As transfer window closes, Stoke City looks to replicate Middlesbrough's strategy and expand on a new trend
The American presence in the Championship is truly growing.
Just this summer, Middlesbrough added Sebastian Berhalter, Max Arfsten, and Rokas Pukstas to complement USMNT midfielder Aidan Morris and create a feeling of familiarity intended to help power the club up the English footballing pyramid.
But it seems that other clubs want to replicate the blueprint Middlesbrough drew out.
Enter Stoke City, who previously added left-back Luca Bombino to their ranks, prying him away from the clutches of sophomore MLS side San Diego FC. Now, they're adding midfielder Jack McGlynn from Houston Dynamo, who is competing with the Vancouver Whitecaps and LAFC for top-three seeding in MLS' Western Conference.
Through 18 MLS matches this season, McGlynn recorded two goals and five assists while conceding two yellow cards. His arrival will almost certainly inject some more energy into a Stoke City side that turned a rough start to the campaign around with a 1-0 win against Norwich City.
Is the recent activity from Championship sides going to lead to more attempts to pry MLS stars across the pond?
Going from MLS to the Championship/other European sides isn't uncommon, but this amount of American talent going from North America to Europe in one summer is quite unprecedented.
To put it into perspective, eight USMNT players were on an MLS roster heading into the last World Cup. That number is now down to five, but that doesn't account for the fact that Bombino, a youth national team player, and McGlynn have also left for England.
And it could go down even further at the rate things are going. The season before goalkeeper Matt Turner left the New England Revolution for Arsenal, he recorded five clean sheets and just 35 goals against.
This season? He's already recorded five clean sheets (one away from the six clean sheets he recorded during the 2020 MLS campaign), 84 saves, and just 27 goals against. And there's still 12 games left for Turner to improve on those numbers.
Even though it doesn't guarantee another move to Europe, the numbers are eerily similar. And the likes of Berhalter all got their move to England after strong performances for their respective MLS clubs. That bodes well for the trend.
It's not just the Championship ...
... teams at different levels of English football will add to the rapidly-growing American presence on the island.
In the short-term, there's an entire transfer window still to come before the end of the winter. Heading towards the 2027-28 campaign, Cavan Sullivan will be set to leave the Philadelphia Union for Premier League giants Manchester City.
The American players getting the move to England, the heart of the footballing world (at least historically speaking), deserve the opportunities presented to them. It's been a transformative few years in the American association football landscape, with both the domestic and international scenes seeing positive growth. And the number of talented Americans who are now getting the chance to play abroad speaks to that.
