By DAN KARELL
A former American Abroad in Sweden has decided to further his career in Major League Soccer.
The league announced on Wednesday evening that 21-year-old midfielder Brian “Cobi” Span had signed a contract with the league and will be allocated in a weighted lottery on Thursday at 10 a.m. Span spent the last two seasons with Djurgårdens in Sweden’s Allsvenskan, the top division, but the club chose to part ways with him at the end of the 2013 season.
Five teams have entered the weighted lottery, with FC Dallas holding the best chance (41.1 percent) of acquiring the Somers, N.Y., native. Also participating are the Chicago Fire (27 percent), San Jose Earthquakes (18.7 percent), New England Revolution (12.3 percent, and Real Salt Lake (0.9 percent).
Whichever team acquires Span in the lottery is not allowed to participate in another one for the rest of the year.
Prior to becoming a professional in Sweden, Span played two seasons with the University of Virginia, scoring 12 goals and adding eight assists in his collegiate career. During his two years with Djurgårdens, Span played 19 times in all competitions, scoring once.
Span is a former member of the U.S. Soccer Under-17 residency program.
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What do you think of this news? Do you see Span starting for any of those five teams? Where do you see him falling?
Share your thoughts below.
Anyone heard of Maki Tall? Plays for Lillie
Yep, but hasn’t Maki already represented France at the U-20 level (and against the US, I might add). Point being, it doesn’t look like he’s interested in representing the US at this point in his career, and he’s not likely headed to MLS. If he ever decides to head to the states for either reason, we’ll welcome him w/ open arms.
A little roll
Dude is so fast on Fifa 14 that he’s my first pick up with an MLS team.
+1 same here. Span, Gyau, Edu, Lletget and Alfredo Morales are all great US fifa pick ups… Now can we get that in real life?
It’s our league … let’s embrace it!
So basically, he has a 100% chance of going to a sh*t club.
Depends heavily on your definition of sh*t. RSL is very good. NER figured things out, particularly on the attacking side, Chicago probably had one of the best records in the league post Magee trade. SJ just missed the playoffs.
Its not like Chivas USA entered the lottery.
Honestly, I discounted the .9% chance of going to the claret and cobalt lol. So 99.1% chance of going to a sh*t club.
You ignored 2/3rds of his argument.
True.
a lottery..*sigh*
this is why MLS is considered so illegitimate by most soccer fans.
a lottery lol
Agreed, this system is not needed. If he was any other nationality he would go to who ever first lined up his discovery rights aka a team who scouted him and his situation in Sweden now he just get pushed to whichever ping pong ball is picked?! Is this how we bring young American prospects into the league?
That aside, he was a great ncaa player and someone i hope does well in the league.
MLS lol
^ mexican
Yes, because everyone supports a league based on the vagaries of human resources policy.
Cool. Hope Dallas gets him
Good young player. Really wished my Union would have entered the lottery.