A (Slightly Bonkers) Young American Transfer Wishlist | OneFootball

With top American talents in MLS looking to make a move to Europe ahead of next year’s World Cup, we pitch ideal situations for three of the league’s brightest USMNT prospects.

As MLS academies grow and pay-to-play (hopefully) goes the way of the dodo, the good old US of A is producing more and better soccer prospects with each passing year. This season, we’ve seen dozens of young talents whose dynamism, close control, and tactical acumen make them seemingly ideal candidates to make the vaunted move to Europe.

Recent MLSers to make the jump across the pond include John Tolkin, Aidan Morris, Benjamin Cremaschi, Patrick Agyemang, and James Sands (again). These players have met varying degrees of success across various European leagues, with some primed for even bigger moves in the near future. However, we can be certain that some of these players will fail to gain traction for their European clubs, and perhaps after bouncing around for a while, will be forced to crawl back, tails between their proverbial legs, to the warm embrace of Major League Soccer once again.

There’s no shame in this! We have plenty of examples of veritable United States men’s national team legends who took a career gamble and moved to European clubs only to fall on their faces. Landon Donovan, who you might recognize from the “MLS Landon Donovan Most Valuable Player Award,” eschewed the siren song of Major League Soccer and moved to Bayer Leverkusen as a 17 year-old. Having failed to make an impression, Donovan was loaned to the San Jose Earthquakes for the next four seasons, where he racked up goals and assists and convinced Leverkusen coach Klaus Augenthaler that he deserved another shot in Germany.

Upon his return, he made seven appearances for the club/pharmaceutical company, including an infamous start against Liverpool in the Champions League. Barry Glendenning of The Guardian even notes one passage of play in which “Donovan gets teed up in the Liverpool box, only to take an unmerciful swipe at the ball and hit a comical fresh-air shot.” You don’t get a lot of airballs in soccer.

Donovan tried again in 2009 when then-Bayern Munich coach and soon-to-be USMNT boss Jurgen Klinsmann insisted that the club take him on loan from the LA Galaxy. Donovan played five friendly matches for the Bavarians and scored four goals, but once he got back into real competition, he plain-old forgot how to play soccer and failed to find the net in six appearances. Then he did this weird double loan at Everton where he only scored twice but everyone there still loves him somehow. I don’t really understand it. All of Donovan’s comings and goings hardly affected his standing with the USMNT, but in this more competitive era, there’s no saying that his uncertainty at club level wouldn’t have endangered his international place.

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Matt Turner famously traded the cushy No. 1 keeper job for the New England Revolution for being Aaron Ramsdale’s understudy at Arsenal. The transfer seemed intentional, as Turner, already a brilliant shot-stopper, would now get the opportunity to widen his range of passing and develop as a true ball-playing keeper. It also seemed to cement his spot as USMNT starting netminder, and he had a strong showing at the 2022 World Cup.

He never quite made a firm impression on Mikel Arteta, however, and only made seven appearances for the Gunners before being unceremoniously sent to Nottingham Forest. He had something of a nice run before he was replaced by current Forest goalie Matz Sels. A move to Crystal Palace didn’t do much to improve his minutes, as he never registered so much as a single league appearance for the Eagles.

This past summer, owing to some fun John Textor hijinks, Turner was sold to Lyon, but then after Textor resigned as chairman, the French club decided they didn’t want Turner anymore and loaned him to the New England Revolution in what can only be described as the saddest possible game of musical chairs. The lack of playing time has clearly done a number on Turner as far his place in the USMNT pecking order is concerned. Turner has all but lost his position as nailed-on starter to up-and-comer Matt Freese of NYCFC, and it’ll be an uphill battle for him to reclaim the starting job for next summer’s World Cup.

All this to say that while making the jump to Europe represents a big step in one’s career, making sure the club fit is right from both a sporting and cultural standpoint is a massive deal. Let’s take a look at a handful of young MLS Americans and match them with their ideal situation.

Alex Freeman: AC Milan

Max Allegri sure loves his wingbacks. He was so influential in converting Tim Weah into one that Weah thanked Allegri “for changing my life” after he was fired as Juventus coach in 2025.

Watch Freeman for 10 minutes with Orlando City and you’ll realize that he has a natural fearlessness with the ball at his feet. He’s never shy to get forward, but critiques of his game center around his inability to deliver a deadly final ball when he gets himself into those dangerous forward positions.

