The news of Harkes going to the
English Premiership was largely not covered at all by the football-ignorant American
media.
In fact, one of the scant mentions it did get in newspapers shows just how little the United States media cared about football/soccer.
In the New York Post, one of the larger papers in the country, a small article on Harkes was titled "Harkes going to Sheffield, Wednesday" (as if he was going to "Sheffield" on "Wednesday", the day after Tuesday, instead of to the club Sheffield Wednesday).
Harkes doesn't get nearly enough credit for his success and remains an unknown outside of the limited amount of serious American football fans. Harkes (as well as a few other early "pioneers" like Thomas Dooley in Germany) is in no small way responsible for the recent influx of American players in Europe. He showed that the United States has some quality players and led the way for others (such as Eddie Lewis, Brad Friedel, and Brian McBride in England; Kasey Keller and Ante Razov in Spain; among others).
With the success of women's soccer, the American media is slightly more football friendly than a decade ago. However, if an American was to go to Sheffield Wednesday, the "Sheffield, Wednesday" error would likely be repeated.