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Report: Juan Agudelo weighing 1860 Munich option

Juan Agudelo FC Utrecht (Getty Images)

By CAITLIN MURRAY

After eight months of languishing in the limbo of free agency, Juan Agudelo may be on the cusp of finding a new home.

The American striker is apparently reconsidering an offer to join Bundesliga 2 side 1860 Munich after turning the club down last year, according to a report from Goal USA. With other offers on the table, he could find a new home club by the end of the month.

With fellow American Bobby Wood expected to leave the club in January, 1860 Munich is reportedly on the hunt for forwards while Agudelo has been looking for a new club for some time.

Agudelo, 22, had twice attempted to sign with Stoke City in late 2013 and last spring, but both times his work permit bid had been rejected. With the Premier League apparently ruled out, Agudelo has had to look elsewhere. As a free agent, he is able to sign with European clubs outside the January transfer window.

He has been a free agent since a brief spell with Dutch side FC Utrecht ended last spring. He also reportedly turned down an offer from Bundesliga side Werder Bremen.

Agudelo started his career in Major League Soccer, spending three years there playing for the New York Red Bulls, Chivas USA and the New England Revolution.

Since his first call-up with the U.S. Men’s National Team in 2010, he has received 18 caps.

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What do you think of this report? Would 1860 Munich be a good landing place for Agudelo? Where would you like to see him end up?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Report: Aguedo Weighing “Working for a Living” Option

    This guy needs to sign up for anybody who will have him. Throwing away the meaningful chunk of his professional years the way he has is quite unreal. Nobody even knows where he has been… certainly not playing or even training with top professional team, the way any striker with ambitions needs to be doing at that age.

    Perhaps we will get some explanation– lots of people have personal situations that can drive them off the path for a while, and if that’s the case then so be it Haven’t heard anything of the sort yet, though…. and that’s a bit troubling. Where is this kid’s head?

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  2. Is 1860 a promotion contender? That sux, he was getting 1st division offers last window… I get it, that prem league Stoke offer must have been sweet. Mid table continental Europe does not pay like England.

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    • jsut wait until those DP offers start coming in, he’ll be laughing all the way to the bank when he’s back with NYRB making 10X as much

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  3. Maybe this is the problem. Players thinking they’re the sh!t before they accomplish anything instead of being grateful for a check and a chance to move to a better team.

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    • Not everyone has a good work ethic, or born with it. It takes perseverance.

      Agudelo probably has been catered to throughout his soccer career. Let him work at McDonald’s for a few weeks and then see how much easier it is to get paid playing soccer than working fast food for a few dollars an hour.

      I don’t know what kind of a person decides that no income for 8 months is better than some income for kicking a ball.

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    • Yeah, it’s the worse spot if you aren’t any better than Bobby Wood but I think Juan is significantly better. Certainly hope he gets the chance to show it.

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  4. The more Agudelo languishes around failing to find a stable situation the more Backe was right on his assessment.

    At this rate it looks like just another young prospect that will amount to nothing. Happens all the time in all sports. To make things worse, his head got too big for his own good.

    Cheers

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  5. His torn meniscus left knee injury has really affected him. To me, he hasn’t looked the same since this injury, less explosive and not as fast.

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      • For the Revs in 2013. Haven’t seen him recently though at Utrecht, maybe hes improved? I just remember that he lost a step or 2, maybe this was one of the reasons he was left off the WC squad.

      • The main reason he was left off of the WC squad was because Terrence Boyd caught fire at the end of his season and scored a bunch more goals. It was between these two for the last forward spot on the 30 man roster and Boyd beat him out.

  6. I really do not understand the obsession with England by American players (I mean outside the Greater London, of course). I would honestly do Munich over Stoke. I would do France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium over Stoke. If you are a young guy…trust me.

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    • I think language has a lot to do with it. At this point, Juan just needs to find a team at a decent level in any city, where he can get on the field.

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      • All things being equal, Agudelo (and a lot of younger America players looking to break into the European market) should make his goal Ligue 1–the teams are more complete than the dutch league (known for poor defending) and a little bit higher quality than the Belgiam and Porugese leagues. When he was fit and in from, Agudelo had the speed and size where he could really forge a nice few years of quality football at a mid table or upper table side, up his value, and then either move slightly higher to a low or mid-table Italian or Spanish side or make a leap to Bundesliga. As far as growth a s player goes, this route is a sensible one to the EPL (and not to dissimilar from Didier Dorgba and Samir Nasri)

        But sadly, right now dude just needs to be be on a side where he will play.

      • The quality of play is very very high. Most of the quality players are not English but the overall level of play in the PL is top 3 in the world, if not the best. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s the best place to develop.

      • Outside of the top 5-6 teams in the EPL, the quality is very lacking. Even English journalists have admitted this. It’s the money that attracts players to the league.

      • And this is coming from a fan of the league, but what you can observe is it is still a run and gun type of league in the bottom half teams with technical play minimized compared to Spain or Germany.

      • “England is not a develop your skills type league”

        Juan is 22. He has his skill set pretty well down. Or at least he better have it down. No one in Europe is going to bother with teaching him how to pass the ball or tackle or shoot. If they think they have to do that they just won’t sign him.

        He needs to go somewhere where there is a management that will teach him how to be a professional in order to sell him later on for a much bigger fee..

        He needs to mature and develop discipline and a better understanding of the game and how to get the most out of his skills and talent.

        Juan bears some similarity to Jozy when Earnie Stewart got a hold of him. Earnie, who should certainly know as much about American players as anyone in Europe, said that Jozy needed to learn a lot about how to play the game and then handed him to that drill sergeant Verbeek.

        Verbeek got more out of Jozy than anyone before or since. If anyone could make Juan approach his potential Verbeek can, if he didn’t kill Juan first.

        Juan has all the skills , all the tools. He just needs the brains, character and personality to go with them.

  7. Well, he’ s better than Bobby Wood so 1860 is upgrading. Time for Juan to get his career back on track. I still think things might have been different if he didn’t have Hans Backe as his coach at RBNY.

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    • I just heard the interview ETR podcast did with Bobby Wood and he’s being soul crushed by 1860 Munich. It’s a problem of they don’t love Wood anymore and not anything against American players but I think Agudelo has to ask a lot of questions of 1860 to make sure he’s going to be given a fair shake. He may be desperate to just to get into a team now.

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      • I just listened to it as background while I was working. That kid is gutted. He is an example of what happens when a coach that brings you in as a young player to develop gets sacked and you are left with a coach who does not like you at all. Kinda reminds me of Marcus Allen and the Raiders. However, he is 21 living in Germany by himself.

      • Neruda,

        So just because Wood is an American you are assuming they will treat another American like Juan poorly? Why do you think that?

        The manager and his staff don’t seem to like Wood, what exactly does that have to do with Juan?

        The two are very different in style, skill set and, it seems, temperament. Plus, if those guys think Juan is anything like Bobby then why would they even bother signing Juan? Where is the sense in that?

      • Heard the same podcast. Wood came off as an extremely immature kid. His problems most likely stem from lack of maturity as they do lack of talent. His agent should be coaching him better. Very poor interview saying all the wrong things to any future employer.

    • Hans Backe? Now there’s a name MLS fans will curse or laugh at hearing depending on which club you support. I tend to laugh myself.

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    • Backe had plenty of flaws, but I’m not sure it’s fair to blame him for Agudelo’s troubles. If anything, Agudelo didn’t play for Backe long enough to suffer any ill effects. And his post-RBNY record shows that he can underachieve just about anywhere.

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