The Questionable Future of Jozy Altidore

After a hamstring injury in only the 22nd minute of group play, striker Jozy Altidore was out of the World Cup. Since then there has been a lot of buzz about the young strikers future.

Altidore started his professional career with the New York Red Bulls. Since then he has been on many other teams, his best season was with AZ Alkamaar where 39 of his shots found its way to the back of the net. But since then he joined the Premier  League Club, Sunderland. Lately he hasn't gotten much time on the pitch and has only scored one goal in league play during the two years since he joined Sunderland. Soon after Altidore was signed to a deal reportedly worth $13 million,  Paolo do Canio was fired. The new manager Gus Poyet doesn't have Altidore in his plans to be a contributor on Sunderland's offense.

After Landon Donovan's last USMNT game on 10/10/14 Altidore said: 

 “But like I said this four years I want to be part of the national team. Jürgen makes his message very clear, nobody is different, so if it doesn’t turn around then in January I’ll be looking to start elsewhere and make sure that I’m in his plans.”

Altidore has many clubs interested in acquiring him in the winter transfer window. He is expected to come back home to the MLS, but lately Jürgen Klinsmann has expressed publicly how he doesn't think the MLS is good for his national team players: 

"I made it clear with Clint's (Dempsey) move back and Michael's (Bradley) move back that it's going to be very difficult to keep the same level that they experienced at the places where they were. It's just reality. It's just being honest."

Klinsmann's opinion could effect where Altidore ends up. Members of the national team are moving in and out of the MLS. Jermaine Jones recently joined the New England Revolution, but Deandre Yedlin is playing for the Tottenham Hotspurs next season. We will have to wait and see if the competition in the MLS effects performance on the world stage. I think that Klinsmanns's long term goal should be to advise the youth and current players to join the MLS. This would create a domestic feed of good players for the years to come for the national team.

There is already one team ruled out, the LA Galaxy. This became know on twitter when Altidore tweeted and later deleted:

"@LAGalaxy really? Stop blowing up my agents phone then. No means no."

I think that he will end up with the New York City FC which is an expansion team that will play at Yankee stadium. I think this because NYCFC will have one of the largest fan bases in the MLS which is what Altidore needs. He should have practice being the center of a team. With this experience he can step up for the national team as the captain. It is exciting to think about the potential Altidore has if he plays on a club team where he is the centerpiece.