Keen-eyed Arsenal fans will have been paying close attention to the progress of former Gunner Ryan Smith as he looks to earn a regular starting place with the newly-monikered Sporting Kansas City.
But on the opening day of the 2011 MLS season, now just one month away, the Islington-born youth product will line up at the Home Depot Center against another man once tipped for big things in North London.
A highly-rated Brazilian midfielder seemingly poised for stardom when he joined from Sao Paulo in 2001, Paulinho came through the Arsenal youth system with current Premier League regulars Jerome Thomas, David Bentley and Jermaine Pennant.
However, perhaps hindered by his small stature, or perhaps by the wealth of midfield talent to come through the ranks at that time (Rohan Ricketts, Steve Sidwell and Seb Larsson were also on the club’s books during that period) the 5’8” playmaker left Highbury in 2004 at the age of 21.
While some players drift down the leagues after leaving Arsenal, seeing their reputation shrink by the minute (I’m looking at you, Jeremie Aliadiere), Paulinho took the opportunity to reinvent himself in warmer climes.
When I say reinvent himself I mean it. Reverting back to his birth name of Paulo Nagamura, he joined American internationals Landon Donovan and Herculez Gomez in Los Angeles, and took a more deep-lying role.
The yellow cards flowed (nine in his debut season in California) and the goals dried up, but Nagamura helped his new club to the MLS Cup and Lamar Hunt Open Cup double in his first year at the club.
He only missed one game in the following campaign, but – perhaps under-appreciated by incoming coach Frank Yallop – he was left unprotected for MLS newcomers Toronto to snap him up in the expansion draft.
He didn’t stay there for too long though. Clearly the cooler temperatures of Canada did not suit him, and a move back south beckoned, with Galaxy’s local rivals Chivas USA the ultimate destination.
In two separate spells with the club, via half a season in Mexico with Tigres, Nagamura has netted nine goals including a belter last season against the New England Revolution. This season we can expect him to reach the dual milestone of 100 MLS appearances and 10 goals for his current employers.
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It is no coincidence that his first match back at the Home Depot Center saw the Goats end a run of one point from four home games, and indeed a better balance in the middle of the park allowed Nagamura’s team-mates to play with greater freedom for the remainder of the campaign.
Unfortunately a late-season slump saw Chivas USA miss out on the playoffs, but Nagamura’s impact was so great that the club has seen no real need to bolster its midfield in the close season, save for the arrival of veteran former Fulham and Galaxy man Simon Elliott.
And, perhaps spurred on by the Brazilian’s progress, a number of former Premier League prospects have sought to make a name for themselves across the pond.
New MLS recruit John Rooney
John Rooney recently moved to New York, where he will take his place in a wonderfully-unbalanced forward-line including Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, American wunderkind Juan Agudelo, and former Notts County and Shrewsbury goal-getter Luke Rodgers.
Elsewhere, another former Arsenal man, Kerrea Gilbert, has moved to Portland to develop under the watchful eye of former Chelsea and Scotland striker (and current Timbers coach) John Spencer.
And even Caleb Folan is looking to get in on the act, the Irish striker hoping he can look far more threatening in the MLS than he ever did back in England with Hull City.
They will all look at Nagamura’s travails as proof that the MLS offers the clean slate they may feel robbed of when flitting in between several nondescript employers in England. They might not go as far as changing their name, but they will surely put their respective pasts behind them and set out to prove themselves in their new surroundings.