It’s not as uncommon as you think. I have no issues with williams representing the US if he’s good enough. None.
Snag him now – plan for WC in 2014
that is exactly what happened for the 1994 world cup team…there were at least 4 players in the pool that had never been to the US but had german mothers and american military fathers……
I don’t think it’s fair to say we “lost” Rossi. He never played for the US at any level and never showed any interest in playing for us. Maybe we had a real chance at landing Subotic, but it has to be said that the USSF actually has a very strong record of landing dual-nationals. Right now, we have at least six players (Torres, Holden, Castillo, Feilhaber, Jones, Adu off the top of my head) who had reasonable options to play for other countries.
c’mon….thomas dooley didn’t even speak english and played for the nats…he was one of the better players available at the time….i don’t care where we find them…if they can contribute, we should go after them…let’s face it the US scouting system seems to work if a player came up in the system….jay demerit was not on the US radar until after he was in england….
If you really believe that Regis, whom was the last good left back we had was what wreaked the 98 world cup team you sir are an idiot.
We didn’t lose Rossi, he never wanted to play for the US…he had been asked and kept declining because he wanted to play for Italy, particularly after he had been on the Italian youth teams…Let’s remove Rossi from the list of Yanks lost…Subotic I agree…if anything we should be talking about Ibisevic as lost since he played in the US and went completely under the radar…….
sounds like a young Jermain Jones…
wish him and Hoyos could have participated in the U-20 cup.. good job FIFA organizing a tournament that most players in clubs that recognize the fifia calender could not work with..
He may call himself a natural defensive midfielder, but his performances may warrant a permanent switch to right back. A 20 year old making the team of the week in his first 3 appearances in a top european league is nothing to scoff at.
yes several gramatical errors in there, still jittery from the AM coffee, just getting ahead of the haters…
Yea this is too weird. So what’s next, we start plumbing military records to see if we can find a bunch of footballing kids with American dad’s all over the world? I get it if you come here from another country, become naturalized and play for the US, but guys who’ve never even been here pulling on the Stars and Stripes? And we’re basically the sloppy seconds because the Germans haven’t called im up? It just doesn’t feel right.
SC Freiburg! Badenova Stadium is awesome! As someone who lived in Freiburg and went to many matches, I say this is awesome! I would be interested to see how he performs at D-mid as the article states is his natural position.
I don’t care if he wasn’t born in America or hasn’t set foot here. If he has a viable and legit way to gain citizenship he should get a look. We need to get as many quality players as we can with experience in an international league.
I mean every other country does this so why not us!?
his father is in the US Military, if that doesnt make him american i dont know what does
Good find, Ives.
Hey what’s the latest on Jones playing for the US?
Agree completely. The question is and has always been is the USSF actually trying to attract these players to actually agree to play for the USMNT. If they’re yet unsure about which country they’d like to play for…the USSF should at least be contacting them to invite them to the US for a camp or two…in order to give the players something to think about.
No more David Regis es please, that nonsense already helped wreck one US World Cup team.
he’s not. read the article.
Unless this kid has no shot of playing Germany, I hope he doesn’t pick to play for the USA. We’re just being hypocrites if we complain about Rossi not playing for us, but love the idea of Jones and this kid joining our squad.
The guy hasn’t set foot on American soil? I know this happens from time to time, but I’m an American before a American soccer fan and rolling out a red carpet for an obvious carpetbagger isn’t cool with me.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Parentage is the cheapest way to get citizenship.
C’mon the guy hasn’t even stept foot in the USA let alone lived here. I’m all for getting the best players possible but this is an afront to US born and bred players.
Mi-chael Ma-son…clap, clap, clap clap clap.
Mar-co Ma-son…clap, clap, clap clap clap.
I’m sure the USSF knew about him before any of us did. They (USSF) should be fighting for every good young American-eligible player in the world. If they are not, then we are in trouble. After losing Rossi and Subotic, It would be disheartening to lose another young prospect, and then meet them in a FIFA competition!
Sweet a Freiburger SC player on the USMNT!! Das Waere echt cool! Attending SC Freiburg games in 1990 is what made me a fan of the game. i had no idea he was an Ami.
hahaha
Maybe this was the ultimate purpose of hte Marshall Plan….
the kid does have game and he best stay healthy lol
I’m interested to see if him and the Hoyos brothers are game to join the national team.