I think it was an injury issue. As soon as he signed he was injured. Coming back from that is tough. He's very talented, but probably isn't in the greatest form.
He wasn't injured the whole time. They were happy to let him go to YNT camps on at least two occasions over the fall. We'll see. It hasn't been an ideal fall for him to succeed because he arrived hurt. At the same time, his next club will be his fourth club in the last two years.
Indeed. The limited times he's played for the U20s, he was right there with Zelalem as far as pure talent went. He's strong, fast, and can finish really well. I wonder if injury is going to be the one thing that haunts him though....
That's putting a huge amount of stock on games against Myanmar U-20 and sub appearances against Cuba U23 and Panama U23. It feels to me a little bit like he's the second coming of Danny Cuevas, another pesky little sparkplug for the U20s who didn't have much upside.
It was pretty optimistic to expect that he'd go from limited playing time at Red Star to first-team action at Sion (or Standard). Surprising that they'd drop him so quickly though, unless it was a "mutual consent" thing. IIRC from a long time ago, Metz jumped through a whole bunch of hoops to sign Onyewu, only to give up on him nearly immediately. Hopefully Tall can bounce back in the same manner.
Its just my opinion, but I wasn't a big fan, to be honest. I thought he took the spot on the U-20's and U-23's that should've went to Amando Moreno.
The rationale of saying "he wasn't even good enough for this club, how can he make it at a better one?" doesn't sit well with me. Evaluating young soccer players is about as flimsy a science as there is. Even if his story is simple as he didn't play much for Red Star b/c he just wasn't good enough and was let go by Sion for the same reason is all still very subjective. I'm sure these ancedotes get overused in cases like this but I'll mention them anyway. Guys like Ian Wright, Miroslav Klose and Jay DeMerit are all good examples of why you can never really trust anyone, including professionals, at predicting a players' potential ability by how he plays a young man. At 19 and 20 Wright had trials with such illustrious clubs as Brighton and Southend, neither of which thought his talents warranted a pro contract. He got job as a plasterer and played in non-league football where he was spotted by a Crystal Palace scout at age 21 who ended up signing him. He scored a boat load of goals for them, moved to Arsenal a couple years later and became their top scorer. Klose had a very similar story bouncing around the German 5th division while working as a builder part time. For whatever reason someone noticed his potential and gave him a shot and the rest is history. Demerit was passed up in the MLS draft, moved to England, played in the 6th division before playing a friendly against Watford where the manager thought he had what it takes and gave him a trial. Basically I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here and make a case for steering clear of writing him off simply because he's hasn't exactly had great results at a teen.
Klose was on the books at Kaiserslautern by his 21st birthday. That's somewhat late by European standards, but not crazy. The first team of his previous club, Homburg, was in a lower division but not exactly the hinterlands for a player in his late teens -- it's a club with a respectable history. That said, he certainly didn't have the gilded youth career some future stars do.
Maki still looks to be unattached for this season. Definitely not at Sion like his Transfermarkt and Football Database pages say.
I am not sure if you can blame everything on that. He was already fading in France by the time of the U-20 WC
Is he still unattached? He gave very few twitter updates over the summer, and none of them referenced his team situation.
I follow him on Instagram. Looks like he just scored his first goal for Tours Football Club in Ligue 2.
Interesting. I can't find any articles or databases that suggest he has signed. Perhaps he is on trial?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLJ2VDEhf0h/ He says in his Instagram post that his team won 4-0, and that it was his first match and goal in pro soccer. This must be him. 78' ⚽️sur une erreur défensive, Makita en profite pour accentuer le score ! 4-0— Tours Football Club (@ToursFC) October 4, 2016 90' fin de la rencontre. Victoire 4-0 du #ToursFC 🔵⚫️— Tours Football Club (@ToursFC) October 4, 2016