Mad Brit Diary

Anderton eyes move to MLS after Spurs release.

(Friday, June 11, 2004) -- Former England midfielder Darren Anderton, who was released by London club Tottenham Hotspur this week, is thinking about coming to play in America's Major League Soccer.

Anderton, a delicate passer of the ball and a player with great vision, would do well on the professional soccer fields in the United States. MLS, is no chicken league, but after a couple of tough seasons in the English Premier League, Anderton, who is still just 32, could find a new lease of life on the other side of the Atlantic. His creative play in the middle of the field would certainly give some sparkle to MLS, an exciting and developing league, but desperately short on star power.

Former Austrian star Andreas Herzog at 35 is currently tearing up MLS playing in the Los Angeles Galaxy midfield. If Herzog can do it, so could Anderton, a vastly experienced player, who bar injuries, still has a few good years still left in him. Anderton played 12 seasons with Spurs and 30 times for England, competing at the 1996 European Championship and the 1998 World Cup.

On coming to America, Anderton told the English press recently: "It's something that has always appealed to me. I've talked with my friends about how I'd like to do it at some stage in my career."

The rangy midfielder says he has spoken to American goalkeeper Kasey Keller at Tottenham about life playing in America. "MLS has improved a great deal," Anderton said. "I can tell from watching and also from talking to people about it. The United States, to me, is a great place to live, which would be an attraction in itself."

Plagued with injuries throughout his career, Anderton believes playing on America's softer fields will help him. He was cruelly given the nickname "sicknote" after so many injuries, yet Anderton averaged 30 games a season for Spurs. He is No. 21 on the all-time honors list for Spurs in appearances.

"The hard grounds in England can sometimes be a problem for me and my Achilles, " he said. "It's much easier for me playing in the softer grounds during the summer months. The fact that MLS is a bit of a shorter season helps as far as that goes, as well. . . It's an important decision and I need to pick the right team for me. The American option is something that, the more I think about it, the more I like it."

Anderton has even suggested he would like to play at D.C. United in Washington, D.C. a place he has visited. But it seems more likely Anderton will return to play for his old team, Portsmouth. Stay tuned.

Brazil's star striker Ronaldo will not play at next month's Copa America in Peru. No, the great one is not injured; he just plans to go on holiday. The Real Madrid star, who notched a hat trick on three penalty kicks he earned in last week's World Cup qualifying win over Argentina, just needs a break.

"I need to have some rest and I want to enjoy my holidays, so I have already announced that I will not be able to play the Copa America in Peru for Brazil during July," Ronaldo said. "I want to have some rest so I can be in perfect condition for the next match that Brazil will have to play for the South American qualifiers in September against Bolivia."

Others Brazilians likely to sit out the Copa America are Dida, Cafu, Kaka, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldinho.

The People> newspaper in England reports that 130 players were released by English Premier League clubs and will be looking for new teams. Some well-known names already have clubs lined up, but most players, including Anderton, Emmanuel Petit, Paolo Di Canio, Kanu, Jay-Jay Okocha and Sylvain Wiltord, are looking for somewhere to play.

Relegated Leicester City and Champions Arsenal are both showing 12 players the door. The full list:

Arsenal: Alex Bailey, Stephen Bradley, Liam Chilvers, Craig Holloway, Kanu, Martin Keown, Paulo Nagamura, Nicky Nicolau, Ashley Probets, Rami Shaaban, Igors Stepanovs, Sylvain Wiltord.
Aston Villa: Scott Cormell, Dion Dublin, Peter Hynes, Ronny Johnsen, Hassan Kachloul, Colin Marshall, Antoni Pecora, David Scullion.
Birmingham City: Bryan Hughes.
Blackburn: Stuart Cumming, Ross McKay, Adam Nelson, Keiron Renton, Michael Taylor.
Bolton: Ibrahim Ba, Youri Djorkaeff, Gerald Forschelet, Per Frandsen, Steve Howey, Kangana Ndiwa, Jay-Jay Okocha, Dwight Pezzarossi, Kevin Poole, Emerson Thome.
Charlton: Adrian Deane, Paolo Di Canio, Stephen Hughes, Sergio Leite.
Chelsea: Winston Bogarde, Mbark Boussoufa, Danny Jeffreys, Joel Kitamirike, Mario Melchiot, Emmanuel Petit.
Everton: Scott Brown, Craig Garside, Scot Gemmill, Paul Gerrard, Alan Moogan, Brian Moogan, Steven Schumacher, Steven Simonsen, Michael Symes.
Fulham: David Beasant, Thomas Davis, Sean Doherty, Louis Fazakerley, Barry Hayles, Andrejs Stolcers.
Leeds: Christopher Armstrong, David Batty, Michael Bridges, Jason Wilcox.
Leicester City: Callum Davidson, Les Ferdinand, Steffen Freund, Stephen Guppy, Andrew Impey, Muzzy Izzet, Junior Lewis, Billy McKinlay, Paul Murphy, Nicolas Priet, Alan Rogers, Frank Sinclair.
Liverpool: Michael Foley-Sheridan, Richard Partridge.
Manchester City: Arni Arason, Michael Tarnat, Danny Tiatto, Keiren Westwood, Glenn Whelan, Gerard Wiekens.
Manchester United: James Jowsey, Ben Williams, Neil Wood.
Middlesbrough: Craig Dove, Philip Gulliver, Allan Johnston, David Murphy, Samuel Russell, Gary Smith.
Newcastle: Stephen Caldwell, Andrew Ferrell, Andrew Griffin, Brian Kerr, Calvin Makongo, Bradley Orr.
Portsmouth: Craig Bradshaw, Deon Burton, Warren Hunt, Sebastian Olszar, Terry Parker, Carl Pettefer, Teddy Sheringham, Tim Sherwood, Christopher Tardif.
Southampton: Jamie Gleeson, Richard Jones, Jay Lucas, Jermaine Roche, Gareth Williams.
Tottenham: Darren Anderton, Danny Foster, Lars Hirschfeld, Shwan Jalal, Gus Poyet, Christian Ziege.
Wolverhampton: Nathan Blake, Paul Butler, Ioan Ganea, Paul Ince, Denis Irwin, Steffen Iversen, Oleg Luzhny, George Ndah, Isaac Okoronkwo, Alex Rae.

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