Is Juan Agudelo's overseas move back on? He dropped a hint on Twitter on Friday evening that it might be ... before promptly taking it down.
Read the aborted tweet: "Bout to get on my grind real soon. #newteam#Europe"
The ambiguous missive is the first we’ve heard from the New England Revolution star and US national team prospect since a potential loan deal to the English Premier League’s Stoke City was torpedoed in November due to an inability to secure a work permit.
However you want to read #newteam, Agudelo’s tweet still makes it unclear whether the work permit issue has been cleared up and he will make the move to Stoke or if he’s hooked up with a side in another country.
The 21-year-old striker, who led New England back to the MLS Cup Playoffs with seven goals following a midseason trade from Chivas USA, has made clear his intentions of playing outside of MLS after his contract expired in December. He scored two goals for Chivas before the May trade.
New England would still hold the right of first refusal should he return to the league.
There would certainly be plenty of motivation for Stoke to continue to pursue Agudelo, considering they’ve had their eyes on the youngster for quite some time. He signed a pre-contract with Stoke this summer, a transaction that is permitted in the soccer world when a player reaches the final six months of his pre-existing contract.
And there were reports earlier this month that Agudelo was still training with Stoke while the work-permit issues were resolved.
Whatever is going on, it was sensitive enough that Agudelo took the tweet down within an hour or so. Watch this space for more info.
