Jurgen Locadia joins FC Cincinnati on loan – with an option to buy
Jurgen Locadia has left Brighton bound for the MLS, signing on-loan with FC Cincinnati until July.
Should all go well for the Dutchman in the United States, Cincinnati will then have the option to sign Locadia permanently.
The future fee agreed for his services is said to be around £4 million. The Cincinnati Enquirer are describing the potential permanent deal as “one of the largest transfer fees paid in FC Cincinnati history” and Jurgen Locadia already as being “one of the highest paid players in club history.”
No doubt at some point we’ll end up with our favourite Brighton line of the moment, when the club will tell The Argus and Andy Naylor to report that they “Understand the fee paid for Locadia to be significantly more than the figure being quoted” as the Albion desperately try to portray a situation in which they haven’t made a £10 million loss on a player.
Locadia signed for the Seagulls for a then-club record £14 million in January 2018. He endured a mixed debut against League Two side Coventry City in the FA Cup, scoring but also missing a hatful of relatively easy chances.
A goal from the bench on his first Premier League appearance in the 4-1 win over Swansea City followed, but Locadia wouldn’t score again for another 10 months as he seemed to be more concerned with producing rubbish music and posing for photos on Instagram than playing football. It’s little wonder that a move closer to Hollywood has appealed to him.
Locadia did give us some memorable moments in his first 18 months at the club. There was the interview that he gave to The Argus when he said he didn’t like a heading a ball, a slight problem in a side which at the time played 4-4-1-1 and was designed to utilise Glenn Murray’s strengths.
A few months later and we all thought a pre-season friendly against AFC Wimbledon would provide the perfect opportunity for Locadia to build up some much-needed confidence.
Instead, he ended up putting around 10 relatively straightforward chances either high or wide. The final straw came when he blasted over not only the goal but also the stand behind it, before going down under an innocuous challenge a few minutes later and subbing himself off.
In November 2018, Locadia gave an interview in which he said he wanted to leave Brighton for a club in Spain or Germany due to a lack of first team opportunities. Three weeks later and he produced his best miss in an Albion shirt, putting a free header over the bar when front and centre of the goal from six yards out.
This led to one of our favourite Brighton photos of recent times of Locadia, one of his gloved hands covering his eyes and a look of grimace etched across his face, as if he couldn’t believed it had happened again. We could Jurgen, we could.
Needless to say, no Bundesliga or La Liga side were coming in for Locadia at that point. To be fair to him, he did improve slightly around Christmas time with goals against Arsenal and Everton at home as Chris Hughton switched from 4-4-1-1 to 4-3-3 to try and get some sort of return from his expensive acquisition.
Hughton’s change in formation ended up being a total disaster however and Brighton won just two Premier League games in the final five months of the season.
There was however a memorable run to the FA Cup Semi Finals, with Locadia briefly looking like a multi million pound centre forward when he came off the bench to score against Millwall in the last eight. Sadly, not even reaching Wembley could save Hughton from the sack come the end of the campaign.
Graham Potter’s appointment was meant to herald a new start for Locadia, who many Albion fans hoped would thrive under a more attacking manager. Potter though was even less enamoured with the Dutchman than Hughton and after two league games – and another astonishing miss when he hit the post from five yards with no-one around him against Southampton – Locadia found himself sent on loan to Hoffenheim.
Locadia has managed four goals in 12 games for the German outfit with six of those appearances coming off the bench. Since the Bundesliga returned from its winter break, he’d been given just eight minutes out of 180 and it’s probably quite telling that Hoffenheim weren’t impressed enough to offer to sign Locadia on a permanent deal.
Despite all this, there are certain sections of the Brighton fan base who still believe that he should be playing for the Albion.
They will probably see Locadia scoring a hatful of goals in the MLS as strengthening their argument, but it should be remembered that Bradley Wright-Phillips looked like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi rolled into one during his time in North America.
The FC Cincinnati support at least seem to happy with the capture of their new signing – Jurgen Locadia was met at the airport by fans who turned up with drums and a dog and followed him around singing “Cin-ci-nnati here we go”. Lyrical genius.
Jesus Christ 😳 https://t.co/u730Xf8a2p
— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) February 3, 2020
There was some more great American language in the MLS press release that followed Jurgen Locadia signing for FC Cincinnati. It read, “Locadia, 26, will occupy an international roster spot and be added to FC Cincinnati’s 2020 roster upon the receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P1 Visa when the Primary Transfer Window opens on Feb. 12.”
Cincinnati are in their second season of MLS football having entered the league in 2019. They finished bottom of the Western Conference last time out, winning just 24 points which was the lowest across both sections of the MLS.
Locadia should help them improve on that. The MLS season kicks off at the end of February with David Beckham’s new Inter Miami the latest franchise to join the league. We’ll be keeping an eye on Locadia’s progress – and FC Cincinnati’s wonderful repertoire of songs – with interest.
