He is always very dangerous when brought off the bench for TFC. 20 minutes of Jozy is more than most defenders want. It was a direct response to a question.
This is not how I've viewed Sargent at all. He's still young and will get stronger but he's the most complete forward we have. Can score with either foot and in close or distance, can score with his head and is good at holdup play, keeping possession with dribbling and some clever passes. On a better team than Bremen his quality would show more and I hope he gets the Booby Wood treatment where the US plays him despite club for to boost him. I think he'd repay the trust.
💥 Goal of the Day🔨 Hammer time!#AZ #GOTD @JozyAltidore #StayAtHome pic.twitter.com/UhqEN5Tp0a— AZ (@AZAlkmaar) April 8, 2020 One positive of the lockdown is we are getting some good retro content.
It's always fun to go back and see what became of the Eredivisie players I watched a decade ago who weren't big names at the time. Because whenever you're watching a league like the Eredivisie you know that there's going to be a lot of talented names that move on to bigger and better things, but you're never quite sure who that's going to be. The PSV side in that video featured guys like Wijnaldum, Strootman, and Mertens who would go on to become Champions League fixtures in later seasons at Liverpool, Roma, and Napoli respectively. But more impressively, if I recall correctly, the Eredivisie Best XIs that Altidore was named to featured a bunch of players who started in last year's Champions League final: Virgil Van Dijk, Toby Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen, and Georginio Wijnaldum -- I think Jan Vertonghen was Best XI the year prior during Jozy's first season in the league. There were also a few other Best XI guys who never quite reached those heights but still had some very good seasons at a high level later on (Wilfried Bony, Graziano Pelle, and Daley Blind). Unfortunately, I think Jozy's been one of the bigger flops in that group -- I know there were a couple other flops from that Best XI class, including some high profile ones, but I can no longer remember their names.
I think if Jozy were a guy who didn't have massive money waiting for him in the MLS he would have stuck it out in some bigger Euro league as a 10 goal a year type striker. If he was a mid table BL or Ligue 1 striker would he be thought of as a flop?
Probably not. I think Alfred Finnbogason is actually a decent example of the type of player you're talking about. Jozy narrowly beat him out for league Best XI honors in the publications I remember seeing back in 2012-13, but they scored a similar number of goals that year. Finnbogason stayed another year and continued to score at an impressive rate in the Eredivisie, but then moved to La Liga and only managed 2 goals in an entire season for Real Sociedad (sort of like Jozy at Sunderland around the same time). However, Finnbogason moved to midtable Augsburg in the Bundesliga not long after that, and he's mostly been solid for them when healthy, scoring 35 goals in 83 games (though he's had a lot of injury problems). If Jozy had stuck it out in Europe and had a similar career, I don't think he would be considered a flop. However, he didn't do that, so that one season at Sunderalnd sort of defined him (perhaps in addition to his spells at Villarreal and Hull as a teenager), and everything else is mostly speculation.
I think to the extent that he was "ruined", MLS did it. Unfortunately, MLS was progressing just enough to throw wacky dollars that he couldn't possibly turn down. Once he was back here, he was simply going to be a good player, but not Top-5 league level good. Similar with Bradley, tho he was already injured, and likely already on the way down, so it wasn't as big of a problem from the NT view. Agree with other posters, that if he had stuck it out, he could have done well enough in France or Germany (though I doubt nearly a goal every 2 like this Finboggason). 5-10 league goals a year for bottom half sides, and he likely would have developed into a better player (from a selfish perspective would have been better, as he would have helped the NT more).
MLS provided Jozy a lifeline. He had been drowning. His prior lackluster record in the top-5 makes unreliable projecting success elsewhere at that same level. But certainly being used as a lone forward, as he had been in England, did not play to his strengths.
I don't think a 24 year old with his resume needed a lifeline so to speak. There's always bargain hunters looking for a striker.
3 goals in 42 league games worth of minutes in the top-5 made for a resume that was not going to attract much attention from the top-5. And Finnbagason had 3 goals in 9 games worth of La Liga and UCL minutes. Not great, but not horrible.
so many flop in England but not the end of he world. i bet had he moved to Ligue 1 in Fal 2014 or winter 2015 he would have salvaged his name/
I don’t think a guy who scored 30 in the Eredivisie and 5 on Ajax is working at a bookstore at 24 barring career ending injury. The Argentinian striker Portland had to cut with the coke problem stays in a job!
kinda makes me wonder how Dempsey might have done in a La Liga or Serie A post-2010 World Cup. He and Donovan had some decent interest. perhaps Jozy should have moved to Ajax to get a bit of CL action that year instead of Sunderland.
compare to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ola_Toivonen decent stats in the Eredivisie. Got a move to a mid-table French side and then bought by Sunderland. Then back to France.
For a more comprehensive comparison with a double digit sample size, here's every other player with as good of an Eredivisie goalscoring record around the same time as Alitdore* who transferred out of the Eredivisie prior to their 30's: *Let's say someone who, like Altidore, scored 10+ league goals in multiple Eredivisie seasons, and 20+ league goals in a single Eredivisie season in the two seasons Altidore was there, and/or the two seasons immediately preceding his arrival and following his exit. Alternatively, I've also included players who, like Jozy, scored 15+ goals in multiple Eredivisie seasons during that same time: Luis Suarez Bas Dost Mounir El Hamdaoui Luuk de Jong Sanharib Malki Dries Mertens Wilfried Bony Graziano Pelle Alfred Finnbogason Memphis Depay Ola Toivonen (never reached 20 goals, but had two 15+ goal seasons) Of those 11 names, 10 transferred to a top 5 league (Malki transferred to Turkey just before he turned 30 and put up mediocre numbers). Of the remaining 10 names, 7 players have scored double digit league goals in a single season in a top 5 league (Suarez's highest single season total was 40 goals, Dost 16, Mertens 28, Bony 18, Pelle 12, Finnbogason 12, and Depay 19). Luuk de Jong never scored more than 6 goals in a single season, but he's been starting regularly for a top 3 Sevilla this year and had 5 goals for the season before COVID struck. As LouisianaViking mentioned, Toivonen started regularly for multiple seasons in Ligue 1 and scored 7 goals in 3 separate seasons, but never got higher than that and had an unsuccessful loan spell in England. El Hamdaoui was never able to nail down a starting position at Fiorentina or Malaga, and only managed limited goals in limited minutes. Which is all to say, the majority did well, and a couple others at least started multiple seasons at a high level, but there have also been a couple flops. It's a shame that Jozy is among that latter group -- and I believe the worst of them on a goals per minute played basis -- but it is what it is.
Maybe but he also isn’t good enough to play the way he wants to play in a top league. Especially the EPL.
The covid nostalgia continues #OTD 2009: 19-year-old @JozyAltidore became the youngest #USMNT player to record a hat trick, scoring all three 🇺🇸 goals in the 3-0 #WCQ win vs. 🇹🇹 in Nashville. pic.twitter.com/6bbQRos3Pp— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) April 1, 2020
Oof, was their next tweet about how he didn't do anything when we faced the same country 8 years later?