Top Stories

Free agent Agudelo training with Orlando City ahead of next move

Juan Agudelo FC Utrecht (Getty Images)

By FRANCO PANIZO

The immediate future of Juan Agudelo lies in Orlando. His long term future is not so clear.

Agudelo will be training with MLS-bound Orlando City this week in an effort to maintain his fitness and sharpness, but the 21-year-old free agent will not be joining the club on a permanent basis. Rather, he is simply on a training stint ahead of his next move.

While Agudelo’s presence is intriguing because he is currently out of contract, the young forward is only with Orlando City as part of a training stint before his next move, according to Lions general manager Paul McDonough and coach Adrian Heath.

“It won’t be here,” Lions general manager Paul McDonough told the Orlando Sentinel. “We’re helping him out, like we did with Brek (Shea). He is training and he will make a move at some point, but with MLS rules it won’t be here.”

That Agudelo is following in Shea’s footsteps at Orlando City this summer is not entirely surprising. Club president Phil Rawlins has connections with Stoke City, the Premiership outfit that employs Shea and that Agudelo was hoping to play for before seeing efforts to land an English work permit fall short yet again in May.

“I enjoy having (Agudelo) here,” Orlando City head coach Adrian Heath told the Orlando Sentinel. “This is a guy who is highly thought of. For the rest of the group, we can’t get enough quality players in to train. Having seen good players has been valuable for a lot of our younger players.

“He’s come in and, like Brek, gone on with it, been part of the group…and it’s been good to have him in.”

A U.S. Men’s National Team pool player, Agudelo closed out this past season on loan at FC Utrecht. He helped the club avoid relegation in the Eredivisie, scoring three goals in 14 appearances.

—–

What do you think of Agudelo training with Orlando City ahead of his next move? Where do you see him landing? Think he should return to MLS?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I remember when this guy was supposed to take over the world…..now he “trains” with an American second division team.

    Reply
  2. About the English rules on foreign players. How the hell do they expect their players to stay on top when their is an artificial market for English players created by these rules. Open your doors up and let them in of your players can really compete. Line the NBA does.

    Yes I know the MLS has quotas as well but that’s a matter of survival of he pro game here. That quota will wither away in a couple of generations.

    Reply
    • It’s because England has immigration laws. (So, in fact, do most countries, I find) players go through the same process for a work visa that computer programmers, dentists and fry cooks do. The Home Office (just as Homeland Security does in the Us) uses a formula to assess whether the contributions of the immigrant outweigh the benefits of having someone already in country work the job. England is just more competitive than other euro countries, so it’s harder to get a permit.

      Reply
    • These are government rules, not Premier League or FA rules. A foreign player coming to MLS has to go through a similar process except that here if the club says they want to sign the player, that’s pretty much good enough for the government.

      Reply
  3. Seltzer thought that Utrecht would love to keep him. If that’s so, then he should just go back there for at least another year. Continuity is important and it’s a great team and league for a young striker to learn his trade.

    Reply
  4. he should have no problem finding a contract in Europe if thats what he wants. its not going to be with a recognizable club but im sure something btw Staabeck and AZ would bite.

    wonder if he is looking at South America? would be interesting to see a player of his background and quality play for Boca Jr, River, Corinthians, Sao Paulo, Flamengo or Mineiro (next to dinho)..

    Reply
  5. Let him come back on a 3-4 month deal, that way he’ll be unattached come January but will still be able to put himself in the shop window until the season is over.

    Reply
  6. I don’t like how euro teams treat American players how is Agudelo still looking for a team and Bojan Krkic has a team? I wish he’d come back to MLS.

    Reply
    • To be fair, the EPL is off the table because of the hypocritical work permit laws or else he’d be a Stoke player. I think Jürgen would probably advise him to find a Europa league club to find minutes from.

      Reply
    • Let me take a stab at this: because Bojan is a much better player than Agudelo? Other than that I don’t see a reason.

      Reply
      • Krkic scored 4 goals for the league winning team Ajax in 24 games. Agudelo is 2 years younger and scored 3 goals in 14 games for a team that struggled to score. If Krkic is better Agudelo isn’t far behind.

      • That’s it? He scored one less goal than Bojan in half the games so that make him deserving of an EPL contract? Where does this put Altidore and his one goal all season? Maybe Sunderland should cut him and bring in juan.
        All things being equal Bojan would start for the USNT and Agudelo wasn’t even called. Your reasoning is stupid.

      • Alright Rooster, I know you are just being a d*** or a troll, but I will take the bait. The main reason Krkic is going to Stoke is because he has a Spanish passport and Juan does not have an EU passport. Juan was a lot more effective in per minutes played than Krkic and he did it on a far weaker team.

        They both play the same position, and one has to think that Mark Hughes bought him because he could get Juan through the work visa process in the UK after trying twice (including a loan period where they paid part of his salary at Utrecht). Hughes is quite high on Juan.

        As far as Altidore is concerned, I won’t even dignify that comment. Rest assured, seeing that you take to the internet insult/demean US players (I don’t confuse that with constructive criticism) leads me to believe that you are probably a very little man with a sorry life who wakes every morning looking in the mirror wanting to cry about how everything went wrong. If youa want to keep doing this to make you feel better, go ahead. However, I am sure everyone on this blog knows otherwise and wouldn’t missed you if you just disappeared.