Playing as a wingback in the Allegri system would give Freeman the best of both worlds. He’d be asked to join in the attack enough that his size and speed carrying him up and down the pitch would come as a real boon to the Rossoneri. In defense, he’d be exposed to tactically-complex opponents and likely be asked to defend one-on-one out on the wing, since in this system he wouldn’t necessarily have a wide winger in front of him to help out.

AC Milan deploy attack-minded Belgian Alexis Saelemaekers (interestingly enough, his name comes from the Flemish for Large Room Maker), but for games in which a little more defensive stability is required, Allegri might enjoy having the rangy Freeman at his disposal.

As an interesting tactical aside, under Allegri’s tutelage, Freeman could theoretically learn to play as the right-sided center back in a back three. Mauricio Pochettino opted for this setup in the recent USMNT friendly win against Japan, but the U.S. pool of central defenders is so thin that there would certainly be room for an athlete of Freeman’s caliber.

With Christian Pulisic quite settled in Milan, Freeman would have a reliable resource for the cultural adaptation that comes with moving to a new country and a new league. The door is open for Milan to become the Italian Fulham, meaning the club with a reputation to taking flyers on American players and turning them into cult heroes. I can smell the jersey sales already!

And if it goes wrong? Freeman is young, so it’s safe to say that he would be given some time to work his way into the fold. If he can’t cut it at such a high level, there are plenty of teams across the less glamorous European leagues that would be ready to take a punt on him.

It’s important to note that this move doesn’t feel exactly realistic, that a European giant would be reticent to take a gamble on a player who has only really played one season of MLS, but this is my wishlist, darn it. In the real world, Freeman has been credibly linked with Spanish side Villarreal and Italian legacy giants Parma.

Diego Luna: RSC Anderlecht

Diego Luna, or as my wife likes to call him, “Why does he look like that?” brings a dynamism and explosiveness to MLS the likes of which we haven’t seen from an American since Donovan. He runs with the tenacity of a terrier, has a nose for goal like a bloodhound, and links up in tight spaces like another breed of dog that I can’t think of right now.

Luna was originally a January camp call-up for the USMNT, a window generally reserved for fringe players that aren’t really in consideration for major competitions. But he showed out and was invited to the squad for last summer’s Gold Cup, and since then has seemed the most likely contender to take the starting spot of Gio Reyna. It’s easy to talk about Luna as a feel-good story that seemingly came out of nowhere, but as recently as late 2023 he’d been regularly eschewed by the United States and was even on the verge of agreeing to represent Mexico.

With the World Cup a mere nine months away, Luna could do himself a favor and cement a spot in Pochettino’s starting lineup by moving to a more competitive league in the January transfer window. There’s been some concrete interest from Spanish club Celta Vigo and EPL boomerang club Leeds United of late.

Leeds in particular have invested heavily in their front line, and with the likes of fellow American Brenden Aaronson still fighting desperately for a starting spot in Daniel Farke’s lineup, it’s unclear that Luna would get any real playing time. Farke also seems to be eternally on the hot seat, and there was talk of him being fired even after winning automatic promotion last year. Is this really the situation we want for young Diego?

Belgium is well-trod ground for USMNT hopefuls, and one Belgian club in particular is known for giving young players chances to show their mettle: RSC Anderlecht. The Paars-Wit (Purple and White, in Dutch) are perennial contenders in the Belgian Super League, although they’ve fallen on somewhat hard times. They last qualified for the Champions League in 2017, but have appeared in either the Europa League or the Conference League in every season since then. (They’ve already been eliminated from both of these competitions this season, unfortunately.)

Luna reportedly trialed with Anderlecht before joining Real Salt Lake, and he mused that he likes the way they play. Manager Besnik Hasi returns to the club after an eight-year absence. While not quite a legend, he did play for Anderlecht as a midfielder and helped them to the title in 2003. Hasi employs a 4-2-3-1, and Luna would most likely battle for playing time with young Ecuadorian left-winger Nilson Angulo, and through the middle with No. 10 Thorgan “Brother of Eden” Hazard. At 32, its unclear how much tread Hazard has on his tires, and a club with a such a reputation for developing young players will certainly have one eye on the future.

If Luna can go and “Be The Man” at a European club, the bigwigs of the Big Five Leagues will surely sit up and take notice. At only 22 years old, he can focus on his development above all else without feeling the pressure to make a big money move straight away.

