Caden Clark’s move to Germany was just the latest in a long list of American talents embarking overseas, but the New York Red Bulls homegrown midfielder will reportedly not get the chance with RB Leipzig in the second half of the season.
German outlet Bild reported Sunday that Clark will rejoin the Red Bulls on a six-month loan spell to continue his indivdual development. The 18-year-old Clark was acquired by RB Leipzig on a permanent transfer in June 2021, but remained with the Red Bulls for the remainder of the MLS season.
Clark broke onto the scene with the Red Bulls in 2020, scoring three goals in eight combined first team appearances for the club. The attacking midfielder took another step forward this past season, scoring four goals and registering five assists in 25 combined appearances under head coach Gerhard Struber.
Clark has earned two appearances with the U.S. under-20 men’s national team to date. He was also called up by Gregg Berhalter for a 1-0 friendly win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in December, but did not appear in the match.
RB Leipzig is currently under new management with Domenico Tedesco taking over for American manager Jesse Marsch back in early December. Tedesco has posted a 1-1-1 record in three matches since taking over.
The Bundesliga side resumes its league schedule on January 8 against Mainz.
let’s be real what happened. RB bought him for marsch. marsch is gone. tedesco doesn’t want him and he’s orphaned. since he’s presumably pre-signed as of now they have to make a face saving volte face. maybe for a nominal sum they ship him to salzburg OBO this summer, or this is the start of a period of loan hell. in the old days this might be a mutual tear-up but these days everything is a financial asset.
Interesting he was a present for Marsch when Marsch left RBNY in 2018, and Clark didn’t join RB until 2020. At that time there was reportedly a clause in the contract that he would join RBL when he turned 18. The timing of the official transfer in July after the Athletic reported it was done in January had more to do with bookkeeping than managers. Time will tell if he returns to the form before his appendectomy 7g 3a in 15 matches, if he does he’ll be playing in Leipzig soon enough.
IV: By now- pretty familiar with your rap about player signings/loans. There is some merit to that view and certainly enough cautionary tales, but you can’t paint a broad brush across all moves to European football. This definitely ain’t Miazga to Chelsea and come to think of it- neither is Richards to Bayern/Hoffenheim. Sometimes it can be a pretty good path. From where I sit- staying / playing with RBNY until he gets himself back rolling after a pretty tough 2021 and things settle at Leipzig doesn’t seem a bad thing at all.
“RB bought him for marsch. marsch is gone. tedesco doesn’t want him and he’s orphaned.”
That’s debatable and overly simplistic..
If Jesse had wanted an attacking American player for Leipzig he could have called in Brenden. But Brenden wasn’t good enough. And if he just had to have an American around there’s a some guy called Tyler at Leipzig.
Leipzig is one loaded squad. Lack of talented players wasn’t Jesse’s problem.
He’s an old style RB/Rangnick style guy and by the time he got to Leipzig, Nagelsmann had evolved them into something else. That squad didn’t want to go back.
Jesse wasn’t a good fit and he told them that before he was hired.
Clark hasn’t been the same since his appendectomy and he would have had to be the pre-appendectomy Caden to have any chance of playing , even had Jesse still been there. He fits into the well known RB style but Leipzig are moving away from that style. And who knows how Tedesco will do?
So far he’s 1-1-1. He could be great or he could be a disaster. Mintzlaff looks like he might be on thin ice . They didn’t handle Nagelsmann leaving very well or the transition to Jesse. The whole football operation could be replaced soon. Then you can talk about Caden being an “orphan”.
RB have got a lot more to think about re Leipzig than whether Caden is going to be Loan Hellboy. It’s not all about him.
It’s probably better to warehouse Caden at RBNY until the dust settles. He’s still only 18 so he has a lot he can learn at RBNY. Those of you who expected him to break out at Qatar are just going to have to wait a minute.
That appendix really hampered him 4g 1a in 8 appearances prior, post 2a in 17 appearances. Might have cost him a spot on the GC roster as well and who knows where that might have led. He was starting to look more himself at the end of the season. Maybe now he spends Jan for NT and gets off to a good start to MLS before joining RBL for training this Summer. I was hoping for loan to Salzburg but this makes sense too.