Josh Sargent

Name: Josh Sargent
Age: 19 (born Feb. 20, 2000)
Height: 6’1
Club: Werder Bremen
League: German Bundesliga
Club Number: 19
National Number: 7
Position: F
Born: O’Fallon, Missouri US
Nationality: American

US History: U17, U20, U23, Friendlies & Nationals League

Early Years

At 17, Josh Sargent had played exceptionally well for CONCACAF U17 Championship under John Hackworth, weeks later announcing himself with a brace in his first game for Tab Ramo’s U20 World Cup team. Later that year he was called up to the senior team and then Josh took a big step accepting an opportunity to move to Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga and challenge himself at the highest levels. He is now breaking into a special class of young Americans making a name for themselves in Europe.

Growing up in Missouri, Josh played US Soccer Development Academy Club, before his rights were acquired by Sporting KC. He’d also had a few opportunities to perform in Europe training with a few clubs, before his big year of goal scoring for the national team.

For Werder Bremen, Josh has slowly progressed from trying to break in on the U19 team to being unable to be ignored by his coaching staff as a threat. He finally got his debut in December 2018, where he promptly scored two minutes into his debut on his first touch of the game.

Finishing the season with 2 goals on 10 appearances felt a little disappointing for some US fans. However, his coach continued to encourage patience and share his recognition.

“We all must be careful what we expect from him,” Kohfeldt said. “If he makes five, six Bundesliga appearances until the summer, it is a good a year for him.”

This season he looks ready to go and fight for a starting spot. His manager once again showing his confidence in his young striker.

Speaking after a 4-0 pre-season victory over Eibar, Kohfeldt praised his young charge’s performance. “I was very happy with Josh and his interplay with Yuya [Osako].

“He’ll definitely play a role for us this year.”

Showing his creativity and danger with this beauty:

USMNT Forwards

The forward position is an extremely weak position for the USMNT currently. Jozy Altidore is often considered the owner of the spot when healthy, but “healthy” has not often been used in the same sentence as Jozy Altidore. After Jozy and Sargent, players like Gyasi Zardes are carrying most of the minutes and providing little confidence for US fans. Timothy Weah’s best position has not been carved out yet and could add to this pool when he returns.

After that short list it gets very fuzzy. Bobby Wood has barely been talked about and his free fall from Bundesliga regular feels like a distant memory. Young players like Haji Wright have not performed well enough to join the ranks. Jeremy Ebobisse, Emmanuel Sabbi and Sebastian Soto are names floating around, but have not done enough to unseat the sad and short list above.

Altidore’s injury prone history of late really leads the US to lean heavily towards Sargent’s development and hope that he can continue his fast rise as a Bundesliga star and danger man in front of net. We hope he can follow in the footsteps of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams in establishing themselves as a regular starter. Since the retirement of Clint Dempsey it hasn’t felt like the US has had someone with the confidence and skill to bring the US back in games they are losing. That was very apparent against Canada. Sargent will look to establish himself as another finisher in USMNT lore.