Weah is not a proven player for club. Weah has not done anything in the past few sessions. He's not even playing as an RW. EPL is a better league than ligue 1
Not a proven player in club soccer? That whole thing where Weah was one of the best players on a Ligue 1 champion must have been totally just fabricated in my mind. That was 2021. Not ancient history.
He wasn't, at least in counting stats. For whatever reason he never became a goal dangerous player at Lille. I don't know why, maybe by design, because if he can do in the shirt, and he 100% does, he can do it in Ligue 1. But he didn't. 5000 minutes or so, 8 goals and 8 assists. 107 appearances and 1/4 of those #'s came in the final 2 games of the '21-'22 season after they'd bagged the title and could afford to give him some more attention (3 goals and 1 assist). Bums me out to no end because I love the player, but it hasn't happened at club the way it has in the shirt for the USMNT. Just hasn't. And Juventus sees him in a different role.
No matter what is going on at Juventus, Weah is one of the national team's most dangerous and valuable players.
There seems to be chatter in the X-verse about Konrad de la Fuente switching to the Dominican Republic. They have the Olympics this summer, for instance. I can't tell if that chatter is based on any sort of reliable reporting, or its just gossip. 'twould make sense, though. Sadly. Right now he's barely playing in La Liga 2, and more & more wing options are being introduced to the USMNT (with hopefully Koleosho joining those ranks). According to the youth forum, he would be eligible to switch to DR.
I figured no way would Konrad be eligible to switch because that's only an option if he's played fewer than 4 senior international matches, if all of them were before the age of 21, and if none of them were at the World Cup or a final confederation tournament. But then I looked it up, and it turns out he meets all of those criteria. Somehow a guy we started in the very first game of the final round of World Cup qualifying at the age of 20 only has 3 caps and has never even appeared in a Gold Cup. Edit: Although I thought he has to wait until 3 years since his last cap to switch. I believe the Olympics next summer will take place about a month shy of 3 years from his last cap.
Pulisic, Weah, Reyna, BAaronson, PAaronson, Paredes, Zendejas, Koleosho, Cowell, Kamungo, Luna, Ngoma, DiPietro,
I just don't know if I see a point though. DR has had zero international relevance from what I recall, ever, in any fashion. What's the difference between playing for them and playing for no one? They've never come close to a hex, I can't even recall them qualifying for Gold Cup's let alone playing in them, though I imagine they must have at some point. It's basically vanishing down an international hole forever, never playing in anything at all other than maybe stage 1 of qualifying where you have those weird matches like Belize vs DR home and home to advance to round 2 of qualifying where they just get worked in some group stage or head to head match up. Doesn't make sense to me, betting on him figuring out a career that had Barcelona, Marseille and other squads interested for a short while seems a much better road than betting on DR ever accomplishing anything again. They are a baseball nation, I suppose they can follow Panama's path who were also a baseball nation, they do have nearly 3x the pop to draw from as Panama. I just can't see it. Seems like international career suicide to me.
They tweak these rules so much that its impossible for me to keep up. The youth forum explained it to me. I guess if you have 3 or less caps under the age of 21, and none of them were in a World Cup or Confederation Championship (so qualifiers for these events don't count)......................you can switch now. I didn't know about the rule that says the cap had to be 3 years ago. You already named 3 deep on each wing. Our entire USMNT, U23, and U20 pools. Plus dual-nationals like Koleosho. Konrad de la Fuente is a 22 year old that's played 67 minutes across all competitions for a La Liga 2 team this season. I'm not the type to ever give up on a player. We've had La Liga 2 players get USMNT caps. Shaq Moore and the like. Could Konrad de la Fuente turn things around with the right opportunity. Like say.............Haji Wright did? I guess so. Sure. I hope he does!!! But, on the other, would I rather give fringe minutes on the USMNT right now to somebody like Diego Luna over Konrad de la Fuente. Diego Luna has earned the opportunity based on performance more than de la Fuente. I can't see him getting back into the USMNT soon. So I can understand if he's thinking of switching. He's also eligible for Haiti I believe. There are a bunch of guys in this type of position. Your hopes fade. You can understand them switching. Like Tayvon Gray switching to Jamaica. We just found out another guy is switching to Jamaica? Who was it? Kyle Duncan? It was a good MLS guy of that ilk. He's literally Tim Weah's cousin, and are supposedly extremely close. But if you want to play international soccer, at some point you have to read the tea leaves. De la Fuente can either be a key player for DR (or Haiti for that matter) or try to nab onto the back end of a USMNT roster. DR needs him desperately. They just did the unthinkable in CONCACAF. They lost to Montserrat. They had a shot at being promoted to Nations League A, and blew the opportunity.
It's not much of an option with D.R. either. D.R. will be eliminated from any competition in two seconds other than the coming olympics based on the past historical track record. There are few games available. The US door is closed, probably for good, but not closed for good if he suddenly discovers the form that once made him a prized prospect by big time teams in France and Spain. That road, taking to coaching, working like a mad man, building his career back up, seems a far easier and smarter road, than playing in a handful of internationals for DR against like Aruba and Belize, and never in major competition. If he believes in his own talent and ability to resurrect his career and does it, he'll be back in the US picture. There's nothing he can do to make DR anything other than a 1 and done side in Concacrap in any competition be it NL, Gold Cup or WC qualification. It just strikes me as crazy and taking flights from Europe to the Caribbean to play island backwaters, or bottom of the barrel Central American sides sounds pretty god awful. I don't really get it.
You are talking about playing in the world cup. I made a point about playing international football. They are not the same thing. One is a subset of the other.
This is the type of dual nats that USMNT should not be going after. I don't think there's any player like that. If USMNT is going to continue to win dual nats. Make sure that they are 23 years or younger. Reason is because we don't want to see the USMNT transfer to a club or players not caring about USMNT.
Word going around on Twitter is Konrad de la Fuente has committed to switch to Haiti. He won't be eligible for almost a year but that's the hot rumor
Tillman has at times been used by PSV there to good effect. Not his best position though. Similarly Sargent has played there for both club and country. Coventry started Wright on the left in their last match. Ferreira can play wide.
With de la Fuente it's a bummer because we know there's talent in there. But he's barely played in two years and has thus fallen out of the USMNT pool. On the youth boards we've been debating where he'd actually stand in the U23 pool. Could he get back? Sure. We've seen the talent. But if he wants to play international soccer NOW, its not with the US. Haiti, by the way, was just relegated from CONCACAF Nations League A after failing to beat Suriname and Cuba in the A group phase. So Haiti is going to be back to playing minnows for a couple of years. Same as de la Fuente's other option..........DR.
FMF contacts every Mexican-American with a pulse. Mexico just announced their roster for a Dec. 16th friendly against Colombia. [Kind of their version of a January camp roster. A lot of young/fringe players]. Its the kind of roster they've called US based players up to before. No dual-nats on it. When it comes to Luna, I expect him to be on our January camp roster. If he's not, then I'll take note. He's got a shot to make our Olympic team.