Zack Steffen is in need of consistent playing time ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the American goalkeeper will head to the English Football League Championship in order to earn a starting role.
Middlesbrough has signed Steffen to a season-long loan from Manchester City, the club announced Tuesday. Man City recently added goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, forcing Steffen to seek a new opportunity for regular minutes this season.
Middlesbrough finished seventh in the EFL Championship last season, missing out on the promotion playoff places.
“I think it’s a big coup for us and so I’m delighted we’ve brought Zack in,” Boro manager Chris Wilder said. “We knew we had to improve the goalkeeping department. We brought in Liam Roberts and now we’re adding Zack who has just signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with Man City.
“Man City don’t hand out four-and-a-half-year contracts if they don’t think anything of them,” he added. “Everyone knows his situation, he needed to play because of the World Cup. He had an agreement with Man City, but he could have easily stayed there and sat comfortably as their number two. He wanted to go out and he’s agreed to come here.”
Steffen has made 21 appearances for the Citizens over the past two seasons, but only two of those have come in Premier League action. Steffen totaled eight clean sheets in his 21 combined appearances for Man City, lifting two league titles and one Carabao Cup trophy.
Steffen has earned 29 caps with the U.S. men’s national team to date, with 10 of those coming since the start of 2021.
Gregg Berhalter’s side were drawn into a World Cup group with England, Iran, and Wales earlier this year and will face Gareth Bale and Wales on Nov. 21 in their group-stage opener.
His task is to rebuild psyche after Mane. We’ll see. He’s got the talent
Not sure where to put this so I’ll just dump it here because this article is transfer related…but there’s a LOT of talk of Neymar to Chelsea.
Already thought it was likely Pulisic might be headed out, Neymar going would flat-out guarantee it.
With Liverpool shopping Salah now it seems like Pulisic could be back on the table for Koop. Chelsea won’t let Pulisic leave for anything less the 50 million pounds and Liverpool are looking to sell Salah for 60 million pounds.
Good move for Steffen. Stays close to home without the culture adjustment or language barrier. Joins a team chasing promotion who won’t retain their #1 from last season.
Turner should also get some starts for Arsenal in the Europa league and league cup. Will be a good battle between the two of them, but seems like Steffen is in the driver’s seat on the depth chart.
Interesting no top league team in Europe didn’t want to bring him in on loan. Well at least he will have an opportunity to play consistently.
“Interesting no top league team in Europe didn’t want to bring him in on loan. ”
Why would they want him? He’s not good enough to start for the USMNT.
I don’t agree with that statement.
2tone,
You’re right. I should have written:
“He’s not shown himself good enough to win the USMNT job outright in a time when the USMNT keeper pool is pretty mediocre and the competition is weak.”
He’s not a hot ticket item nor should he be. Flawed keepers are a dime a dozen.
Doesn’t necessarily mean no team was interested, just means Man City and Steffen’s team felt it was the best spot. Chris Wilder took Sheffield United all the way up to EPL top 10. He uses a progressive style of play. Alan Fettis the GK coach just came over from ManU’s academy. Middlesbrough is also only about two hours from Manchester so proximity doesn’t hurt either.
Don’t love the move, but he needed a move to get playing time before Qatar so I gues I’m satisfied with it