Heerenveen’s Michael Bradley with Number 13 and a ticket to Hamburg?

Most recent goal vs. VVV Venlo - match recap

It’s Bradley’s 13th in all competitions (to go with 3 assists), 9th in the Eredivisie which puts the young 20-year old at 10th on the Eredivise scoring charts and only two goals less than Afonso Alves who is awaiting a transfer to the EPL. Between Bradley, Miralem Sulejmani, and Daniel Pranjic Heerenveen has a young core that is gaining suitors with each and every game. The Frisians will next play De Graafschaap this coming Saturday. Bradley will look to add to his total and Heerenveen’s second best offense in the league against yet another Eredivisie relegation battler.

Apparently, his 9 league goals tie both Eric Wynalda (Saarbruecken and Brian McBride (Fulham) for most goals for an American in a European league. More impressively, however, his overall total of 13 surpassed McBride and DaMarcus Beasley (when he was with PSV Eindhoven) for most goals scored by an American in all competitions. Not bad for a 20-year old.

Michael Bradley and Heerenveen have decisions to make, however, as Bradley – whose contract expires in the Summer of 2009 – has loosely indicated that he wouldn’t mind testing the waters. Heerenveen – in an effort to save face and forture – thinks that if that is the case, they would like to cash in on his rising stock instead of getting nothing for a free transfer. Apparently, the leading suitor is HSV (Benny Feilhaber’s former digs, and where Preston Zimmerman is right now) who reportedly is ready to offer the club a multi-million dollar deal for Bradley. Spox.com in Germany goes on to dub him the possible replacement for Rafael Van der Vaart…wow.  Van der Vaart is possibly on his way out of the Bundesliga club to Turin to link up with Juventus.

We will keep you updated.

EDIT: Great article from Big Apple Soccer on Michael Bradley’s intentions.