Hello everybody and welcome to Soccer 101. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and on this episode,

we're going to be determining which Americans have scored the most goals at club level in Europe.

A bit of background before we get into the heart of the matter.

The purpose of this podcast of Soccer 101 is to answer questions of varying intensity that listeners have asked about soccer.

Most of the time topics come from questions we've been asked on the Total Soccer Show or individual suggestions via email, occasionally

in person even. But today's topic is one that I've been wondering about since early January.

I myself been wondering about. Late 2020 saw the U.S. men's national team return to action,

and with it came the looming question, who will score the goals for the U.S. But this isn't

really a new concept. National teams will always

have concerns about individual positions. Sometimes you have no right backs but a ton of central

defenders. Sometimes you have no central defenders, but a surplus of central midfielder's. If

France or Germany, you have so many capable players, the question becomes, how do you fit them all

into one team? But for the U.S. men's national team, finding a consistent goal scorer has always been a somewhat perplexing endeavor. Sure, we've had Dempsey-Donovan, Altador McBride, Winaldah, no doubt. But when you look at the players who get moves to Europe from Major League Soccer or from a middling European club to a European giant, it's rarely a goal sc who is on the move. Goalkeepers, absolutely, defenders, definitely midfielders, Weston McKinney would like a word, even dangerous attackers like Christian Pulisic, but are any of those players consistent goal threats? Is that the first thing you think of when you think of Pulisic skill set, for example? He can score goals, but I think of his dribbling, his pace, his tenacity, his tattoos, probably that GQ photo shoot as well. Those are the first things that come to mind. So I wanted to know which Americans did have a proven track record of scoring goals in Europe. However, several Google searches later, I learned that it's not quite that simple to figure out. You can find single season scoring records or top scores in the Premier League,

but that doesn't take into consideration lower league snipers or less heralded figures from history.

So armed with high school math and an Excel spreadsheet,

I set off to do some calculations and determine the five most prolific Americans at club level in Europe.

A few ground rules definitely necessary. To the extent

possible, these numbers don't include friendlies or preseason tournaments. I'm also leaving

out goals for youth or reserve teams partially because that seems fair to me and partially because

reliable preseason and friendly stats aren't always easily obtained. I'll also add a final

disclaimer that I'm not claiming to have poured over every available source to confirm these numbers. I did do a decent amount of research, though. Don't get me wrong. Did I check over four years of records from Luton to make sure I got my numbers right for a certain player? Yes, I certainly did, so you wouldn't have to. And with that said, let's start with our number five goal scoring American,

the man who made me check, those aforementioned Luton statistics. It's South African-born,

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