Americans Leading the Charge
Hahnemann, Convey Help England's Reading Make Leap

By Steven Goff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 9, 2006

Marcus Hahnemann and Bobby Convey have absolutely nothing in common.

Hahnemann is 33 years old, 6 feet 2 and 220 pounds, married with two kids, a Seattle native who nearly joined the Marines after high school, has a shaved head and stubby goatee, chews tobacco, rocks to hardcore punk, drinks whiskey, collects guns, rebuilds old Porsches and rides mountain bikes in British Columbia.

Convey is 22, 5-8 and 150 pounds, single, soft-spoken, raised in northeast Philadelphia, an honor roll student at an expensive Quaker school, turned pro at age 16, lived in a quiet suburb in Northern Virginia while playing for D.C. United, sleeps a lot and likes to golf.

But over the last eight months, in a small city 40 miles west of London, their diverse worlds have meshed to help facilitate one of the grandest accomplishments in British soccer this year.

With Hahnemann in goal and Convey patrolling the left wing, Reading has run away with the second-division title and earned promotion to England's top league for the first time in its 135-year history.

And you thought Red Sox and White Sox fans had waited a while for something good to happen.

"It's been an incredible thrill," said Hahnemann, a journeyman goalkeeper who, in his fourth full season with the Royals (29-2-11), has almost as many shutouts (22) as goals allowed (28). To play in the Premier League, "it's a place I've been trying to get for a long time."

While the other Reading players will go their separate ways when the season ends in three weeks, Hahnemann and Convey are likely to spend much of the summer together as members of the U.S. World Cup team.

Barring injury, both are expected to be named to the 23-man roster early next month and journey to Germany in June for the sport's quadrennial championship. Hahnemann seems set to join Manchester United's Tim Howard as the backups to veteran starter Kasey Keller, while Convey has an outside chance of cracking Coach Bruce Arena's starting lineup.

Another U.S. World Cup player, midfielder-defender Eddie Lewis, remains in contention with his club, Leeds, to move into the Premier League, but a playoff victory would be needed.

In England and most other leagues around the world, a promotion and relegation system is in place: The top teams in lower divisions move up one level the following season, while the bottom clubs take a step down.

The number of Americans competing in the Premier League, considered one of the wealthiest and most competitive in the world, has been swelling recently. Howard, Claudio Reyna (Manchester City), Carlos Bocanegra and Brian McBride (Fulham), Brad Friedel (Blackburn) and Jonathan Spector (Charlton) are currently with clubs in the top division.

And now Hahnemann and Convey -- and possibly Lewis -- are on their way up.

"To earn the respect of the English media and the English players is so important," said Convey, who played for D.C. United for 4 1/2 seasons before Reading purchased him in July 2004. "It's not that they don't want you to succeed, but there's always a little animosity toward an American player because English soccer has been around so long and they don't expect an American to come in and do well."

While Convey hasn't had to wait long to get to the Premier League, Hahnemann took a circuitous path. After anchoring Seattle Pacific University's run to the Division II national championship in 1993, he played professionally for the minor league Seattle Sounders for three seasons.

A year after MLS's 1996 launch, Hahnemann joined the Colorado Rapids. In his first season, he helped the mediocre club make an unexpected playoff run to the championship game at RFK Stadium, where it lost to United, 2-1.

Through a connection overseas, Hahnemann began training in England during the offseason and soon attracted the interest of Fulham, which in the summer of '99 bought him for a mere $90,000.

He was buried on the bench, however, and eventually was loaned to both low-level Rochdale and Reading in order to gain playing time and exposure. Reading liked what it saw and acquired him for good before the 2002 season.

With Hahnemann starting, the Royals flirted with promotion the next three years before deciding to restructure their roster last summer.

Hahnemann was on U.S. national team duty at the Gold Cup in July when he decided to check in with Convey, who had already rejoined Reading for preseason training.

"I asked him how it was going there, and he said, 'We only have 12 guys,' " Hahnemann recalled. "I was like, 'Oh, man, this is going to be a long year.' "

After adding several new players, the Royals lost their opener at home to an average Plymouth side, 2-1. Three days later, they defeated Brighton, 2-0, triggering a 33-game unbeaten streak (25-0-8) that lasted more than six months. They didn't lose again until Feb. 17 to Luton, but picked up where they left off by going 4-0-3 in the next seven games, including a 1-1 tie at Leicester that clinched promotion.

Hahnemann has become a fan favorite, tossing his jersey into the crowd after each home match. When the club grew tired of giving him new shirts, he started buying his own in order to continue his goodwill gestures.

Reading supporters also have grown accustomed to seeing Hahnemann buzzing around the Berkshire town in a Porsche that he upgraded in his garage with a turbo engine and new parts as well as old ones salvaged from a previous sports car that he owned. (He also has two Jeep Cherokees.)

Every few months, he takes the Porsche to Donington Park in the Midlands, where he spins around the Grand Prix circuit at up to 135 mph.

Asked if he wanted to pursue a racing career when he's done with soccer, Hahnemann said: "I want to race cars now . It's just too expensive."

As for the danger involved, he added: "It's way more dangerous on the road than it ever is on the racetrack. On the track, everything is going in the same direction. You can be doing 135 and you don't have any problems to worry about."

He then paused, thought about what he had just said, and added, "Well, except for the walls."

Said Arena: "He's a very entertaining guy. He's a good goalkeeper, he's got a personality and he understands where he fits in with our group."

Until last fall, Convey wondered if he would ever make it in England.

In 2003, his transfer from MLS to the Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur was voided because he couldn't get a British work permit, and he returned to United.

But his national team appearances continued to grow, rekindling interest overseas and making it easier for him to acquire a work permit. (Non-European players need to be regular members of their national team in order to earn a living in England.)

Just before the start of the 2004-05 season, Reading bought him from MLS for about $1.5 million. "I didn't really know anyone's name for the first five games," Convey said. He appeared in only 22 of 46 matches, started just seven and didn't register a goal or an assist.

Last summer, desperate to make an impression on Coach Steve Coppell, he and Arena agreed that it would be in his best interests to return to England instead of playing for the U.S. team in the Gold Cup, an inconsequential regional tournament.

"If I wasn't going to get a chance to play, I didn't want to be there anymore," Convey said. "The coach made it really clear that he wanted me to play and be a big part of the team, and it's worked out."

Hahnemann said he told Convey that, in order to survive, "you've just got to work your butt off and do the stuff you don't want to do, the stupid stuff like sliding for a ball that's going out of play even if you have no chance for it. You have to look like you're trying because, especially in England, that's what they're looking for."

Convey made his mark in the preseason and has played in every league match, mostly on the left wing but some in central midfield. He is tied for second on the team in assists with 11 and sixth in goals with seven -- one fewer than he scored in 89 MLS appearances.

"Bobby's been a slow burn," Coppell told the Associated Press recently. "He sort of struggled with our mentality a bit and, in the summer, he sat himself down and put to himself the target of being a regular player, and he's done that. He's got a brightness and a pace."

Arena has monitored Convey's progress closely, saying: "One of the biggest obstacles Bobby has is just growing up and realizing that, in terms of soccer, there are other people in the universe besides Bobby.

"He has always thought about himself and now he's learning how to be a team player. Going through a whole season at that level, it's been a fantastic exercise for Bobby."