Michael Bradley: USA Star Chased by Celtic, Everton, Middlesbrough & Blackburn

There are a number of British clubs vying to sign Heerenveen’s 21-year-old midfielder Michael Bradley this summer with the Dutch club looking for €8m-€11million for the player. However, with just a year left on the American star’s contract the clubs interested will be aiming to sign the U.S international for a more realistic €4m-€5million. His Dutch club side do not want to sell as Heerenveen Director Yme Kuiper told the club’s official website, “Bradley is allowed to leave us, but only for a realistic transfer fee.”If that does not come along, it is better that he stays with us. Bradley is a good football player who can certainly be of value to us.”

This is not expected to deter the likes of Everton, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Blackburn who are in the hunt for the young exciting versatile midfield man.

The youngster has been a revelation in the 2007/08 season after scoring 15 goals in the Dutch Eredivisie in just 33 League appearances (all starts) from midfield. In fact, only 4 players scored more goals in the Dutch top flight than Bradley. This was a remarkable turnaround for the American international who’d failed to score a League goal in his previous 2 seasons in Holland and had only made 7 League starts. At just 21 years of age the U.S star has become hot property and looks set to follow former club team-mate Afonso Alves on his way to the Premier League or to the SPL.

Bradley was born in Princeton, New Jersey and is the son of a noted American college soccer coach and former Chicago Fire coach. The youngster attended the Bradenton Academy for 2 years in Florida which is America’s answer to England’s Lilleshall which trains its U17 national team. At aged 16 the midfielder entered the MLS where he was drafted into the New Jersey Metrostars unsurprisingly coached by his father. He went on to make 30 League appearances for the club until he became the youngest MLS player ever to be sold when Dutch club Heerenveen signed him for an undisclosed fee.

He made just 1 League appearance in his first season but played in 21 games the next though only started 6. However, last season Bradley broke the record for most League goals ever scored by an American in European football when he scored 15 goals beating Brian McBride’s 13 goal record for Fulham. The youngster is also a full international after winning 21 caps and scoring twice for his country although his lack of goals at this level may be due to the fact he plays more of a defensive role in that team. He’s helped the U.S win the 2007 CONCACAF Cup as well as featuring in the 2007 Fifa U20 World Cup where the Americans reached the last eight of the tournament. He also played the full 90 minutes of the 2-0 friendly defeat to England in May.

Bradley looks an interesting proposition for a number of British clubs and at just 21-years-old looks a real prospect. So would you be interested in this youngster joining your club this summer? Would you feel a fee of £4million or under is good business for a player with a big future ahead of him or do you feel that your club should be targeting proven class to take the clubs to the next level? Let’s hear your views.

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Tags: Blackburn, Celtic, Everton, Heerenveen, Michael Bradley, Middlesbrough

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 07:56 and is filed under Blog, Home Blogs, Transfer News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.