Anderlecht also holds a special place in the hearts of many USMNT fans. At a time when precious few Americans were playing in the Champions League, attacking midfielder Sacha Kljestan appeared for the club in three straight UCLs from 2012 to 2015. Controversially, however, Kljestan was not picked for the USMNT squad for either the 2010 or 2014 World Cups.

And if it doesn’t work out? We’ve seen the old “loan back to MLS” plenty of times, and Luna would have his pick of suitors. Being a Spanish-speaking player of Mexican heritage, one has to be believe that he might be inclined to give the rest of the American continent a try. Boca Juniors, anyone?

Patrick Schulte: VfL Wolfsburg

The United States never used to have any trouble exporting goalkeepers. They were all bald, but I don’t think that had anything to do with their shot-stopping abilities. The preponderance of American keepers in the Premier League was always lazily attributed to the fact that American kids “grow up catching balls with their hands,” as if this kind of thing is prohibited in foreign countries.

But modern goalies are all kind of expected to be a little bit of Manuel Neuer. They’ve got to be comfortable with the ball at their feet, capable of punching through line-breaking passes, and tactically intelligent enough to participate in complex build-up play. Patrick Schulte broke through with the Columbus Crew in 2023 when a comedy of errors left Eloy Room without a valid work visa. Schulte has never looked back, and despite some injury struggles, he has been instrumental to the Crew’s success. While at 24 he’s considered young for a goalkeeper, Schulte has maintained the trust of Crew manager Wilfried Nancy. He credits the Frenchman’s innovative training regimens for helping him develop a fearlessness between the sticks, at one point likening a particularly intense training session to “An MMA fight in the six-yard box.”

While Freese has the inside track to starting at next year’s World Cup after Turner’s fall from grace, he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, either. This raises the question: does Schulte absolutely need to move to Europe? The current crop of USMNT goalies in Europe (Ethan Horvath and Gaga Slonina) couldn’t be farther away from the starting lineup, and Pochettino has made it clear that he’s got no qualms about giving an MLS player the No. 1 shirt.

Schulte has been coveted of late by marquee clubs, with Arsenal and Manchester United eyeing the St. Louis native as recently as fall of 2024. But Arsenal signed Kepa Arrizabalaga as backup to David Raya and Man U almost signed Emi Martinez and then actually signed Senne Lammens to compete with Altay Bayindir. Schulte would almost certainly be signed as a long-term, developmental project rather than a vital piece to help them win in the short term.

So why do I want to send Schulte to Lower Saxony? Wolfsburg appeared in either the Champions League or the Europa League six times between 2009 and 2021, but have finished ninth or lower in each Bundesliga season since then. They even made the quarterfinals of the 2015-16 UCL before falling victim to a classic Real Madrid remontada as they threw away a 2-0 first leg lead to lose 3-2. Despite this European success, the club staved off relegation in the playoff system twice during that timespan.

Wolfsburg is a financially stable club that deserves some stability on the field. Schulte is about the opposite character to their current starting keeper, the once-capped Polish international Kamil Grabara. The description of a YouTube video titled “Kamil Grabara’s Most Memorable Mistakes” reads: “Congratulations to VfL Wolfsburg on their bold acquisition of Kamil Grabara! You’ve truly secured a gem of a goalkeeper, renowned for his thrilling unpredictability and unparalleled ability to turn the simplest saves into edge-of-your-seat moments.”

The goal for new Wolfsburg coach Paul Simonis has been set at qualifying for European competition. Schulte would provide a calm presence at the back, not to mention some excellent shot-stopping skills. Although Simonis has only been in the job briefly, previous Wolfsburg editions prioritized quick transitions. Schulte would do well to develop his range of passing to get the ball up the pitch as fast as humanly possible, given the speed that the USMNT employs on the wings and at fullback.

The German Wolves also employ American Kevin Paredes, as the midfielder made a similar move from DC United in 2021. They were also reportedly on the cusp of signing Josh Sargent in July before negotiations with Norwich City hit a ziegelmauer (German for “brick wall.”)

If Schulte moves to Germany and helps get Wolfsburg back among the European ranks, all while improving his passing range and big-game experience, he’s going to give Pochettino one heck of a selection headache. But after a tall Fernet con Coca, the Argentine will surely make the right call and hand our boy Patrick the reins for 2026.