Sebastian Soto may have recently joined EFL Championship side Norwich City, but looks to be heading to the Netherlands on a loan spell.
Dutch second-tier side Telstar has been mentioned with acquiring Soto on a season-long loan and the club is aiming to make its decision by the end of this week. Soto trained with Telstar before heading away on summer holiday.
“In the case of Soto their was some discussions with the agent, but Norwich then stepped in and said we are happy to make it work,” Telstar boss Andries Jonker said in an interview with Pink UN. “Soto made quite a good impression during training here and we will make our decision at the end of the week.”
Soto does not have a work permit to play in England yet so the move to Holland would help him not only remain in shape, but earn possible first-team minutes. The 20-year-old forward joined Norwich City from German 2. Bundesliga side Hannover after making five combined appearances between Hannover’s first and second team.
A current U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team product, Soto scored four goals in five appearances in the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, helping the U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team to a third-consecutive quarterfinals appearance.
He’s also scored once in two appearances for the Under-23 team and was expected to be included in Jason Kreis’ Olympic Qualifying roster prior to the postponement of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Fellow American players Andrija Novakovich and Kyle Scott have also played at Telstar on loan spells while at Reading and Chelsea respectively.
He’s gotta play someplace considering he won’t get permitted now or probably anytime this cycle. This would be second division Holland, and the same career trajectory as Novakovich and Scott, who also made stops there. Meh. To me with his heritage his best moves would have been sideways in Germany someplace or Spanish second division or Mexico. To see the flaw in his Norwich choice, best case scenario, what would a 25 goal Novakovich year get him? He still wouldn’t have a permit, and all Reading did with Nova the next year was move him to the Eredivisie. 9 goals more there didn’t get him Reading but instead sold to Serie B. Which I think is an interesting, unusual path, but doesn’t sound like a ton of momentum gathering.