Welcome back! For more of an intro and context, check back in Part 1. Again, I will be looking at each players’ minutes, games played, assists, and goals (mostly all available at https://fbref.com/en/ with some help from https://www.transfermarkt.us/). I didn’t include stats for youth players or if I couldn’t find them. Here in Part 2, we will mostly examine the prospects of the USMNT player pool in Europe. Come back for Part 3 to read about the fringe of the USMNT player pool, and Part 4 where we talk about the top USMNTers in Europe.

Reminders: I narrowed my focus to just players in Europe. Sorry Johnny Cardoso fans. Also if you don’t see a name in their expected section, keep scrolling, as there are some special sections throughout, or go back and check Part 1 (that’s where the undeclared dual-nationals are).

These tiers are *supposed* to be in order from worst-to-best but I’ll admit I got a little lost in the sauce. Also, who’s to say whether its better to play for Benfica B vs. Frankfurt’s U19s? I sure as heck don’t know. Within each section I listed the players in order from most-to-least interesting. Overall this is kind of a “who is the best player in a vacuum” ranking while also being a “who had the best season” ranking. So, like, don’t take it too seriously? I don’t know I just do this for fun.

Extra Disclaimer for this part: It is really difficult to get reliable stats of any youth games anywhere, so I did not bother including them here. I simply named where the player is playing.

Player Name, Age (Club/League; Total appearances, total mins, goals, assists)

** – Has appeared for USMNT under Gregg Berhalter

U19, U18, U17, and U16 Teams

• Kobe Hernandez-Foster,18 (Wolfsburg U19)
• Federico Oliva, 16 (Athletico Madrid U19)
• Mason Judge, 19 (Frankfurt U19)
• Maximilian Dietz, 19 (Freiburg U19)
• Michael Wentzel, 19 (Borussia Mönchengladbach U19)
• Pablo Soares, 19 (Borussia Mönchengladbach U19)
• Nico Carrera, 19 (Holstein Kiel U19)
• Niklas Dossmann, 18 (FSV Mainz U19)
• Bobby Piere, 18 (Strasbourg U19)
• Nicholas Cyrus, 19 Midtjyland U19)
• Patrick Leal, 18 (Sporting CP U19)
• Devan Tanton, 17 (Fulham U18)
• Alex Borto, 17 ( Fulham U18)
• Zack Booth, 17 (Leicester City U18)
• Carver Miller, 17 (Arminia Bielefeld U17)
• Evan Rotundo, 16 (Schalke U17)
• Lucas Tamarez, 16 (Hoffenheim U17)
• Aethan Yohannes, 17 (AZ Alkmaar U17)
• Rokas Pukstas, 17 (HNK Hajduk Split U17)
• Grayson Dettoni, 15 (Bayern Munich U16)
• Robert Deziel, 15 (Celta Vigo Youth)

Even though this list feels pretty comprehensive, I likely still missed some players. Guys like Joe Scally, and Justin Che are in a special category later. Kobe Hernandez-Foster showed well on the US U17 team in 2019. I have never seen Federico Oliva play, but he’s playing up an age group for Atletico Madrid which says something. Plus, he was recently training with Atleti’s first team, according to some social media sleuths. For reference: in the fall of 2019 Gio Reyna would have been on this list. In the spring of 2017 Weston McKennie would have been on this list. Obviously not all of them will pan out, but could one or two of them be the next Reyna or McKennie? With a list this long, and only getting longer, the odds look good. Lastly, yes Zack Booth is the younger brother to Taylor Booth who shows up later.

B-Team, II Team, Jong Team, or U23 Team

• Bryang Kayo, 18 (Wolfsburg II)
• Chituru Odunze, 18 (Leicester City U23)
• Alex Mendez, 20 (Jong Ajax)
• Stuart Ritchie, 19 (Hannover II)
• Quincy Butler, 19 (Hoffenheim II)
• Aaron Cervantes, 19 (Rangers II)
• CJ Dos Santos, 20 (Benfica B)
• Johan Gomez, 19 (Porto B)
• Ethan Wady, 19 (Chelsea U23)
• Andrew Andrade, 18 (Portimonense U23)
• Matteo Ritaccio, 19 (Liverpool U23)
• Augustus McGiff,18 (Reading U23)
• Jonathan Tomkinson,19 (Norwich City U23)
• Kyle Scott, 23 (Newcastle United U23)

Despite the different names, all of these teams serve the same purpose: a launching platform from which academy players join the first team. Again, I may have missed some players. Kayo and Odunze have been called into a few USMNT senior camps but have yet to make an appearance. Odunze, Las, Wady, and Dos Santos are all goalkeepers, and may take longer to breakthrough than the rest. Mendez looked great for the US U-20’s in 2018 and 2019, but physicality was always his biggest issue. Considering he hasn’t made waves at Jong Ajax, I would assume he wasn’t able to handle the physicality of playing with grown men. But hey, even though 20 is old for this group, it’s still relatively young. Anyone 20 or older in this group probably wants a move soon to get professional minutes. There were rumors Kyle Scott could come to MLS recently. Think about it though: in the spring of 2019 Sergino Dest would have been on this list. Alternatively, in the spring of 2017 Antonee Robinson would have been on this list. Anything can happen!

Speculative Dual Nationals (Various League)

• Folarin Balogun, 19 (Arsenal; 6 apps, 82 mins)
• Kik Piere, 20 (Twente; 24 apps, 2110 mins)
• Alex Mighten, 18 (Nottingham Forrest; 27 apps, 1276 mins, 3 goals, 1 assist)
• Bryan Okoh, 17 (FC Liefering; 15 apps, 1223 mins, 1 goal, 1 assist)
• Kristoffer Lund, 18 (Midtjyland U19)
• Kevin Bright, 18 (Milan U18)
• Kaile Auvray, 16 (Lille Youth)
• Malick Sanogo, 16 (Union Berlin U17)
• Hassan Ayari, 19 (Sheffield United U18)
• Malik Tillman, 18 (Bayern Munich II)
• Lennard Maloney, 21 (Borussia Dortmund U23)
• Patrick Koffi, 19, (Paris FC; 2 apps, 62 mins)
• Jann George, 28 (Jahn Regensburg; 28 apps, 1488 mins, 6 goals, 3 assists)
• Scott Pittman, 28 (Livingston; 38 apps, 3321 mins, 7 goals, 2 assists)

These players have never represented the US at any level but are eligible to switch to the USMNT if they so choose. The talent level here varies widely, and there’s a chance none of these players play for the US, hence why they are with the “prospects”. The older players here are unlikely to ever play for the USMNT even if they made that switch. Kik Piere was supposedly contacted by the USMNT last fall, according to the Athletic. Just to round it out: in the summer of 2020 Yunus Musah would have been on this list. Speaking of Musah, Folarin Balogun and he are buddies, so, there’s a chance Musah helps persuade Balogun to play for the US. Balogun is the biggest name here by far. For the record, I had Siebatcheu on this list earlier this season. Goes to show that these players could switch at any time, and the current USMNT regime seems to be targeting dual nationals like never before.

Thanks for reading! Come back for tomorrow for Part 3 and Friday for Part 4. Have any questions or qualms with how I organized this? Then leave a comment below or yell at me on Twitter, @Beardedjack