Sanneh Rejects Albion

U.S. national team defender Tony Sanneh has rejected an offer to leave Nuremberg of the German Bundesliga and join West Bromwich Albion of the English Premier League.

Nuremberg had agreed to loan Sanneh, 31, to West Bromwich Albion for the rest of the season, with the English team having the option of acquiring him outright after that, but Sanneh turned down the move.

“I spoke to Albion and I told them what I wanted, but when it came to the offer in writing, it was less than we had discussed, so I rejected it,” Sanneh told www.icbirmingham.co.uk, a Web site in the English midlands city of Birmingham, West Bromwich Albion’s home.

“I want to go to England, but I am not going to accept that sort of deal. I am an established international and I am more than capable of playing in the Premiership.”

Sanneh, one of the U.S. team’s top performers at last year’s World Cup, has played 37 times for the national team. The former D.C. United defender has been playing in Germany since 1999.

MLS Signs 12

In preparation for its Jan. 17 draft, Major League Soccer on Thursday signed 12 players to contracts, including likely No. 1 draft pick Aleko Eskandarian of the University of Virginia.

Eskandarian, the 20-year-old son of former North American Soccer League star and Iranian international Andranik Eskandarian, scored 25 goals for the Cavaliers as a junior last season and won the Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy as college soccer’s top player.

Also acquired was Eddie Gaven, who at 16 years 2 months becomes the league’s youngest signing. Gaven, a forward from Hamilton, N.J., is in residency camp with the U.S. under-17 national team in Bradenton, Fla.

In addition, MLS signed Furman midfielder Ricardo Clark, Wake Forest midfielder Brian Carroll, Virginia midfielder Jacob LeBlanc, Clemson defender Eric Lewis, North Carolina midfielder Logan Pause, North Carolina defender David Stokes and Eastern Illinois forward Jason Thompson.

Also signed were midfielder Guillermo Gonzalez and forward Arturo Alvarez, both 17, and midfielder Mike Magee, 18.

Graziani Loaned

Citing salary cap problems as the reason, the San Jose Earthquakes loaned high-scoring forward Ariel Graziani, 31, to Barcelona of Ecuador’s first division for one year.

During four MLS seasons and 99 games with the Dallas Burn, New England Revolution and San Jose, Graziani scored 49 goals and assisted on 19 others.

“It is very difficult to give up a player of Ariel’s quality; however, salary cap restrictions gave us no other choices,” said Johnny Moore, the Earthquakes’ general manager.

Ruiz Honored

Carlos Ruiz, who in his debut MLS season led the Galaxy to its first league championship, has been honored as Person of the Year in his native Guatemala.

Ruiz finished ahead of 11 other finalists for the award, presented by the newspaper Prensa Libre, and garnered almost 60% of the vote in a nationwide poll.

Quick Passes

Don Garber, 45, who was named MLS commissioner in 1999, has agreed to a new contract that will keep him in the post until at least 2005. Under Garber, league attendance has risen by almost 15% over the last two seasons.... U.S. Soccer announced that the Radio Unica network has acquired the exclusive Spanish language radio broadcast rights to all U.S. national team matches through 2006.... The Elias Sports Bureau, which counts Major League Baseball and the NFL, NBA and NHL among its clients, was named the official statistician of MLS.... Celta Vigo of the Spanish league loaned Ecuador national team striker Ivan Kaviedes, 25, to Puebla of the Mexican league until June.