Julian Green has made the game day 18 for each of Bayern Munich’s two league matches, but if this season’s meant to be the 19-year-old’s first impact on the Bundesliga, it won’t happen in a FCB uniform. According to reports this evening, the United States international is on the verge of a year-long move to Hamburg, with the two clubs currently finalizing a fee that will send the Tampa-born attacker on loan.
ESPN FC confirmed the impending move through Green’s father, Jerry, who said U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is on board with the loan. The temporary switch would presumably give Green a chance to make his Bundesliga debut, with the attacker’s only previous senior team time coming in the early stage of last year’s UEFA Champions League.
From ESPN FC:Sky Sport News was the first to report that the deal is done, though German newspaper Bild has indicated Hamburg and Bayern are still negotiating the loan fee.
Reached by telephone, Jerry Green said “Julian is going [to Hamburg] as far as we know.”
He also confirmed the loan is “strictly a one-year loan and then back to Bayern type of deal,” adding that when the possibility of a loan arrangement seemed likely, he contacted U.S. national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann, who was fully in favor of the move.
Hamburg, winless through two rounds of this season’s Bundesliga, currently features 27-year-old Croatian Ivo Ilicevic on the left side of the team’s 4-2-3-1 formation - the position Green is most likely to play. With HSV having barely avoided relegation last season, that play will have to come in league and the German Cup, with Mirko Slomka’s team not having the luxury of spreading Green’s minutes into Europe.
Whether he can earn those minutes remains to be seen, though the challenge will likely be much easier at the Imtech Arena. Even coming off a 15-goal season in the fourth tier, Green was unlikely to steal time from players like Mario Götze, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, and the rest of Bayern’s first team talents.
Now competing with Ilicevic, Tolgay Arslan, Pierre-Michel Losagga, Artjoms Rudnevs, and Zoltan Stieber for time with Rafael van der Vaart, Green will get a new perspective on where his ranks against the rest of the Bundesliga’s talents.
