Cardiff City begins its EFL League One schedule on Saturday but one familiar face will not be part of the action.
Goalkeeper Ethan Horvath is not expected to be part of the club’s plans going forward, a source close to the player confirmed to SBI. Horvath is garnering interest from clubs in England, Belgium, and Denmark, which will likely lead to his departure before the Summer Transfer Window closes.
The 30-year-old suffered relegation with the Bluebirds last May in his second season in Wales. Horvath started last season as Cardiff City’s No. 1 goalkeeper but dropped to the bench in September and did not reclaim the job back until February following Jak Alnwick’s season-ending injury.
He finished the campaign with four clean sheets in 20 appearances.
Prior to his move to Cardiff City, Horvath was at Nottingham Forest while also spending time at Luton Town on loan. He helped Luton Town earn promotion to the Premier League, but was not acquired by the Hatters in a permanent deal.
The veteran goalkeeper has earned 10 caps with the U.S. men’s national team to date, but seems to be out of Mauricio Pochettino’s plans going forward.
Cardiff City faces Peterborough United at home on Saturday, seeking a bounce-back to the EFL Championship by season’s end.
he’s 30 and has barely ever had a consistent starting job someplace. his agent seems to keep signing him up for roles as a #2 everywhere. when i hear that list of countries, i don’t think he’s learned a darned thing. he needs to drop down a notch and find someplace to start.
i think he’s even more vulnerable than turner was to being the guy who quietly gets booted from next year’s world cup roster. i could see turner fighting for the 1 jersey and possibly losing. i can’t see turner below #3. so he goes.
horvath, i could easily see us coming up with 3 other keepers, and his club choices haven’t helped that. he kind of lived off GB’s affections and lack of keeper competition for years. he was just assumed into the #2 role.
he makes the right choice he has a fighting chance. wrong one and he’s a “surprise cut” next year. i talk about xeroxed rosters but there’s not a lot of reason beyond inertia he specifically keeps getting called.
Horvath’s a decent keeper, but realistically, is he our #1 keeper, in any scenario? And the man is 30 and athletes only have so long to earn…and backup gigs save your joints and bones longer than two games a week do.
From a fan perspective, sure, I’d like all these guys in starting gigs every week grabbing every game minute they can get, but from a professional perspective, if he’s still got interest in Europe, his best move might be to push off that MLS move as long as he can, because keepers over 30 don’t get called back to Europe, which seriously puts a cap on his potential paychecks.
It’d be a hard call for me. But I definitely wouldn’t blame the man for following the money.
quozzel,
30 is far from old for a keeper. It is a little early for him to give up on being a #1 for a big team somewhere, someday. That’s assuming he wants that. Outwardly, he does not project that quiet killer vibe that Kasey or Brad used to project. His vibe is more gentle giant.
All things being equal my other main issue with Horvath is his representation keeps landing him into some pretty questionable locations. I mean Cardiff? Wrexham did not have an opening?
At this point you would ordinarily say no way Horvath makes the 2026 World Cup team but the candidates this cycle are remarkably underwhelming.
The only WC certainty for me is Freese and that is only because he can be our Penalty Shootout specialist, even though Horvath can be pretty awesome at that too.