Konrad De La Fuente is headed to Marseille, the young American moving from Barcelona in a transfer that should get him more playing time in a top five European league.
The signing of Konrad De La Fuente with a top Ligue 1 side is an intriguing development for the player as well as the United States national team. The reported $3 million move with a 50 percent sell-on clause is a good transfer for the young attacker, putting him in a position to begin realizing his enormous potential.
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Widely considered a phenom, the 19-year old De La Fuente, despite featuring and starring for Barcelona’s youth teams and their reserve side, has had a tough time cracking the senior time for the La Liga giants. He made two appearances with the senior time in the Champions League but never featured in a league match.
The Miami-born De La Fuente is an exciting winger, capable of playing on either side. He has good pace and technical ability but a lack of first team matches has stunted his development. He was a solid player for the Americans in the 2019 U20 World Cup, a group that reached the quarterfinals of the tournament.
He has one appearance with the full national team although he has been in several national team camps for head coach Gregg Berhalter.
For the United States national team, the move from Konrad De La Fuente out of a place where he would struggle to develop and to a good, solid club in a top-tier league is an important move. De La Fuente, despite there being in a crowded pool of wide attacking players for the United States, can and should factor into the roster for World Cup qualifying if he can start getting senior team minutes with Marseille.
While Barcelona is arguably the biggest club in the world, his new home are certainly no slouches.
Marseille finished the season 16-12-10 (60 points) for a fifth place finish in Ligue 1’s table. Their 54 goals scored were the fewest any of the top five teams in the league as was their +7 goal differential on the season.
Their finish qualified them automatically for this upcoming season’s Europa League.
The signing of De La Fuente puts the winger in a prime place to get consistent minutes in league action as well as cup and Europa League matches. This will be De La Fuente’s first move away from famed Barcelona, where he signed as a youth in 2013.