Damion Downs is heading back to the German Bundesliga for the remainder of the current season.
Downs has joined Hamburg on loan through May, the club announced Wednesday. The U.S. men’s national team forward joins from EFL Championship side Southampton, whom he joined in August in a permanent transfer from FC Koln.
“With Damion, we’ve filled a position in the squad that we were looking to strengthen early on in this transfer window. He already knows the Bundesliga and brings an interesting mix of quality and potential for development,” said Hamburg director of football Claus Costa.
“Damion is a direct centre-forward and has a great mix of size, pace and ability to get in behind. With his strengths in transition and his presence in the box, he fits very well with the profile of player that we and the coaching staff were looking for.”
Downs registered one assist in 14 appearances for Southampton, but last featured for the South Coast club in late-November.
Prior to his move to England, Downs helped FC Koln win the 2. Bundesliga last season, scoring 11 goals and adding four assists.
He made 42 first-team appearances in Cologne, in addition to 22 appearances for Koln II in the Regionalliga.
On the international level, Downs made his USMNT debut last summer and has earned six total caps for the program. He was cap-tied to the USMNT after his involvement at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Hamburg sits 13th in the Bundesliga table and next visits Freiburg on Saturday.
Hopefully he gets some good gametime. That 3rd striker spot is still up for grabs. He gets hot you never know
I don’t know what to think about this move. Merlin Polzin is a YOUNG coach (35 years old), has been in the Hamburg system for a while (youth system to senior team) but without much experience at the highest level. Does Polzin actually want Downs at Hamburg or did the Hamburg director of football, Claus Costa, make a scouting call to have him come over on a move based on his possible future “POTENTIAL” and abilities?
Hope he can make something happen there……
One thing about youth coaches, being one myself, is that we think in terms of development. Not: “what IS a player like he’s a rating on a game of EA Sports FIFA,” but “what are his strengths, weaknesses, shortcomings, and how can I activate the best version of him?”
The, uhm, Hamburgers – try saying that with a straight face – are running 13th at the moment with 16 points…which is within 4 points of the drop zone, but also just a single point off 10th place. There’s literally 6 teams outside the drop zone within three points of one another. So the (cough) Hamburgers are a relegation risk if they catch a bad run of form but they’re not desperate either. So they’re not throwing in the kitchen sink trying to stay up, and they’re not fighting for a Champions League spot, their job is to be consistent and grind out points and you don’t usually do that by riding the same 11 guys into the ground with zero tolerance for mistakes the way you do when you’re desperate or ambitious.
On the face of it, it seems like it could be a decent fit.
Do you struggle when the Hamburgers play the Frankfurters?
🤣 🍔 vs 🌭
Well I’m not sure how responsibilities are split at Hamburg but the sporting director (Kuntz) just got fired and Costa and Polzin have been working together for years. Costa was director of football when Polzin was hired as manager. Hamburg would be very aware of Downs talents having faced off last season. I saw some Hamburg fans that were “meh” on the move as Downs had similar or weaker numbers to their current strikers last season and those guys haven’t produced this season. Just seems like England maybe wasn’t a good fit.