Bruce Arena clarifies foreign-born comments, says he referred to development
NEW YORK – The words have haunted him since his appointment to return as United States men’s national team coach, but on Tuesday, Bruce Arena sought to quash them once and for all.
In 2013, Arena gave an interview to ESPN The Magazine in which he seemed to be criticizing then-coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s frequent use of dual-nationals.
“Players on the national team should be – and this is my own feeling – they should be Americans,” he told the magazine at the time. “If they’re all born in other countries, I don’t think we can say we are making progress.”
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That interview resurfaced when Arena was presented as the fired Klinsmann’s successor last Tuesday, and understandably so in a political climate in which the very notion of who is and isn’t American is being questioned by some.
Arena quickly addressed it in a conference call upon his appointment, saying he welcomed all eligible players into the national team. But the subject has remained touchy, given that he never specifically addressed what his views on what constitutes nationality are.
In a broad-ranging interview with a small group of reporters on Tuesday, Arena clarified his words from three years ago in hopes of clearing up what he believes was a misunderstanding.
“My comments were referencing player development,” he said adding that he thought even the term “dual-nationals” was problematic and offensive (“They’re national team players”).
“It had nothing to do with the citizenship of players,” Arena added. “The comment regarding foreign-born players at the time, I believe, was referencing player development and simply saying that if we’re seeing a national team program consist of a large minority of players, a large majority of players, that were born elsewhere, where are we going with our development?”
“It had nothing to do with who should be playing on the national team, who should not,” Arena continued. “Really, it would be my way of evaluating the program at a certain point. Today, we’re very capable of producing players to play on our national team.”
“I think that whole thing got twisted. I was told today, they referenced me in Spain as ‘The Donald Trump of soccer,’ ” Arena said. “I’m at fault obviously for those statements but I would like to clear that up. It’s absolutely ridiculous. That’s in no way the way I think. I hope that doesn’t continue to need to be discussed.”
Arena, who has begun his second spell in charge of the USA after an eight-year run from 1998 through 2006, inherits a team from Klinsmann built in considerable measure on players born in Germany to an American parent, like Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson, John Brooks and others. And since he has little time to rebuild a team in the middle of a World Cup qualifying cycle in which the U.S. begun the final round with two losses – inducing the coaching change – he’ll likely rely on those very players going forward.
Indeed, Arena conceded that the player turnover between the two managers will be minimal. “Let’s be honest, there’s not going to be a whole lot of new faces,” Arena said. “We’re fighting for our lives starting March 24.”
That’s when the USA resumes qualifying for the 2018 World Cup with a home game against Honduras, followed by an away game in Panama four days later. Both badly need to be won. With whoever happens to be on the field.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
