American football has been placing a lot of emphasis on Chelsea star Christian Pulisic. As much as the Chelsea man deserves the attention for how good a player he is. The Americans would surely have heard of the name Josh Sargent. If they haven’t, they probably will continue to hear that name in the next few years.
Sargent is still 19 and like Pulisic did, is impressing in the Bundesliga. Albeit for a smaller club in Werder Bremen. While his rise to prominence isn’t exactly as stark as that of Pulisic was, but he has already begun to attract the limelight for the first time in his career.
A striker by trade, Sargent came to Bremen at the age of 17 from hometown club St. Louis. He wasn’t really expected to play regularly for the club’s first-team since last season. But he began his journey in Germany with the Bremen II side, impressing in front of goal for them.
Since joining, Sargent was on fire in the Regionalliga Nord last season. He made 12 appearances for them in the first-half of the campaign and got as many as seven goals. He got a goal each in the first two games, scoring thrice and assisting once in three games around the middle of the campaign.
This impressive run saw Sargent make his debut for the first-team earlier than it was expected. His debut came against Fortuna Dusseldorf, scoring a goal. He also scored against RB Leipzig two games later, coming on from the bench to make an impact. He made ten appearances in total, with those goals being his only contributions.
On scoring on his debut, Claudio Pizarro was full of praise for Sargent. The Peruvian football legend said: “He was working very hard and he had his chance to score. It was his first time with the squad, first time on the pitch and he scored. It’s very important. I think it’ll give him confidence for the next games,”
That good spell saw Sargent get drafted into the first-team in the 2019-20 campaign. He has made seven Bundesliga starts this season, making a total of 12 appearances. But the two goals and the two assists have come in the starts. And it shows that with the right sort of time on the pitch, he will make an impact.
Bremen, it is important to note, haven’t been the best of teams in Germany this season. They are third-bottom in the division, having let in the highest number of goals- 41. They have also scored the fifth-least number of goals- 24. And those aren’t really promising signs, which is why leading online bookmaker apuestas24 are tipping them for relegation.
Bremen sit third-bottom when it comes to total XG created- 21.68. And they have been overperforming on that, with Sargent, Milot Rashica and Yuya Osako the main reasons for that overperformance.
The two goals Sargent has scored have come from varying XGs. His goal against Hertha Berlin came from a shot worth only 0.06 XG. The goal he got against Augsburg was worth 0.91 XG. While that small a sample isn’t good enough to judge a player, but it is enough to show that there is a potential star in there considering Sargent is still only 19.
While Bremen may not be in the most comfortable situation, it might be the right place for Sargent to show how he can help a smaller club pull through. That will go a long way in defining his development as a person and as a player.