      • I REALLY wish there was an edit button. I don’t type as well on my smartphone with this auto-correct.

      • Stoke City just signed Bojan, who wanted sign Juan months ago. However the English FA blocked the move because Juan didn’t have the needed national team caps. The English FA can’t block players with an EU passport, if they could they probably would have blocked this as well.

        If Klinsmann really wanted more players going to Europe and pushing them self to a higher level. Then he needS to give more young players caps now. European clubs aren’t scouting US players or MLS until they make the national team. Giving minutes to players like Wondo or Davis who are too old for that move, was a wasted chance.

      • That is a good point on Klinsi’s choice of Wondo and Davis (I don’t think either belonged there). Then again, I did not think either would pay a big part in World Cup.

      • Hopefully Klinsi keeps to his word and calls in young players for the upcoming friendlies & January camp. Leave the old folks (Dempsey, Beasley, Jones, Cameron, Beckerman, Wondo, Davis, Evans, etc…) home until the 1st 2015 FIFA dates. Start the youth movement and begin integrating the next generation into the team.

      • English FA has a target to get the number of English players up in the Premier League from 35 to 45 per cent, I believe…which means they’re being a lot stickier in giving foreign players work permits.

        The rule that’s technically always been in effect is that a player has to have appeared in, I believe, 70 per cent or more of the national team in the Top 75 of the world. A few caps wouldn’t have changed that…basically, you have to be a regular. It’s a rule that’s always been there on paper, but the FA is enforcing it a lot more strictly these days, and not granting the kind of exemptions they always used to whenever a club really wanted a player…as Stoke just discovered. They tried twice to get him through and couldn’t.

      • Just for the record, it’s not the FA that blocked it, it’s the Home Office which denied him a work permit.

      • Definitely true! However, keep in mind that the lower tier teams in La Liga and below and sprinkled with as many Barca/Madrid youth players as the lower tier teams in England are with Man U/Arsenal/Chelsea etc ex-youth team members. I will say that I remember that Krkic was once considered one of the golden youth products. He is still young (23), but so it Juan (21)

      • Bojan is the Spanish-French version of Jonathan Dos Santos. VAstly overrated in their youth cause they were in the. Barca system

      • I would love to see him back with the Revs, but at the same time it may not be best for him. I hope he gets someplace where he can play and improve. I thought he should have been on the World Cup Roster.

  7. Holland or France or Portugal

    Nice mid-table club where you can start week in, week out and get better. yOU may not have a tremendously high salary but you’re improving.

    wanna see you in LA LIGA in 4 years

    Reply
  8. Glad to seem him keeping his fitness up, but I’m a little surprised he hasn’t found a team yet. If I remember correctly, he had a great loan stint at Utrecht. I would have thought they’d have been willing to bring him in on a free. The work permit issue keeps him out of the EPL and the SPL but I would have thought there’d at least be interest in Italy or France, if not Spain or Germany.

    Reply
      • Not amazing, but he only played 14 games. And I believe he was a sub in at least a couple appearances. I’m not suggesting he lit the Eredivisie on fire but for a 21 year old in his first year in Holland, I would have thought that should have been enough for Utrecht to have been interested in retaining him if he was available on a free.

    • My response is, what’s his agent doing? This is European “spring training” right now. The windows are wide open. This is when people get signed. I think you’re over-stating the impressiveness of his Stoke/Utrecht experience — considering how easy it is to produce in Holland (his team scored 46 goals in 34 games). But if Adu can get European auditions, some one with Agudelo’s actual talent should have plenty of interest, as long as the salary ego is kept in check.

      He wasn’t on the USMNT, I don’t get why he’s here right now working out with a team in a lower division that can’t sign him for next season without a trade or something — although since when are they MLS for rules this season? — when teams abroad are actively trialing talent as we speak.

      You do too much of this silliness and you will be the next Freddy. Use your brain.

      Reply
      • Really, if he doesn’t know what else to do. Stay at Utrecht. 2/3 year contract or whatever.

        His return on goals and assists in what were mostly substitution appearances is good. I’m sure they would like to keep him.

      • True, Onyewu’s agent is brilliant. Just ask Dempsey, Jozy and Bedoya. Heck ask Bornstein, he still gets paid.

        Now lets see how he handles DeAndre Yedlin…

      • Teams have shown a real interest in Agudelo. Stoke signed him and tried twice to get him a work permit. Utrecht agreed to take him on loan when his first attempt at a WP was denied (Stoke most likely covered the bulk of his salary). Since then he has been linked to Germany (Hanover), Ultrecht, and potential teams in France.
        The fact a deal hasn’t been inked yet can be read 3 ways….
        1) Potential bidding war…with multiple teams offering to sign him
        2) Salary demands are too high.
        3) Interest has dried up completely….
        1 & 2 are possibilities. The 3rd I don’t see happening…
        Ultimately he’ll sign with someone in Europe, question will be if it’s a 1st division team or if its a promotion bound team in a 2nd division.

      • I wonder what happen to Hanover. I remember Dolo even mentioning this possible signing without saying Agudelo name on the MLS podcast.

Leave a Comment