Why are U.S. forwards spying opportunity in the Championship?

At least for USMNT scouting purposes it is a tidy remit: one division, five contenders to fill out the striker spots on the World Cup roster.

Expect to see Mauricio Pochettino’s staff glued to videos of games from the English Football League (EFL) Championship in the forthcoming season.

The summer transfer window has seen two U.S. international attackers sign for clubs in England’s second tier, joining the three American forwards already there. Damion Downs’ move from Koln in Germany to Southampton, plus Gold Cup star Patrick Agyemang’s switch to Derby County, means they join more experienced USMNT forwards Josh Sargent, Haji Wright and Daryl Dike — whose stint at West Bromwich Albion has been so wrecked by injuries — in the same division.

But what is it about the Championship that has attracted the quintet — all of whom, to varying degrees, will still aspire to make Pochettino’s 2026 World Cup squad? And what qualities do they bring that appeal to clubs vying for promotion to the Premier League?

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The Championship might be second tier, but it is not second rate when it comes to Europe’s most competitive leagues.

Opta’s Power Rankings, published in June and assessing football’s global hierarchy, has the Championship listed sixth in the Top 30 leagues based on their “advanced performance metrics” used to “identify which leagues are home to the highest concentration of elite clubs”.

That is higher than the Dutch, Belgian and Portuguese top flights.

That said,last yearThe Athletic reported how a data-driven model by Twenty First Group, a sports intelligence firm that advises clubs, leagues and investors, had the Championship ranked 12th.

Its World Super League model uses a machine-learning algorithm to generate a single rating for every team in world football. League strength can then be calculated from the average rating of each team.

Either way, with its gruelling 46-game season (the Championship has 24 clubs compared with 20 in the Premier League, La Liga and Ligue 1, and 18 in the Bundesliga), it represents a formidable challenge. Add to that two domestic cup competitions and Championship players are pushed to their physical limits.

Danny Higginbotham played for a string of English clubs as a defender and featured in the Premier League with Manchester United, Derby County, Stoke City and Southampton. He also made 100 Championship appearances during a 17-year professional career, but now lives in the U.S. where he worked for Philadelphia Union before becoming a match analyst for Major League Soccer broadcasts.

He sees similarities between MLS and the Championship that may make young players from the former attractive to English clubs.

“The speed and physicality of MLS is, to a certain extent, increasingly quite similar to the Championship,” says Higginbotham. “It’s probably fair to say the quality is a bit higher in the Championship but there are key qualities they share now.

“Recruitment teams in the Championship are seeing that these guys have all the attributes. They’re asking: are they good enough or with their age, can we make them better?

“They see that the players are physically and mentally robust. They’re used to the long travel time in MLS, the flights and time differences. Then there’s the extreme weather these days. Plus they play a lot of games too. Factor all this in and they’re probably not going to be as fazed by a 46-game season.

“I feel they’re well placed to acclimatise quickly to the Championship.”

Downs made the switch from German football to the Championship this summer (Matt Watson/Southampton FC via Getty Images)

For Downs, who broke into the USMNT picture earlier in the summer and has made five appearances under Pochettino, the number of games he faces at St Mary’s under new manager Will Still is a positive.

“For me to be an option for that (the USMNT World Cup squad) as a striker you need to score goals,” he told Jimmy Conrad and Tony Meolain an interview with CBS Sports Golazo America. “Obviously, you don’t play more games anywhere than in England and that’s a big chance for me.”

MLS clubs are increasingly focused on creating their own homegrown stars, spending time and money on producing elite coaches capable of finding players capable of elevating the league’s standing.

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“There are some good quality players coming out of MLS academies now,” adds Higginbotham. “You only have to look at the Philadelphia Union and Cavan Sullivan.

“If they’re good they are also likely to get opportunities when they’re young in MLS so they have experience of first-team football.

“I think as well that the younger players (in MLS) have benefited from the big names going there. Guys like Lionel Messi, Emil Forsberg, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and now Son Heung-min and Rodrigo De Paul. That highly professional elite mentality of these guys, how they prepare and conduct themselves, is rubbing off on the younger American players.”

All of which makes those developed in MLS attractive to suitors from Europe. Championship clubs can also find value for money with fees for players from MLS.

In July, Derby spent an initial £5.8million ($8m) on Agyemang after the 24-year-old, a native of East Hartford, Connecticut, scored 18 goals and provided six assists in 63 career games with Charlotte. That tally included eight, with two assists, this year before the move to Pride Park. Agyemang has also become one of the bright points for the national team, making all 12 of his appearances in 2025, including playing every game of the Gold Cup.

By contrast this summer, Norwich City forked out £6.9m ($9.2m) on Denmark international forward Mathias Kvistgaarden, 23, who scored 23 goals in 38 appearances in all competitions for Brondby in 2024-25.

Then Birmingham City signed 30-year-old former Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi for a reported £10m ($13.4m) after he scored 10 goals in the Scottish Premiership for Celtic before a short-lived move to Stade Rennes in France earlier this year.

Agyemang moved to Derby this summer (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Agyemang has yet to make his Derby debut after undergoing hernia surgery that is likely to see him miss the season’s start, but he is backed to make an impact.

“At almost $8m — and that could rise — that’s actually a lot of money for an MLS team,” Higginbotham says of the Agyemang fee. “But he has got something. He is raw but he is a player who is quick, strong and knows how to finish.

“Now the question is: can he improve? If he can do that, then Derby could get significantly more than what they paid for him down the line.

“You’ve got to imagine that Dean Smith (former Aston Villa manager and now Charlotte FC boss) has assessed that he’s good enough to make that step.”

Similar logic may have been behind Downs’ move to the south coast, although the German-U.S. dual national was plying his trade at FC Koln in the second-tier 2 Bundesliga last season, where he delivered 10 goals and three assists.

“I see it (moving to the Championship) work with a lot of other players, and Southampton has a great resume of players who have taken the next step with their careers here,” said Downs.

“I think I have a great switch of coming short and getting the ball to my feet but also running in behind — giving the defence different things to worry about. And I’m pretty versatile as well. I’m a young player with a lot of stuff I can develop on… with all kinds of things to work on to take my game to the next level.”

In aninterview with BBC Radio Solent he added: “I think English football is the most attractive you can play so it was a no-brainer for me.

“Their (Southampton’s) ambition is to get to the Premier League and stay in the Premier League and that’s something I want to do as well.”

Sargent in action for Norwich against Northampton Town in pre-season (Pete Norton/Getty Images)

The two relative ‘elder statesmen’ of the USMNT roster in England, Sargent at Norwich and Wright at Coventry City, have long since proved to be successful MLS exports to the Championship. Sargent also enjoyed a brief stint in the Premier League.

And Higginbotham thinks their impact, along with the growth of MLS’ popularity around the world, means the flow of talent to the English second division is likely to continue. Another 24-year-old American striker, Max Arfsten, has been mooted as a potential new arrival at Middlesbrough from Columbus Crew during this window.

“With the Apple TV deal, there is greater accessibility to the MLS brand and overseas fans watching these players,” adds Higginbotham. “So I don’t think the optics of signing these players are viewed as a risk so much by fans in England, where maybe they once were. They can tune in and see the quality of the league.”

The hope is that Pochettino’s staff, and everyone invested in the U.S. hopes for progress on home soil next year, will be tuned into Paramount Plus’ coverage of the Championship.

(Top photos: Getty Images)