Bill Hamid trains with Swansea City

One aspect of the MLS offseason for American players is the mechanism of trials and loans. It seemed like several years ago the hot trend was for top American players to go to England or another country to play a few months during the down time. This was highlighted by Landon Donovan’s time at Everton and Clint Dempsey’s return to Fulham in 2014.

That trend has seemingly died down as of late, but Americans still go train at European clubs in the offseason all the time. Bill Hamid is the latest to do this. Steven Goff of the Washington Post reports that the D.C. United No. 1 goalkeeper is training with Bob Bradley’s Swansea City.

Goff notes that this is not abnormal considering D.C.’s owner, Jason Levien, recent lead a group to takeover ownership of the Premier League club. So, this training stint doesn’t mean we’ll see Hamid making a move across the pond any time soon, but it does give him the chance to show off his skills and possibly impress someone over there for the future.

Recently, Jurgen Klinsmann stated that Hamid could be as low as seventh on the USMNT goalkeeping depth chart. I get the feeling that if he ever did make the move to Europe, he’d magically see himself rising up that chart at rapid speed.