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fleX
Starting Member
Trinidad and Tobago
38 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 29 2001 : 6:08:26 PM
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Crew’s Cunningham goes on loan at Bayer Leverkusen.
By William Olson.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, September 28 (DS) -- Columbus Crew striker Jeff Cunningham will be honing his game overseas during Major League Soccer’s offseason, as the league has loaned the Jamaican-born goalscoring threat to German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen effective October 9, the MLS club announced on Friday.
The only terms revealed were non-financial, per team and league policy, as it was only disclosed that the loan period is scheduled to end three weeks prior to the start of MLS training camps.
The Crew allowed the loan move to happen less than 48 hours after being eliminated in two straight games at the hands of the San Jose Earthquakes in the MLS Cup quarterfinals, but the 25-year-old Cunningham feels that he has won an opportunity to make himself a better player.
“This is a great opportunity to play alongside some of the best players in the world,” Cunningham said in a statement released by the Crew. “I think it will help me improve tremendously as a player. I am looking forward to the experience.”
“Jeff is a tremendous talent, so it comes as no surprise that there would be interest in his services from abroad,” said Crew g.m. Jim Smith. “We are excited about the positive effect this experience should have on his game. It is an opportunity for him to grow as a player in one of the most respected leagues in the world and he will bring that experience back to the Crew.”
Cunningham-- who has spent his entire four-year MLS career with Columbus after enjoying a stellar four-year collegiate spell at the University of South Florida-- will not travel overseas before finding out if he can take his oath of United States citizenship, which he hopes to do in time for the USA’s crunch World Cup qualifier on October 7 against Jamaica in Foxboro. In a recent published interview, Cunningham, who has never represented Jamaica at any international level, says that he has passed all of his citizenship tests and is just waiting on the go-ahead to be sworn in.
Cunningham enjoyed his best MLS season in 2001, scoring ten goals and laying on for 13 other scores during the regular campaign.
American players have been on Bayer Leverkusen’s books in the past, as former Bayer coach Christoph Daum had recruited former Tampa Bay Mutiny wing-back Frankie Hejduk and current Earthquakes star striker Landon Donovan to play for the German club in 1998 and ‘99, respectively. However, a level past the club’s reserve team has not come to fruition for either player, a fact that played an important role in Donovan’s decision to negotiate a transfer to MLS prior to the start of the current season of the American top-flight league.
Bayer Leverkusen currently sit in third place in the Bundesliga table, trailing only Kaiserslautern and Bayern Munich after seven rounds entering the weekend’s fixtures, and current coach Klaus Toppmöller has hinted that Cunningham may get first-team opportunities for the club’s Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League ambitions.
Soca Warriors For Ever.
God Bless. |
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