In a story that has been missed by much of the American soccer press, former USL PDL player and NCAA Soccer star Vedad Ibisevic is two matches away from going to the World Cup with Bosnia. The Hoffenheim attacker was signed by French club PSG when playing for Chicago Fire Premier of the PDL during the Summer of 2004. Bosnia takes on Portugal in the UEFA WCQ playoffs, beginning this Saturday.
The player led the Bundesliga in goals scored last season before an untimely injury which also saw Hoffenheim fall out of title contention. This season, Ibisevic has already scored five goals in the Bundesliga campaign. Trevor Hayward, who publishes the outstanding site World Soccer Reader directed me to a video from ESPN, yesterday in which Ibisevic stated he would have considered playing for the US if he had been approached while still living stateside.
Ibisevic was living in the United States when Bruce Arena managed the US National Team. Steve Sampson and Bob Bradley both were very proactive about identifying and courting players around the globe eligible to play for the US. However, Bruce Arena appeared largely disinterested in any player that did not come through the established US system of MLS or the USSF’s Academy in Bradenton Florida and US Youth National Team setup.
Arena’s background as a college soccer coach contradicts his very narrow minded focus and attitude towards player selection when the US manager. While a remarkable number of players were capped under Arena, they all seemed to fit the same profile. Former USYNT players, MLS bred or playing in a European league that featured regularly on TV. From 1999 to 2004 when Vedad Ibisevic was starring in High School and College Soccer in the US, he did not meet the profile of the type of player Arena sought out.
The product of St Louis high schools and a former All American at St Louis University, Ibesevic will be watched intently this weekend by many a US National Team fan wondering, what if? At the very least, Ibisevic is yet another remarkable story coming from the USL’s PDL which is one of the best things going in American soccer as far as player development is concerned.
Charlie Davies, also was an under the radar player as far as the USSF was concerned plying his trade at Boston College and with the Westchester Flames of the PDL. Now with Davies injured and likely unavailable for next summer’s World Cup, not having a striker of Ibisevic’s quality in the squad could be fatal if the US is going to fulfill the goal of Project 2010 which was to compete to win the World Cup in 2010.
Much has been written about fellow Bosnian refugee Neven Subotic’s decision to play for Serbia over the United States. Subotic after all did spend a year in residency at the USSF’s Academy in Florida, and was capped many times for the US at the youth level. But Subotic checked out on the US after perceived mistreatment by coaches, not because he was completely ignored as was the case with Ibisevic.
Whatever the circumstances were around the decisions to run off Subotic and, to not actively recruit Ibisevic, both players could have been very useful to current US Manager Bob Bradley.
Just because Ibisevic said he would have been interested in playing for the US doesn’t mean he would have been eligible to do.
Everything I’ve read on Ibisevic indicated that his status was problematic at the least.
True, Jason he certainly wasn’t a citizen. I do think though Arena was less interested in this sort of path than Sampson was or than Bradley currently was.
But yes, a very good point about the eligibility issue.
I’m a little bit ignorant about this part of the issue, but is there reason to think that Ibisevic would not have been able to obtain citizenship? I just refreshed myself on the nine requirements for U.S. citizenship. If the USMNT had shown interest in Ibisevic earlier, none of them would have been a problem.
I think I’m missing something?
Agree with Richard here, whose to say the necessary steps would have been taken to have Ibisevic playing for the U.S., had the U.S. expressed interest?
To Kartik – I’ve seen quotes from Arena saying Bradenton was not the answer. If he didn’t want non-system players or system players, what exactly was he looking for?
[...] in the Bundesliga, Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic, a former Saint Louis University All-American who would have considered playing for the U.S. They also have top-caliber playmakers in Muslimovic and 19-year-old Lyon wonderkid Pjanic. If Pepe [...]