During the summer of 2019, a 16-year-old Arsenal academy player named Yunus Musah left London and signed with Valencia. Industry insiders and devoted fans of the two clubs would have taken notice, but otherwise it wasn’t exactly the kind of transfer that makes headlines or got too many people talking outside those particular English and Spanish cities.
Except in Chicago, of all places, where U.S. national team coach Gregg Berhalter, general manager Brian McBride and their colleagues were following Musah closely. And the transfer was good news. It turned out that assistant coach Nico Estevez had an in at Valencia.