Football: GOAL GETTER; Wolves close in on prolific striker McBride.

Byline: DAVID PRENTICE

EVERTON will try to swop the most capped American international of all time for the most prolific. Joe-Max Moore, released by the Blues before Christmas, won exactly 100 caps for his country. But Moore could not match the goals output of Brian McBride, a centre-forward who scored the USA's only goal of World Cup '98 - and added two more during the 2002 tournament. Officially the Blues are making no comment on the speculation but it is understood there is real interest in the player and contact has been made w ith the Major League Soccer who hold all USA player contracts. Indeed McBride could arrive on Merseyside for talks as early as next week.

McBride is Columbus Crew's all-time lead-ing marksman with 33 goals from 65 appear-ances, and has experience of playing in Germany.

During the 1994-95 season he was on Vfl Wolfsburg's books.

At the time Wolfsburg were a German sec-ond division side, but one of the two goals he registered for them came against Bayern Munich in a cup upset. On a more unusual note, the US star is nick-named Bake and listsGeorge Weah as his favourite player of all time. Joe-Max Moore burst onto the scene with a flurry of goals for Everton. If McBride comes to Merseyside, the Blues will hope for a similarly prolific start.

CAPTION(S):

MOST CAPPED: Joe-Max Moore; GOAL MACHINE: Brian McBride after scoring during the World Cup Finals in Japan and Korea