Serie A side Juventus already has two U.S. men’s national team figures in its squad and is reportedly monitoring two more for a potential move to Turin this winter.
PSV duo Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi are on Juventus’ radar, as well as Lille and Canada men’s national team forward Jonathan David, Tuttosport reported Monday. Juventus scouts were reportedly in Kansas City for Canada’s 2-1 friendly victory over the United States last Saturday, according to the report.
Tillman, 22, is in his second season with PSV after originally joining the club on loan last summer. An impactful campaign led to PSV triggering Tillman’s purchase option from Bayern Munich this summer and the attacking midfielder has picked up where he left off.
Tillman has totaled 11 goals and 17 assists in 44 appearances across all competitions. He lifted his first trophy at club level last season, helping PSV win the Eredivisie title.
Pepi, who was previously on Juventus radar, joined PSV in a permanent deal from Bundesliga club Augsburg last summer. He mainly served as a backup striking option to Luuk De Jong, which has continued this season.
The 21-year-old has notched 10 goals in 44 appearances for Peter Bosz’s squad.
David, 24, has been one of the more prolific scorers in European Football. He’s totaled 87 goals and 20 assists in 190 combined appearances with Lille, winning Ligue 1 in 2020-21.
David’s 29 international goals in 55 caps for Canada has him tied with Cyle Larin for the program’s all-time scoring record.
Juventus will resume its league schedule on September 14 at Empoli before hosting PSV on Sept. 17 in the start of its UEFA Champions League campaign.
Good for them if they get a boatload of money, but I don’t see either of them cracking the starting 11 anytime soon.
I feel nothing. I used to be so excited when Americans started to play for big clubs, starting with Pulisic at Dortmund, I guess about 7 years ago now.
Then we had a year with 9 in the CL and I couldn’t stop talking about it.
We’re worse now. Objectively worse, and getting worse all the time. All of the dual nationals who chose the US wonder what they were thinking and would rather have the time off than play in these nonsense games. It shows on the field.
I get the anguish, but I’d say the issues with our national team do not begin at the bottom and go up… have exactly zero to do with having players on top teams. It is a top down illness- starts with the organization and a rookie manager undeservedly given carte blanche to try to learn on the job for 6 painful years. Nepo hiring an unqualified candidate is always a mistake- they then doubled down which is mind boggling and unforgivable. Prolonged mismanagement isn’t cured overnight, but hopefully we do get Poch in and can start to build toward resembling a professional organization.
keep telling yourself that, it’s naive as hell to think that the players are not the biggest problem in this sad equation we’re seeing with the NT right now. I’d almost rather our players not go to such big clubs because most of them can’t hack it due to their inability to consistently get games, but the bigger issue for me is their are being paid tons of money at their clubs and they come off as having already “made it”, so when they come into NT camps the fight and hunger aren’t there. People can keep blaming USSoccer for whatever they want but “suits” aren’t the ones playing the game, these players have lost the plot and its sad the so man have falling into this trap in thinking that a manager is responsible for the void in intensity and motivation. It’s not a coincidence that several players have come and said the too many players aren’t playing hard enough for the shirt
Ronnie,
“it’s naive as hell to think that the players are not the biggest problem in this sad equation we’re seeing with the NT right now. ”
Ridiculous.
A national team is an equation, composed of:
players,
manager and staff
FA/organization (USSF in our case).
The percentage of each section’s positive contributions varies. The results that you get depend on the situation. At the end of the day that triumvirate is inseparable. You can’t lay 100% of the blame on the players for the USSF NOT having wrapped up their manager pursuit ( and for them hiring Gregg in the first place) and Varas not doing a good enough managing job to get them out of bed in time to perform in this game. They all share in the blame and , had they won, they would have all shared in the credit.
Vs. Canada, all things being equal their best eleven compare favorably with our best eleven but Canada had the advantage of being amped up by Jesse beyond belief while the USMNT, led by a manager whose mind was already on his next job, appeared to be leaderless and totally distracted . The results reflect that.
Bring in a new manger, have him threaten the exact same players with death and the result could very well have been different.
How long have these players not been giving it their all? I keep hearing how hard it was for poor Gregg to have to deal with these kids and life just isn’t fair but that is the job he signed up for. If he couldn’t get these guys to show up for work then you either fire them or fire him.
That is how it is supposed to work in the real world. Similarly, Gregg’s impotence has been clear for all to see for a long time yet the USSF and fans like you tolerated and made excuses for the man.
Our player pool is so thoroughly mediocre, I tend to not be as mad at them for being a directionless bunch. Also, we are stuck with them.After all they are what they are, poor things. But Gregg and the USSF and the fans who tolerated Gregg and tried to tell us that apples were oranges?? What’s their excuse?
I’m a believer in Pepi, I think it’s only a matter of time before he shines somewhere. A little less certain on Tillman…his PSV highlights are impressive but I’ve yet to see anything much when with the USMNT. And he was absolutely invisible against Canada, a situation in which he should have had room to shine with them committing so many forward and leaving an average defense exposed…
Jonathan David def cemented his spot st top of Juventus list. He played good in the friendly and his contract expires next summer. I would rather Tillman or Pepi go to Venezia or Milan. I dont like how Juventus treats American players, they always renege and vacillate with American players. Say we are in their plans, then next thing we are training alone not being part of the team.
I think what has kept David from a big signing to this point is his height. Some places say 5’11” but most seem to agree he’s only 5’9”. Apparently that’s what Canada listed him as for the WC. Juve tends to like a more traditional sized CF. I think someone will finally make a move for him in January though. He’s been too productive for no big club to take a chance.