Josh Sargent could have very well left Norwich City before the Summer Transfer Window closed, but instead stayed at Carrow Road, a decision he believes is best for his club and international career.
Sargent has started the 2025-26 EFL Championship season in blistering form, scoring six goals in five appearances across all competitions. Despite reported interest from Burnley, Wolfsburg, Leeds United, and AS Roma, the American forward stayed in Norfolk past Monday’s Deadline Day, committing himself to the Canaries in their quest for Premier League promotion.
While a move to the Premier League, Bundesliga, or Serie A might have been a step up in competition for Sargent, he backed his move to stay at Norwich City in the build up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“A lot of decisions had to be made, not just for myself, but for my family overall. I think I’m in a good spot at Norwich,” Sargent said to media during a press conference. “I’m at a place where I know I can score goals, which of course, is important going into the World Cup.
“I’ve had a good start to the season, so hopefully I can continue that form all throughout the season and keep scoring,” he added.
While Sargent’s club statistics have remained consistent over the past three seasons at Norwich City, he remains in a worrying scoring drought for the USMNT. Sargent enters September’s camp seeking his first goal since November 2019 (CONCACAF Nations League), a drought that could very well reach six years if he fails to find the back of the net by fall’s end.
He is joined by Folarin Balogun and Damion Downs in the striker corps for upcoming matches against South Korea and Japan, both of whom who are seeking to pad their own stock in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad. Sargent knows his drought remains a main talking point heading into camp, but is confident in his abilities to turn things around on the international level.
“Yeah, I’d probably be lying if I said I didn’t think about it, of course I know it’s been a while and I’m doing so well at the club level at the moment, I just keep reminding myself how well I’m doing there,” Sargent said. “I know I can score goals and I know it’s a matter of time that I’m going to score for the national team, so just going to put my head down and keep working hard and I know the goals will come.”
Not only Sargent has confidence in his abilities, but his teammates do too. Veteran defender Tim Ream, who has been in England during Sargent’s time there, has gone up against the 25-year-old in USMNT camp on numerous occasions and has watched his development both at home and abroad.
While USMNT fans may be worried about Sargent’s international slump, Ream isn’t one bit.
“I don’t think anybody really worries about it, to be completely honest with you. I’ve known that the guy can score goals since he was 15, 16 years old,” Ream said about Sargent.
“You look at what he’s doing at Norwich and at club, and the types of goals that he’s scored and they’re all different,” he added. “So full confidence in him and you know it’s just like he said, it’s a matter of putting his head down and continuing to work and doing the things that he’s that he’s good at and the goals will that will definitely come.”
i am going to lob a thought grenade in here. why white (since dropped), downs, sargent, and wright? and not balogun until later.
common thread — last year’s club numbers. they all were 10+ goals.
also explains reyna, campbell, and others.
anyone who watched balogun/reyna (positive) or harriel/white/zendejas (negative) would not be confused by the stats.
i get stats are useful but the choices based on them suggest he has the team back to front. eg white over balogun is crazed. LDLT/zendejas over campbell/reyna is goofy.
based on the first half of the swiss game i see no grasp of where the talent in the pool is. eyeballs would tell you that. US game video would tell you that. US stats would tell you that. this version of stats-obsessed is like he’s not done his homework.
and before people call me alarmist, we have finite slots, we are leaving off some strange players, and white has 8 caps now. harriel is back. dodgy decisions don’t seem to run their usual prompt course. (which to me is what happens when you go off paper ideas or stats. this should have worked in theory. give the kid another game. and another. etc.)
Maybe there is something to be said of Poch not having the experience of seeing USMNT players over the past 20 years. Maybe some of these player idiosyncrasies are uniquely American. Maybe they are cultural or mental, but those of us who have been watching the past two decades know a Chris Wondoloski when we see one. Maybe Poch just doesn’t?
