On Saturday night in Harrison, N.J., Arsenal will take on former star player Thierry Henry and the New York Red Bulls in a friendly. Unlike other English Premier League teams like Manchester United and Manchester City, who are going to be playing a number of preseason games on American soil, Arsenal is here for one game and one game only.
Gunners manager Arsene Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis (formerly the deputy commissioner of Major League Soccer) were in Hoboken, N.J., on Thursday to speak at the Emirates Business Breakfast, and took some time afterward to speak exclusively to SI.com about the upcoming season and all things Arsenal:
SI: Let's get this one out of the way for American fans. We've heard a lot about Gedion Zelalem. We've seen bits of him on YouTube. He is eligible to play for the United States national team if he acquires citizenship. And he's on your roster for the game on Saturday night against the New York Red Bulls. What can you tell us about him?
Wenger: He is a player with a good eye and good technique and is very agile. He has the ambition to find the ball on the field. So he's the kind of player who could be of use to the United States. He's in some ways the type of player the U.S. was missing in the World Cup.
He is potentially an international player, for sure. But the next two or three years he will have to show he has the mental qualities to fill that potential. That's what's at stake for him now. If he grows physically, since he's slim, and continues to develop his mentality, the potential is there for him to be a top professional player.
SI: Is the potential there for Gedion to play for Arsenal [first team]?
Wenger: Right now, I don’t think he's ready. I don't think he's ready in the next six months. Next season, I hope to say yes. But if things go quicker than expected, maybe from January onwards. The American fans can see him play on Saturday night.
SI: Do you think his choice will be to play for the U.S.? (Zelalem, born in Germany to Ethiopian parents, is currently eligible to play for Ethiopia and Germany. He lived in the USA from when he was 9-15 and his father is in the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship,
according to SI's Grant Wahl, which would have a trickle-down effect for Gedion)
Gazidis: I don't know. If you speak to Gedion, it sounds like you're speaking to an American. And, certainly, when we found him, he was living D.C. and thinking of himself as a young U.S. kid. But I don't know, that's a decision he has to make.
he walked out of stamford bridge on some mj in 98 ish...
the entire match.
