Maurice Edu Takes His Talents From Scotland (Rangers) To England (Stoke City)

Well it is safe to say that Stoke City has solidified its place in the hearts of U.S. men's national team's fans in just a few short weeks.

Coming on the heels of the news that defender Geoff Cameron had signed there, today we found out that midfielder Maurice Edu was leaving Rangers-bankrupt and banished to Scotland's third division-for greener pastures in the English Premier League. There had been rumors of Edu looking at Ipswich (which plays in The Championship) but I felt all along that he could play at a higher level than that.

From The Sporting News
"After Rangers filed for bankruptcy, Edu announced he would leave the club. He turned down offers from Bursaspor, Evian, Trabzonspor and Valenciennes before accepting the move to Stoke City."

The former University of Maryland star and native of California will never wow you with his flashy moves or impressive statistics. His best attributes as a center midfielder (or center back where he had to play last week against Mexico) include work rate, high fitness level and being a capable two-way player. He is very consistent and you know what to expect from him which is always a good thing.

He also follows the path of Alejandro Bedoya, who left Rangers for Helsingborgs IF (Sweden). Edu had been practicing with Rangers but he didn't suit up in their league games this season. On the other hand, U.S. defender Carlos Bocanegra so far has chosen to honor his contract and stay in Scotland. There is only six days left until the transfer window closes (August 31) so I wish I could get to Scotland and convince him that is not the best route for his career. I'm pretty sure that if he wanted to, he could still compete in the EPL or at least a higher level than Scotland in Europe.

MLSSoccer.com reported that Edu (who is 26) became Stoke City's fallback option once Tottenham's Tom Huddlestone wasn't signed. I could care less the reasoning and semantics behind the move, I'm just happy to say that another American is playing in what I consider the top soccer league in the world: the English Premier League. That will never get old in my book.

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