A recent link between to Spanish Liga Adelante (second division) side Levante has Altidore's chances looking brighter. True, when he played for Villareal he looked great. However, Rossi, Llorente, Franco and Nihat comprise a very deep attack, leaving Jozy with only 4 appearances and 1 goal in the first half of the Liga BBVA (first division) season.
Villareal loaned Jozy to Xerez of the second division. The team, however, was sitting at the top of the table and had no apparent need for the talented American forward. As a result, the prodigy of US soccer has been out of any sort of competition for the first quarter of 2009. A loan to a team like Levante, who are desperate for another attacking option with the loss of Alex Geijo. As was said on goal.com, this is a win-win situation for all parties. Jozy would get playing time, Villareal would see further development of the player, Xerez would unload unwanted baggage, and Levante would get a great attacking option.
Myself, along with many other fans out there (especially the SBI mafia), are hoping this is true. This is the US's best new attacking option. Donovan and Ching are established but we need more prospects for the future. It's bad enough that Adu and Pearce aren't seeing much time on the pitch at all (especially Adu). Maybe Monaco should unload the talented Ghana-born youngster as well to a team in more need of a playmaker.
I'm not sure if this move to Levante for Altidore is timely enough right now for the youngster to be called up for the world cup qualifiers starting in 10 days against El Salvador and Trinidad. A quick move right now plus playing time this weekend would definitely help. Just look at Giovanni dos Santos at Ipswich (loan from the Spurs).
3 comments:
Any plans to attend the April national team match in Nashville?
Love to, bud. Unfortunately, it's on a weeknight and it's 8 hours away from Raleigh. There might be a DC game later in the year, though... I know that's really far away from you too so no qualms if you can't make that one.
I hear that match would be against Costa Rica... much much better than Cuba.
We can certainly discuss it when it gets a little closer.
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