Fair play to the kid, he took the risk to head to Europe and is making a decent fist of the opportunities he has been given, unlike a few others who had a crack and for whatever reason haven't quite hit the ground running. He had a good solid season with Tondela a year back, but still found himself unable to crack the starting XI regularly at Guimaraes when he went back. So takes the chance to move to Turkey and doesn't look a step out of place which bodes well for him.
Does anyone else reckon we'll ever see him in an AW's jersey again? I still think he's a bit off the radar for USA selection, but if he keeps up this good start in Turkey, who knows? At least if he did get a chance, he'd get a lot more opportunities than our current flock of AW's players...
I think he’ll leave it as late as possible this WC cycle before declaring his hand.
Depends how his club career goes, and if he gets a ph call at all from Team USA. Though apparently in his position there is already a young potential US superstar. Someone in the Bundesliga?
Also maybe depends who the AWs draw in the Confed playoff draw later this year ie how easy/hard is AWs qualification for Qatar. Contributing factor why he didn’t bother last cycle, when we drew South America? Lastly Confeds Cup 2021 if it still exists and the AWs qualify may tempt him, as on an international stage and a few club scouts having a look.
Annoying but as he said he’s spent equal amounts of time living NZ and stateside, family in both. Citizen of the world. Probably helped him adapt mentally being in Europe away from whanau and friends, more than some. Hard to get homesick if you are not sure where home is.
Maybe currently Turkey’s most popular Christian.