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I wish Kenny had honored his commitment to SMU. Put Schellas in a real bind.

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United has released American forward Kenny Cooper.

The 21-year-old forward joined United in 2003 but never played for the club. He was loaned to Oldham in England's third-tier league and Portugal's Academica Coimbra before his release Tuesday.

Cooper, who was born in Baltimore, has a British passport because his father is English. He has not represented the United States at any level.

Agreed. He would have changed the entire look of our offense, with his size and power.

Article on FC Dallas website that Kenny asked for his release to join the MLS. Want to play for FC Dallas but KC holds his rights.

Why on earth would any soccer player given a chance to play for Manchester United not take that chance??? Say what you will about him not coming to SMU, but 9 out of 10 players would do the same thing. Stupid not to take the chance when it comes..

I think its the way he took the offer from MU that bothered people. Hydemann had several stud players that he could have offered Cooper's scholarship to, but by the time he heard from Cooper on the first day of school, it was too late to get them into the fold. I'm sure its hard to turn that down. Then again, he never played a minute for Man U. Imagine if he had come to SMU and won the Hermann Trophy instead would his stock have been higher?

EastStang wrote:I think its the way he took the offer from MU that bothered people. Hydemann had several stud players that he could have offered Cooper's scholarship to, but by the time he heard from Cooper on the first day of school, it was too late to get them into the fold. I'm sure its hard to turn that down. Then again, he never played a minute for Man U. Imagine if he had come to SMU and won the Hermann Trophy instead would his stock have been higher?

No way. Soccer is much different than other sports. In soccer, especially as a forward, you are at your peak value in your early 20s. If you go to college, you are spending that peak value time working for free.

Also, he played a ton for the Man U reserve team, which is a much higher level than college soccer, scoring over 20 goals last year. His stock is much, much higher than it would have been if he had gone to college.

The Man U offer came out of nowhere. I am sure Kenny felt bad about breaking a committment, but there really was no choice. Either go and make a lot of money and learn a lot more about the sport and advance a lot more as a player, or go to college, make no money and don't learn as much for a couple of years.

College soccer is not like basketball or football, where the programs are good enough that players develop more in college than if they went pro. They definately develop more as a pro, because they get more games in and have more time practicing against better competition.

He was right at the time to take the offer. Opportunities like that are rare. The timing was bad from SMU's standpoint and apparently caused some hard feelings. NCAA level soccer does little to prepare someone for pro soccer at the higher levels.