Matthew Olosunde is very new to the Manchester United setup, but the U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team defender has already turned some heads at the club.
Manchester United head of coaching and former Red Devils midfielder Nicky Butt says the club is “really excited” about the young American. Olosunde signed for Man United in January, but was forced to wait until recently to make his debut for the club’s Under-18 team.
“He’s one that’s been ongoing for a while,” Butt told Inside United. “With the clearance, it took a while, but we’ve got him and he played his first game on Friday night.
“He’s a good player, a nice lad and a really good athlete. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot from him in the coming years because he’s someone we’re really excited about.”
Olosunde, who was featured in a video from the club highlighting his play in a 7-1 thrashing of Newcastle’s U-18s, is a product of the New York Red Bulls academy. The defender recently represented the U.S. Under-20s at March’s Dallas Cup.
What do you think of Butt’s praise of Olosunde? What do you expect from the young defender?
Share your thoughts below.
I knew the water in New York was good, but just how good is it really?
Now relax idiots because I know they play in New Jersey, it was just a hilarious joke I made. Man y’all are itching too much just to be condescending to the people you’re high fiving at games. Superficial fans
The more youths we have at these clubs the better. Just like the big countries, a small percentage of these players are good enough for the international level but the more we have training at this high level, the more that percentage will go up.
Leicester City is going to win the best league in the world this year and most of their players were no names a year ago, let alone 2 years ago. Playing at this high level is what allows great players to rise to the top. Vardy and Kane are the top 2 scorers in the EPL this year and considered top forwards in the world. 2 years ago they were not even on anyone’s radar. Gotta get as many players as possible in these positions to become great.
You had me until you said “Leicester City is going to win the best league in the world ” if you go by UCL results, the English league is not the best.
If ManU(re) are that excited about him, he’s obviously ready for the Nats! Why doesn’t he have a cap yet?!
Olosunde was one of the 3 players that I was very interested when playing in the U17 WC, the other 2 were Pulisic and Wright. Wright was the only one that came short of my expectations, I guess not playing regularly affected him way too much.
Didn’t Wright sign with Schalke 04 in the BundisLiga? I think it was a big mistake for Wright to leave the LA Galaxy Academy. He went to the Cosmos, didn’t feature on the Sr team and got little time with the B teams. His playing ability did not progress, and some say it even regressed ( lack of playing time) Maybe the Schalke deal is just what he needs to get to the next level.
I was surprised when Wright left the Galaxy and then the Cosmos for Schalke and didn’t think he looked that great in the U-20 team. But, I imagine his pay is a lot better there than here and if he does make it, he is on a team that is usually in the top half of one of the best leagues in the world. Fans should try to look at things from the players’ perspective. Also, we don’t know what his values and priorities are. Maybe the idea of living abroad is really cool to him. It would have been to me at a young age.
European soccer is a lot better, as is pay, as is passion, and they don’t restrict player movement.
Seems to me like more and more of the best young american players today are figuring this out, and figuring out ways to avoid the MLS trap. Rather use it as a fall back if Europe doesn’t work. A good fall back because even having “failed” in Europe, the experience will raise their value to MLS and fans. And after even a mild success in Europe, MLS will offer them big money to come back.
Some may blame NT coaches for this new migratory species, but for the above reasons I think it is a logical place to go for a young player.
Of course I’m biased, I saw going to Europe as win-win too, and never came back.
Selling, ok. But obscure? Not if you have followed the youth set up the past pew years.
Good for him.
I think USA could be a new hub for really good young talent acquisition at good value for money.
Does it ever stop? The marketing/selling to US soccer fans?
I was thinking the same, “Manchester United ‘really excited’ about U.S. U-20 Olosunde”
More like “US fans want to be really excited that Man U is really excited about an obscure youth player”
Quit whining about US Soccer not in the US.
You can probably find quotes of Butt saying something good about most of the academy players. I don’t think there’s any conspiracy here. It’s not like Man U needs an American academy player to get US fans.
If he eventually becomes a regular then it can’t hurt but that won’t happen unless he’s actually good enough.
You can probably find quotes of Butt saying something good about most of the academy players.
What does this have to do with my post?
I think he’s replying to the two posts above yours.
Exactly old school – it isn’t always about you. Surprised you didn’t respond with links and footnotes as you usually do.
Used to be a time when an American signing with Man United would excite us…
But it’s hard to get excited about Europa-league level teams.
Some people will complain about anything.
Did RedBull receive any compensation for him?
I don’t think so.
As he was an academy player and not signed, there would be no transfer fee. Often academies may receive what is called, in some leagues, a “training fee”. In fact, in some football federations, it’s a somewhat standard policy. It is allowed an encouraged by FIFA.. In the US, thee is no standard policy of fees between academies and teams, although in my opinion there should be. As the USSF, along with MLS and other pro and private academies have yet to work out a standard or a set of policies, European teams may, or even may not, offer a “training fee” to an academy. As it is not a transfer fee between pro teams, its not recorded as such, there usually is no record and is often kept private, even if there was one. Some have reported that the Sounders payed a training fee to Stanford for Morris, but others firmly denied it.
Without team and USSF rules and policies in place, it will not be long until young players will be subject to abuse or gaming of the system .
There’s no way the Sounders paid anything to Stanford. They might have to Eastside FC, his former club (reportedly werder Bremen was going to pay them $200k) but there is no precedent for MLS clubs paying even former youth teams, there is zero chance they paid Stanford.
You may recall this came up when Tottenham tried to pay Starfire, Yedlin’s former youth club the standard fee and Sounders blocked that.
yeah,they will get slice of bread no butter for him.