Robbie Findley: now a long way from USMNT candidacy

Sep 22, 2012, 9:31 AM EDT

None of us ever want to be a “cautionary tale,” personally nor professionally.

Robbie Findley has become just that.

Findley was 25 years old when he left a good situation at Real Salt Lake. It’s hard to blame a young athlete for wanting to elevate his game on stages that rank bigger or better or both.

So he took his scoring boots and fleet feet to Nottingham Forest in England’s second tier. It seemed a reasonable move, but as we know about the best laid plans that can go awry …

An early training ground injury kept Findley out of competitive matches for Forest for the back half of the 2010-11 campaign. He got some minutes toward the front half of 2011-12 but never gained a strong hold on anything consistent, playing-time wise.

His position slipped further this year and, long story short, Findley is not with Forest today.

Today is with Gillingham in England’s fourth tier. Findley is there on a one-month loan assignment. From there? Who knows.

But England’s fourth tier is nowhere near where he wants to be, certainly not a place where Jurgen Klinsmann will go looking for his next showtime striker.

Skip to Comments (5)

« Newer It’s official: Kris Boyd’s first year at Portland was a big bust

Older » Soccer and the space shuttle; a spectacular photo

More ProSoccerTalk

Back to Homepage

5 Comments (Feed for Comments)

footballer4ever - Sep 22, 2012 at 9:42 AM

Robbie, you are better off in MLS than a 4th tier club in England. Stop wasting your time in no man’s land like Freddy Adu once was.

Log in to Reply
whordy - Sep 22, 2012 at 11:04 AM

Well, two things here. One Findley specific, one not.
1) Findley should never have been called up for the WC to begin with. I get it, not his fault, blahblahblah. But it was the worst side of Bradley to call Findley up and attempt to play hoof ball with Findley as the “fast” striker next to Altidore. Findley was TERRIBLE, and I still vividly remember the only good look he got all WC was against Ghana on a 1v1 on the keeper and he PROMPTLY decided to shoot it right at the keeper.
2) As for “come back to the MLS!”, is that really a rallying cry we want? We WANT our players to test themselves overseas. We WANT them to be challenged. Hate to be mean, but if Findley can’t cut it in the Championship, I’d rather him go away then come back to the MLS, do well, and actually get back to the NT. This is how it works. Plenty of the top NTs have decent players languishing in lower leagues, because those players are simply average. Maybe thats what Findley is.

Log in to Reply
firewolf777 - Sep 22, 2012 at 11:34 AM

The only thing is in the mls he would play against better defenders and keepers than in fourth division England

Log in to Reply
jramsdale - Sep 22, 2012 at 11:57 AM

Send him to the Eddie Johnson School of Hard Knocks. If he’s got the skill and fortitude Robbie will take his hits and find a way out. That can only be good for him (and maybe the USMNT, if he’s lucky) in the long run. It’s just a loan–he needs to take the opportunity and run with it. Maybe, like Eddie, he’ll come out the other end a better player.

Log in to Reply
drewvt6 - Sep 22, 2012 at 12:54 PM

1. Why come back to MLS when he’s still making Nottingham bank? I gotta imagine it’s more than the $83k he was taking in as a ‘top’ player for RSL.

2. NASL and USL Pro rosters are littered with League 2 players
2a. Robbie should NEVER have been on the US team’s WC roster. NEVER.

Log in to Reply