Safe to say that Tim Howard and Brad Friedel won’t be on each other’s Christmas lists this year.
The two veteran American goalkeepers traded barbs on Wednesday, after Howard claimed claimed in his soon-to-be-released autobiography that Friedel “actively tried to block” Howard’s 2003 move from the MetroStars to Manchester United.
In an excerpt from The Keeper, published on ESPNFC.com on Wednesday morning, Howard alleges that Friedel – the US starter at the 2002 World Cup and a current backup at English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur – refused to vouch for Howard as he attempted to gain a UK work permit ahead of his move to Old Trafford.
Friedel had famously struggled to attain a work permit himself when he first tried to sign in England, and he supposedly met with Howard and showed him all of his work-permit rejections.
"The crux of his presentation was this," Howard writes. "If he'd had this much trouble getting a work permit, why should he make it easy for me? 'It's a matter of principle, you see,' he said."
On Wednesday afternoon, Friedel vehemently denied Howard's account, demanding an apology from the Everton ‘keeper.
"It's complete garbage," Friedel told ESPN FC. "To be honest with you, all we're looking for is an apology. We can't get the book reprinted. I'm not looking for monetary gain. I just want an apology."
And Friedel told ESPN the Magazine's Doug McIntyre that he never "wrote a letter of negativity toward Tim Howard to anybody in this world."
