German trial shows Whitecaps were shrewd in ensuring Clarke was signed By Steven Sandor Posted on June 26, 2012 2 0 918 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter The Vancouver Whitecaps confirmed Tuesday that Canadian teenager Caleb Clarke, who the club had just promoted from its Residency to the MLS roster in April, is on trial with German third-division side FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt. The club confirmed that if Clarke is successful, he would go to the German side on a one-year loan. Clarke leads the U-23 PDL side with five goals in seven matches,and finished second in the USSDA scoring race with 24 goals in 23 games. FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt finished fifth in its division last season, and has an U-23 side. But, now we see that the Whitecaps made an awfully shrewd move by signing Clarke to a contract ahead of the trial in Germany. That ensures that he’s under contract and, if he moves to Europe, whether on loan or on a permanent deal, the Whitecaps have leverage. They can either be the loan providers or get something back in form of some of the proceeds MLS receives from a transfer. As a member of the Residency, Clarke may have been able to move for, well, nothing. And, if he was interested in Germany — whether or not the interest from Erfurt came before or after the Whitecaps deal — Vancouver has been assured that it has a say in the terms. Toronto FC tried, rather unsuccessfully, to get players to sign and commit to its Academy. But, after speaking with many people across the soccer communities in Canada, I have been told over and over that, without financial consideration, it would be hard for a pro team to successfully lock in a player at the Academy level. If a player isn’t being paid to play, it’s impossible to prevent him from quitting or moving on. Basically, the only way to lock in a player — legally — is a paying contract. Otherwise, an Academy is like a school, isn’t it? And you can’t prevent a parent from pulling his or her child out of a school and sending that kid to a new one. We have seen that, this year, both Dylan Carreiro and Michael Petrasso have left TFC Academy for Queens Park Rangers. The team knows it can’t hold players there who don’t want to be there. Now, had those players been receiving paycheques from TFC, then the situation would have been different. And that’s what the Whitecaps got with Clarke. Protection. Clarke can go to Germany and develop his game, but Vancouver has preserved its interest.