Roldan has been added to the roster for these freindlies. Let the bitching begin …
Well, I think he should move up in competition. He’s shown he can excel at the Championship level, he needs to show he can compete in a top 5 European league and I think he can. He needs to push himself. I can’t help but remember when he was eligible for the U-17 WC he also played in the U-19 World Cup and won the Golden Boot. Remember when Jordan Morris had several European offers, but chose to stay in Seattle? He fell off the national team radar. Early in his career, Zardes had an offer from the coach in Fulham, but stayed here and while he did play for the national team, he never reached his full potential. Then there were players like Twellman and Ben Olsen who took offers, but got injured right away and never got to play in England and never fully developed in MLS. Klinsmann was right–US players need to challenge themselves in Europe and then outwork other players there.
and you basically tie my theory up in a bow for me. klinsi got this club obsession in the bloodstream, though GB and poch are the ones really pimping it.
the irony is klinsi would beat that snobbery drum but then call dempsey regardless how he was getting along with FFC or spurs, or all those years jozy was adrift in loan hell. and kept calling them when they came back to seattle and toronto.
you bring up morris but his story is actually the opposite of snobbery. they called him out of college back when we actually did real scouting and trusted our own eyeballs. just like he called green from bayern U19. he actually did go to swansea but had rotten injury luck and also the NT in that down ebb never figured out if he was a wing or a striker.
but to me he had some goals in semis and finals and i want clutch like that around the team. i’m kind of bored with watching, say, LDLT or ream get shoved into the roster knowing i will watch that choice detonate in the world cup. germany threw LDLT around like a rag doll.
and that hints at another snobbery. the foreign leagues could dump you and you could end up back in MLS — which should hint at something — but a foreign league player snob mystique still hangs around.
we go about this all wrong. i want the guys out there who have the lone goal in some awkward contest in freezing weather with snow against costa rica when we badly need a win. i could care less if you used to play in la liga and once upon a time assisted a goal in a game with grenada. the test is big games. morris was just ok but for his era he and dempsey were as close as we had to getting it done.
Morris is a gamer and a winner. He’s maybe the last true American Soccer player.
NCAA Champ
2X MLS Cup
Concacaf Champions League
Concacaf Gold Cup (winning goal)
Let’s be honest about Morris. Klinsmann saw him at practice during the NT camp and loved his speed. It wasn’t some great scouting he was fast. By 2016 JK had soured on him because he was raw, often running offside and at that time couldn’t do anything with his left foot. Arena brought him back in ‘17 for Cupcake and MLS based GC. Then he tore his first ACL. Berhalter brought him back when healthy in ‘19 and then he did his other ACL in Wales.
(a) speed scales up. the same afterburners that worked in U14 got me assists in college. if i unleash track speed you can either keep up or not.
skill of an slightly above average but ordinary nature becomes competence as you progress. eg mihailovic can’t set up NT goals much (but morris can score them). i knew two U10 juggle champions who dribbled circles around people as kids but never even started HS varsity because they were so slow, and their technique looked like competence for a U16. you have to be messi-good to scale up as pure skill.
(b) my running critique of the US in their possession scheme has been that they overestimate the skill level of their mids and what it means if they constantly turn the ball over from being decent but not exceptionally skilled. they confuse box crashers or tanks with possession players.
(c) i want to see raw speed wide and the skill inside. we work too hard to build downfield. we need more mbappe where we just run past people. trying to build 110 yards with close dribbling and short passes is bound to turn it over unless you have high quality skill guys.
what we need is just fly down the wings and save the technical stuff for the cross and the final stages.
i don’t understand our opposition to speed. it’s a running sport and we aren’t unusually tall targets or a bunch of la masia trained technicians. use our several fast wings (dest, jedi, campbell, weah) to get behind defenses, then let the skill guys finish.
Young Morris was speed without enough skill. Hence why Klinsmann got rid of him quickly. Unfortunately for Jordan after he gained the experience and the technical prowess to use it effectively he blew his knee, then by the time he was back and playing well he did the other knee. No one is saying speed is bad.
Gary,
“I think he should move up in competition”
You might but Josh should not listen to anyone but himself. If Championship level good striker is his best, that’s his best. And that does not mean that he can’t excel for the USMNT in a World Cup. There is a long list of players who excelled for the USMNT in the World Cup who played their club ball at a level or lower than where Josh is now.
