Clint Dempsey

	Brian McBride

For over two centuries, the USA has stood as a beacon for European immigrants in search of increased opportunity and personal freedom. It seems, though, that in the world of football at least, the favour is not one readily returned.

Wild-haired, guitar-plucking defender Alexi Lalas is still the only American to have plied his trade in Italy's Serie A. Danny Szetela is his only countryman in Spain's La Liga, and he has yet to make his league debut for Racing Santander, while Benfica recently made Freddy Adu the sole American working in Portugal's top flight. Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands are exceptions to the rule of US exemption, but even in those friendly ports American players are few and far between.

	Eddie Johnson

	Carlos Bocanegra

There is, however, one rather gleaming example of a club in a major European League where Americans are more than welcome. Fulham's Craven Cottage is currently home to no less than five native-born past and present USA internationals. 

Last week, new boss Roy Hodgson, who is said to spend summer in the southern state of Florida, secured the signing of highly rated striker Eddie Johnson, 23, from Major League Soccer outfit Kansas City Wizards, for whom he scored 15 goals last term. His arrival in fashionable west London sees him reunited with former MLS opponents and USA team-mates Carlos Bocanegra (signed in 2004 and occasionally seen wearing the Fulham captain's armband), Clint Dempsey (signed last year and the club's current top scorer), goalkeeper Kasey Keller and the injured Brian McBride (captain when fit). 

 

	Kasey Keller

The club, the oldest professional outfit in the English capital, has begun to jokingly be referred to as 'Fulhamerica' in recognition of the US influence currently alive there. Unfortunately, the Americans and the non-Americans of Fulham Football Club are facing a relegation battle.

With 16 points from 24 games, Fulham are second bottom in the Premier League and it is down to their new coach, and to a large extent the five influential Americans in the squad, to navigate them to safety. If not, they could just become five more American players in a European second division.

Hodgson, previously in charge of Blackburn Rovers, Inter Milan and the Finnish national team, and a former member of FIFA's Technical Study Group, sees 23-year-old Johnson, who has 11 goals in 31 appearances for the US, as cover for the currently injured McBride.

"Our team lacks a certain degree of balance and with the injury to McBride [out for five months with a damaged knee] this is the case in our strike force," says Hodgson. "With size and pace, I believe Eddie can complement the other strikers in the squad.

"I am delighted to have him with us and also grateful to the Home Office for granting him his work permit," Hodgson went on to add with an air of diplomacy.

Work permits (a common stumbling block for US players attempting a move to Europe) aside, If Johnson lines up alongside Texas native Clint Dempsey as the season moves on, the two will be the only ever all-American strike force in a European top flight side. And with McBride on the bench that makes a majority of the forwards in the squad from the other side of the Atlantic.

The test is on for Fulham and their Americans. And if the quintet can help manage to keep the Cottagers in the Premier League, it could well help put an end to the informal American lock-out on European shores.