RALEIGH, N.C. — For decades, U.S. soccer players have set out for Europe to hatch or elevate pro careers. Their primary destinations have been the top tiers in England and Germany, the Dutch league and the Scandinavian circuit.
Few have landed — and even fewer have thrived — in Spain, home to La Liga, to the epic rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid, to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
This season, though, along came Shaquell Moore, a largely unknown American defender for Levante UD by way of Florida, Georgia, Texas and two smaller Spanish teams, one of which didn’t pay him for months and soon went under.