Ulysses Llanez’s long-term future at German club Wolfsburg might be in doubt, but the American forward looks to be reportedly set to head out on loan to Austria for this coming season.
Wolfsburg and St. Poelten have agreed to a partnership which would see several players head to the Austrian second tier side on loan, and Llanez’s name is one on that list, Sport Buzzer reported Sunday. Wolfsburg recently announced the dissolvement of the Under-23 program, but the new loan partnership with St. Poelten would allow players to have a crack at first team action sooner than expected.
Lino Kasten and Yun-sang Hong are also set to join Llanez at St. Poelten for the 2021-22 season.
Llanez registered only 103 minutes of action last season as he spent the season on loan with Dutch side Heerenveen. Injuries hampered his final few months in the Netherlands before returning to the United States. Llanez’s injury forced him to miss the Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Tournament with the USMNT U-23 squad.
The 19-year-old scored 11 goals and registered six assists in 16 combined appearances in 2019-20 for Wolfsburg’s Under-19 team before he began training with the senior team. Llanez has yet to make his competitive debut for the Bundesliga club and doesn’t look to be in new manager Mark van Bommel’s plans.
Llanez made three appearances for the U.S. Men’s National Team in 2020, scoring on his debut in a 1-0 friendly win over Costa Rica. He also appeared in friendlies against Wales and Panama later that Fall, but since has not appeared on the international level.
His contract with Wolfsburg is set to expire in June 2024.
St. Poelten suffered relegation from the Austrian Bundesliga last season, using two American players in its fight for survival. Bayern Munich loanee Taylor Booth and FC Dallas loanee Brandon Servania both featured for St. Poelten last season before returning to their parent clubs in May.
The bigger story here is Wolfsburg disbanding their U-23s. There are a handful of US Prospects on the books in Wolfsburg (Uly, Kayo, & Foster)…who basically won’t have a clear path to first team minutes with Wolfsburg.
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As for Uly himself…its hard to say what exactly is going on with this kid. He clearly has talent but for some reason hasn’t been able to convert that to consistent minutes. Was it the injuries this past season? Does he lack work ethic? Is he a head-case?
Whatever the case, hopefully he’ll finally be able to use this loan to get himself back on track.
The last I heard which was about a month before the season ended was that Kayo was still training with the 1st team. Foster wasn’t.
The U23 and U19 seasons were cancelled in October. At the time Kayo was playing primarily with U23s and KOH with U19s. Kayo’s contract is through 2024 but Kobe’s ends July 1 so there’d have been no reason to train KOH with first team if he wasn’t going to re-sign. Michael Edwards was also with Wolfsburg II but was released in March and joined Colorado and is on loan with Colorado Springs in USL.
Per his dad’s Twitter, his father had an illness that he said “he had to fight for a while” and his Uly’s grandfather passed away, which coincided with Uly leaving Herenveen and returning to the US in the weeks leading into U23 camp. Then he picks up the injury in camp after not being in regular training while handling family obligations. I’m not sure what happened from Sept.-Jan. but it appears what happened after was mostly beyond his control. There was picture of Uly posing with the new US away jersey on the net right after the release so it appears US Soccer is still all in.
I heard Kayo may also be heading there. Uly needs a spot where he can get his confidence back. If he gets right I don’t think Gregg would have any problem bringing him for qualifiers.
playing in the second division in Austria will not get anyone called into the USMNT, and it shouldn’t. Uly just needs to focus on developing and being consistent before thinking about the NT
He played well for NT while playing in German U19 division and played well again in November when he wasn’t playing at Herenveen. Should he make a first choice 23, no but if he’s scoring at Polken and guys above him are hurt he has a skill set that we can use.