What JK said on the topic was more nuanced than how you put it.
This is what Klinsmann said:
“My personal expectation as a coach is that my players challenge themselves to the highest level possible. If one of our players can play for a Manchester United or a Real Madrid or a Barcelona, I’ll be jumping up and down on the roof. But what’s more important is the desire to train and play with the best possible competition. Wherever they play — whether it’s here in the MLS, in Europe, or in Mexico – it’s important they immerse themselves in the game. I expect them to carry themselves as U.S. National Team players, which means doing the extra work, above and beyond what their club teammates do. Professional careers last maybe 12-15 years, so it’s vital to make the most out of every season, every year. I want our players to look back on their careers and say: “I got the absolute most out of it I could.””
Landon Donovan challenged himself in Europe and, forget about the Everton loans, overall, long term, in a very real sense, he failed.
That did not stop him from being a not too bad USMNT player in three World Cups. Back then I wanted LD to move to Europe but accepted a long time ago that he was never going to do that and thrive. LD did the most that he could do with what he had.
It seems to me that your quote from Klinsmann is exactly the same as my summary. JK went into more detail in that quote, but in no way is it different than my shortened version. As for IV, I don’t understand why anyone would turn down a chance to play in better competition if they think they can hack it, no matter the sport or the league. Every basketball player, for example, wants to play in the NBA, no matter how good they are elsewhere. If nothing else, the money isa lot better.
Gary,
“It seems to me that your quote from Klinsmann is exactly the same as my summary. JK went into more detail in that quote, but in no way is it different than my shortened version.”
What I quoted ends up with a different meaning than what you quoted. There is a significant difference.
You wrote—-“Klinsmann was right–US players need to challenge themselves in Europe and then outwork other players there.”
There is a huge “but” that goes with that quote and you eft it out. His original quote is more flexible and more nuanced:
“My personal expectation as a coach is that my players challenge themselves to the highest level possible. …….But what’s more important is the desire to train and play with the best possible competition….. Wherever they play — whether it’s here in the MLS, in Europe, or in Mexico – it’s important they immerse themselves in the game…..I want our players to look back on their careers and say: “I got the absolute most out of it I could.”
In other words, if they could go to some top Euro club great, but if they can’t and not everyone can for reasons not always directly related to talent then they need to do THE BEST THEY CAN.
Europe was the preferred solution but he never said they HAVE to play in Europe. It wasn’t a deal breaker
JK started Omar Gonzales, Graham Zusi, Matt Besler, Brad Davis and Kyle Beckerman in the 2014 World Cup; all MLS “home grown” so to speak. He also played Bradley and Clint who were Euro ringers but were playing in MLS at that point. And of course he played Wondo an MLS kind of guy. Pochettino is not THAT far ahead of JK when it comes to actually using MLS players.
So JK put his money where his mouth was.
Josh has not performed up to the necessary standard before. But he has worked his ass off and produced results. He’s better than he was. Does that mean he deserves another shot?
No it doesn’t. The world is not fair and good guys usually lose. Pochettino could say Josh is not what I want in a striker and leave it at that.
However it looks like Pochettino wants to kick the tires . I’m fine with that as well.
It would have been more comfortable for all concerned if the USMNT had been at this point earlier in the cycle But that was impossible for two reasons:
1. The extended romance with Gregg stole serious time away from 2026 WC preparations, time that can never be made up.
2. Many of the promising players that Pochettino is now considering needed that extra time to develop
As far as I can tell, this project is just about on schedule
Maybe I’m going on too much about this subject, especially since I really have liked Morris as a layer. But I would like to remind people here that when he decided not to take up an European offers, and gave reasons like not wanting to leave his dog or girlfriend, or whatever, he was universally derided here. Now all of a sudden, when it suits some people’s purposes, well it was okay that Morris didn’t move up. As for Klinsmann, another thing he emphasized was the importance of playing in the Champions League. He considered it close to equal or better4 than the competition of a World Cup. You can’t play in the Champions League or the Europa League if you are in the Championship or MLS or similar. I think that should be considered and Klinsmann is probably happy that so many US players are participating in Champions and Europa League competitions. It’s how you get better.
