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Konrad De La Fuente joins Greek club Olympiakos on loan

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Konrad De La Fuente was linked with a return to Spain this summer in order to earn consistent playing time, but the American winger will now head to Greece instead.

Greek top flight side Olympiakos has acquired De La Fuente on a season-long loan from Marseille, the club announced. Real Valladolid and Burnley were among other European clubs interested in acquiring the young winger, but Olympiakos has won the race for his services.

De La Fuente joined Marseille from Barcelona last summer, but struggled for consistent playing time under Jorge Sampaoli. De La Fuente totaled one goal and three assists in 23 combined appearances for Marseille before a knee injury forced him to miss the final three months of the season.

De La Fuente mainly featured for Barcelona’s U-19 and U-23 side during his first spell in Spain. He made three appearances for the senior squad before signing a four-year contract with Marseille following his transfer.

De La Fuente 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. In total, De La Fuente has earned three caps for the USMNT.

Olympiakos league schedule is set to kick off on August 21 against PAS Giannina.

Comments

  1. Is it me or is Konrad the third American to go through the ranks of La Masia, only to leave there are have to settle playing for lower tier clubs to help reinvigorate their careers?

    Reply
      • I think he ended up at Real Madrid but he probably did some trials at La Masia. Interested to see how he does at Jong AZ. He basically was just trialing all last season, rumors were Chelsea were interested in bringing him to U23s but couldn’t get him a permit. Not sure how true that was.

  2. My how his stock has fallen…from the fringes of Barca to Olympiakos in a league that’s significantly worse than MLS.

    Kid is still young and the talent is obviously there but his career arc and the stories about him have a bit of Freddy Adu to them.

    Hopefully he finds some sound footing and turns things around.

    Reply
    • A little early to be throwing around Adu references. Marseille was all about him in preseason last year then when he got a couple injuries the manager started questioning his professionalism. So what changed from his work ethic from August to Jan? Injuries. Was he not doing what he was supposed to recover or was he not going all out because he was playing with injury? It’s also hard to read into quotes from an Argentine, speaking to reporters in French and then it being translated into English hard to pick out underlining meaning.
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      Appeared set for Vallodolid last week then rumors of Bayern interest along with Burnley and Olympiakos. Now Bayern would have just led to a loan somewhere (and perhaps just a plant to drive interest) but Burnley (in the Championship) and Vallodolid (likely battling relegation all year) might not have been great for development. Olympiakos gives opportunities of Europa League and his club should have lot of the ball during league play for him to gain confidence. It’s funny computer rankings across continents are pretty useless but Global Football Rankings has Olympiakos rated above anyone in MLS but DC United whose rated last in MLS would be 6th in Greece. The bottom half of the Greek League is rated on par with USL. If he gets consistent minutes this isn’t a bad deal.

      Reply
      • Good info, thanks.

        When I watched him even with the USMNT and at times with Marseille I thought he had something. Then again, there were flashes from Adu as well where he was the best player on the field.

        My hope is you are correct and this turns out to be what he needed. The talent was manifestly there with him.

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