Konrad De La Fuente has struggled for consistency in his first season with Ligue 1 side Marseille and will now likely have to wait until next fall to return to action.
Marseille manager Jorge Sampaoli confirmed Wednesday that De La Fuente that he isn’t expected to have the American forward for the remainder of the season. De La Fuente has been sidelined due to a knee injury and will need surgery in order to fix a cartilage issue.
“It’s a cartilage injury that needs an intervention and after this there will be three or four weeks where he will not be able to play, it will be difficult to see him again this season,” Sampaoli said Wednesday in his pre-match press conference, transcribed by French outlet Foot Mercato.
The Florida native joined Marseille from Barcelona last summer and has been in-and-out of the lineup for most of the season. De La Fuente has scored one goal and registered three assists in 23 combined appearances.
Due to his continuous knee injuries this season, De La Fuente has been reduced to only three appearances in 2022. The 20-year-old featured twice for the U.S. men’s national team during the Concacaf World Cup Qualifying octagonal round back in September, but has not featured since.
Marseille faces PAOK in Europa Conference League play on Thursday before hosting Montpellier in Ligue 1 play on Sunday.
Clearly La Fuente and Marseille were not a good fit…though the talent is obviously manifest with Konrad.
This pretty much puts paid to any notion he might somehow fight his way onto the roster for 2022, unless he recovers, finds a sterling run of form, and just somehow obliterates it from August to October (not much time!) with his club…not really likely. But I still think he may have something to offer for 2026 if he can find a good club situation and clean up that so-called “professionalism” issue many very talented young players have.
while I agree that younger players tend to take longer to become good “professionals”, the issue for Konrad is that it was highlighted in the media by his manager, Sampaoli, which tells me that Konrad’s unprofessionalism really stood out. You can be still learning the ropes of what it takes to be a professional, but when you get called out in the media that’s not normal.