Gary,
“But I would like to remind people here that when he decided not to take up an European offers, and gave reasons like not wanting to leave his dog or girlfriend, or whatever, he was universally derided here. Now all of a sudden, when it suits some people’s purposes, well it was okay that Morris didn’t move up. ”
It is not “all of a sudden”.
Jordan signed with the Sounders in January of 2016.
That is almost ten years ago.
A lot has changed in the world and in this country since then. Just take a look around you. Has anyone said Jordan is going to be on the 2026 WC team? You can make an argument for Roldan. It is much harder to do that for JMo.
No one doubts that playing in the Champions League would be a good thing for any USMNT player but it is not a deal breaker.
Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey never played in the Champions League. But if they were here today, in their prime, I start them for the USMNT in the World Cup in a friking heart beat.
To be honest we have the striker depth for the next 3 WC’s. Pepi, Downs, and Balo could potentially be in the next 3 WC’s.
shiny object syndrome. i did propose the guy as an experiment. i too would like to see what he’s got. but he’s played a scattered 81′ across 5 caps and we have little clue what he offers the NT other than the composure to convert a penalty if it came to that. you don’t carve him into world cup rosters in stone until he does something in at least a friendly and really some tournament.
until then, you dance with the gamers who score when money is on the table — pepi has a stack of WCQ and NL goals, balo had a goal in a NL final and 2 goals in copa america, and wright had a goal in a world cup knockout, 2 goals in a gold cup semi, and other tournament goals. next after them is ferreira who has been clutch before as well.
no downs, sargent, or dike. if it’s down to them i’d rather see pulisic, reyna, or weah up top. it’s a productivity position that the whole scheme funnels to. you don’t use intangibles players at 9. we could debate any other position and the value of soccer IQ and grit. but when it comes down to it if the ball comes to wondo and he fluffs it, we go home. or if we can only manage 3 goals in 4 games, we probably go home.
US fans have it backwards. club stats or eyeball scouting should maybe get you called instead of some other player we scouted. but NT numbers are what should decide who does to the big dance. some of you are constantly trying to make “novice scouting” arguments for players with dozens of NT caps and a track record. at a point the club numbers aren’t translating and we go with track record. and dozens of unscored caps later we are long past the normal point the plug gets pulled.
people wonder why i want to experiment but you watch, it will probably be balogun sargent and only after them downs. despite calling downs for the summer, scouting him in person, and acting like we want to see what he offers. despite kind of knowing what the sargent outcome is.
I think Downs hasn’t yet shown anywhere near enough to pencil him in as “the future.” Agyemang has as much potential from a physical standpoint. I haven’t seen enough of Downs to determine how good his skills are, an area Agyemang needs to work on.
Agyemang is not a skill player and will not become a skill player. His potential to improve is limited to perhaps better situational awareness. He will be shut down by any halfway decent international center back. He is a late game sub to run at tired legs at best.
If its a 26 man roster than yes I could see 4 strikers/ fwds taken. Because both Balo and Wright can play on the wing if necessary. 7 attackers, 8 mids, 8 defenders, 3 GK.. This current US team doesn’t have many wingers. Pulisic isnt really a winger.
2tone,
?? “Pulisic isnt really a winger.”
He is the only “real” winger we have.
Weah is a “wing forward” like Haji and the other forwards. The only “real” center forward amongst the usual suspects is Patrick.
yeah i noticed this when the list came out. winger is a tiring position and we listed 3 people, one of whom sucks (zendejas). i expect this means wright may actually play wide where he hasn’t done anything for the nats. or perhaps sargent.
what would actually probably work would be more like dest or arfsten. both are defense shy but can deliver some service. i think they’d be better as an experiment than zendejas playing his actual position.
i kind of agree with you on the big picture. i would like to see weah/ dest/ campbell wide flying down the lines with speed, reyna/ luna/ pulisic central with adams as 6. balogun pepi wright up top.
i personally feel like the attack slows down to a crawl with pulisic and reyna wide.
Wright is not on the roster this window.
