Haji Wright was in need of more playing time after finding himself in limbo at Schalke, and that playing time will come via a loan spell in the 2. Bundesliga.
SV Sandhausen announced on Friday that the club has signed Wright from Schalke on a season-long loan. With the move, Wright links up with fellow American Andrew Wooten, who has been with the club since 2014.
“I am very pleased with my contract with SV Sandhausen,” Wright said. “I want to achieve a lot here, score many goals and play a successful season with the SVS.”
“We still need action in the attacking end and Haji is a young and talented striker. In addition to Lucas Höler, Andrew Wooten and Richard Sukuta-Pasu, he will be another option,” added Otmar Schork, Sandhausen’s Managing Director of Sport. “We are convinced that he will continue to develop with us and we will have a lot of pleasure from having him.”
Wright spent a bulk of the preseason training with the Schalke first team, but remained in Germany for the club’s final preseason trip in what was a sign the club had no plans to use him in first team action. Now, Wright gets a loan move to the 2. Bundesliga over a season with the Schalke reserves, who play in the fifth tier of German soccer.
The 19-year-old forward scored 15 goals for the Schalke U-19s last year while providing 12 additional assists.
This is great. Sandhausen is decent, has an American to help get adjusted, and it’s early enough in the season that he’s not going to get frozen out of an established lineup. Hit double digit goals and either someone will buy him or Schalke will play him next year. Simple!
I think he can become a bundesliga caliber player sooner rather than later if he is able to earn significant playing time this year.
This could be such a big year for young Americans.
Double digit goals seems a little high for expectations (maybe you were being tongue in cheek), Haji only had 12 against U19s last season and Wooten was the team leader last year with 9. Look at it this way at age 19 Bobby Wood had five 2.Bundesliga appearances for a total of 33 minutes and didn’t earn double digits starts until 2015 when he had his breakout year.
double digit goals would be a massive success for him. That really should not be the expectation. Goal here should be to get some regular pt and have positive performances to use as a touchstone for his growth. Anything more than that would be extra.
Good for Haji. This is a good progression if he can see the pitch some even if its just off the bench. 2. Bundesliga is much better than another year with the reserves.