Owen Otasowie is set to join the list of American players competing in the UEFA Champions League as a long-rumored move to Belgian champion Club Brugge is reportedly close to being finalized.
The 20-year-old midfielder/centerback is set to make a $4.7 million move to Club Brugge, according to a report from Belgian outlet HLN.
Otasowie made his league debut last season, making six league appearances under former manager Nuno Espirito Santo. The U.S. men’s national team prospect is heading into the final year of his contract with Wolves and rejected a contract extension offer, which led the Premier League side to sell him this summer.
Brugge appears to have won out ahead of several Premier League teams for Otasowie’s services, including West Ham United.
Club Brugge won the Belgian League title last season, therefore earning an automatic place in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
By joining Club Brugge, Otasowie would join a group of Americans set to compete in Champions League that could reach double digits and is expected to break the record of eight Americans playing in the Champions League group stage, which was set just last year.
Otasowie’s 6-foot-3 frame and versatility make him an intriguing USMNT prospect at both centerback and in defensive midfield. He made his national team debut in the team’s 0-0 friendly draw with Wales in November of 2020, and more recently took part in the team’s training camp for its March friendlies against Jamaica and Northern Ireland.
Otasowie is unlikely to be called up for the USMNT’s September World Cup qualifiers, but if he can work his way into the starting lineup with Club Brugge, then he could definitely play his way into consideration for a call-up later in the year.
For now, the 20-year-old is biding his time, waiting for his move to a Champions League club to be completed.
Can Otasowie make that last push to make one of the WCQ down the road. Its not too late but its getting harder to sneak into that 23 for next years WC
We’re still 16 months or so away. What players that are in the picture now weren’t in Feb. 2020? For players not even on the radar it might be getting late but for someone like Otasowie who has been in camps he’s got time.
I always liked OO, but he hardly gets the attention like Hoppe and both are probably going to be sold at about the same price.
DMs aren’t going to get the attention of strikers and Owen really has never gotten consistent minutes for Wolves where Hoppe was a regular starter for two months.
And Hoppe scored 6 goals and had a gold cup run to his resume
Where do we think he’ll settle, positionally? Do we think that’s part of the deal with Club Brugge? “I play here.” Does he have a favored position or is he happy to play wherever there’s an opening? These are my questions.
His technical ability is that of a midfielder. He sees the field well, can distribute the ball, and has tight control. From what I’ve seen of him (granted not a lot) he seems to lack the pace you’d like to see in a CM or CDM. I’m not saying he’s slow, but he doesn’t seem to have that burst of speed needed/desired. He can probably get away with that in the Belgian League, but not so much in others. Long term I think his best position is as a CB, but will see time as a CDM initially while he gains experience.
At this point, playing time is most important thing.
Is Belgium/CL better than PL/Europa (west ham) for a 20 year old? hm, this one’s over my head but I would have thought you’d go PL for more exposure and better regular competition. I’m sure there was more to it.
Still… an embarrassment of riches. What a great time to be a US fan…
Is it better to sit the bench in the PL or play regularly in Belgium?
If that’s the choice then Brugge definitely. I thought he’d play on WH.
Americans are showing up everywhere. I watched the first half of Young Boys and the Hungarian side I can’t spell. American Henry Wingo started at right back for the Hungarians and Pefok started for YB. Even 5 or 6 years ago I don’t think I would have guessed we would have so many players in UEFA.
Not disagreeing with anything you sai0d just adding to it. There is a statistical correlation between cumulative UCL minutes played and national team success at a WC. The USMNT is very much where Belgium was around 2012-4ish. We’ve got talent bursting thru but
its hard to be sure everyone is getting a notice.
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In some ways but not quite we are similar to the talent brazil saw coming lthru in the late 1950s~1970s. The size of our country just skews the statistics.
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TLDR- don’t miss a match we fixing to cook our opponent cycle.
We need a money striker. That’s the main thing holding us back at the moment. We’re increasingly loaded everywhere else with the exception of maybe left back and we do have about five right backs who are really good so it’s not like we lack outside backs just true lefties.
We find one of those the difference between us and anybody in the Top-5 is gone. But we haven’t found our Harry Kane yet which is why while I’ll argue we definitely deserve the 10-spot FIFA’s rankings calculator awarded us I also don’t think we’re any higher either.
The US has frequently had a fair number of players abroad. The difference between past generations and this one is that our players are playing for clubs fighting for trophies instead of fighting off relegations.
Outside of a couple players with brief stents at big clubs (Dempsey @ Tot, Landon @ Bayern, Howard @ Man U, Friedel) most of our past stars were Mid-Table at best. Now we’ve got players earning good minutes at GIANT Clubs (Juve, Barca, Chelsea, BVB, etc…), and even those who aren’t in the big 5 leagues are pushing for titles (Aaronson, McKenzie, Pefok, Weah, etc…).
Playing for a winning club boosts the confidence of players, so when all these guys get together to play for the National Team there is already a winning mentality.
Won’t disagree with most of it. However, like England in the 2000’s and most of 2010’s, the pitfall of simply looking at the front of the jerseys, is that when playing for the national team these players won’t have teammates as good as on their club teams and thus could disappoint relative to expectations because they lack the edge. Josh Sargent and Pefok aren’t exactly Messi, Ronaldo or Haaland and Acosta and Lletget aren’t exactly Kante, Jorginho and Steffen doesn’t exactly have Man City in front of him, so if they all sit back and wait for their teammates to make magic happen, it could get ugly fast.
I’d almost rather have some captain types from mid table to Europa League teams that know what’s it’s like to both be bunkered down and grind points out against the best teams and also beat up on the minnows, since US is typically situated to be a mid-table like team- underdogs vs top 10 Euro teams plus Brazil and Argentina and heavy favorites vs CONCACAF ex Mexico and Costa Rica
Blokhin – While we don’t have “captain types from mid table/Europa League teams” we do have some grinder type players in Adams & McKennie who are fully capable of providing that grit in the center of the pitch. Sargent & Hoppe aren’t Haaland type finishers but they do put in the work/effort to contribute & press the opposition.
Brooks provides the experience and along with Adams & McKennie should be able to provide the lunch-pail mentality to keep the flashier guys fighting for the win. When WCQ starts I wouldn’t be surprised to see Adams or McKennie given the armband.
I don’t think we need world beaters at every position… hard work, playing together and playing for each other as a team is a great equalizer when matched up against better opposition. In fact, that would feel so incredibly foreign to our American work hard ethos.
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With that said I don’t want to take a step back either … where everybody is workman like in their performance. But when it comes to defense I would absolutely in a heartbeat take another J Demerrit. The way that guy played in the confederations cup in World Cup qualifying as well as the World Cup in 2010 made me a huge fan. I might have to find a JaynDeMerritt ”documentary” on YouTube again.