As I said last week, from a WC spot standpoint Norwich is the safest spot. He’s going to start every week and score often. That’s not guaranteed at Leeds or Sunderland. He’s in the same league as basically all his competition for the 3rd striker spot.
JR, won’t Poch be able to have a 35 man mini camp before WC since it is in summer? Maybe Norwhich gets him to the camp but I think to make WC roster, he is going to have to outplay enough of his competition to earn a spot in that camp. I think he is already a lock for the camp if healthy but so is Balogan, Pepi, and Wright and I doubt all four of them will make the final roster and then you have Downs and Agyman who may develop between now and next summer and someone we probably don’t even have on the radar right now.
Tele:
Based on how he worked this summer I don’t think Poch will name a big pre-camp roster. I think he’ll try to have it down to 25-28 so he has “his group”. But that’s just my guess.
JR, not sure his approach to Gold Cup is an apples to apples comparison, but maybe it is. I hope not. He will get his best team by having a tryout type camp before the WC and picking his best players at that time. As I have stated before, this is soccer, not calculus. The amount if time required with the players before the WC is being overblown. Picking his best players gives him his bedt chance.
he did the same thing last cycle. right at the end he went safe and pepi made a big german move. pepi is the better player but got dropped. sargent then did nothing with it. sargent correctly assesses he’s scoring for norwich and we keep calling him for it — wise or unwise. some of the others are hurt. we seem risk averse which favors usual suspects. the others then have to get healthy and start scoring a bunch in club. you start to see how the distortions get made to favor the worse NT choice, because most of the time what he’s selling is not NT performance, and yet here he is again with the better lane choice for the race.
he can then move next summer when the tournament is done and he either made the roster or has a bunch of fanboys arguing based on club stats he should have. some mix of norwich numbers plus “US international striker.” he would gather interest and if that move doesn’t work as soccer, he has 4 more years to fix that.
this is not really how to run a smart NT but i think he and his agent have diagnosed our skewed mentality correctly. we love us some club analytics — though oddly not NT ones.
the real analyses should go this way
(1) what they have done in NT games, which favors an obvious trio if healthy
(2) if we actually did “club snob” right, balogun has had at least one monster year (21 G) in a top 5 league a step or two up from any of the competition.
after him, wright has been like 10-16 goals a season in varying small leagues and second divisions for years in a row. pepi had a couple double digit dutch seasons when healthy. and sargent does what he does for norwich. favoring one over the other on “club form” stats is one-sided fanboy stuff. “but he had 15 for norwich.” and wright had 16 for coventry 2 years ago, and pepi 17 for PSV, so what.
the club numbers are actually an analytics “push,” and you go back to what your NT coach eyeballs tell you. 3 of them get the job done, 1 doesn’t.
IV,
“you start to see how the distortions get made to favor the worse NT choice, because most of the time what he’s selling is not NT performance, and yet here he is again with the better lane choice for the race.”
Bullshit. The team needs scoring, he focuses on scoring, that’s all anyone can do.
I have to say this is a really b*#$% plan for Sarg to make the squad and if I was Poch I consider it disqualifying. He’s trying to back into a WC spot by staying on the JV squad. It’s pathetic and not the mentality we want. If you want to be the USA #1 striker in the world cup, go and earn it. Raise your level. If you fail, you fail. This type of mentality is why he hasn’t scored in 6 damn years.
So by playing in the same league as most of his competition he should be punished. Should Downs be kicked out of consideration for leaving Bundesliga for Championship? Wright didn’t move out of the Championship? Agyemang chose the Championship, shouldn’t he be punished too? The Championship is arguably better than the Eredivisie outside of Ajax, Feyenoord, and PSV should Pepi be punished for staying and beating on Volendam and NAC Breda?
If this were two years ago I would say yeah, go test yourself at the next level Sargent.
But right now he is the captain at a club that loves him, and getting all the playing time in the world. If he had moved in the summer none of that is guaranteed and there is a decent chance he ends up on the bench rather than starter based purely on a coaches whim.
I would rather see him score 40 goals in Champ than 10 goals in Prem.
He is in a good place right now.