There hasn’t been much conventional about the soccer career of Patrick Agyemang, except the conundrum in which he now finds himself. He’s a young American soccer player in the U.S. domestic league, which inevitably means he makes a modest salary and probably must go to Europe to earn the big euros. Or pounds. You get the point.
It’s a path previously followed by current U.S. men’s national team regulars Tyler Adams, Brenden Aaronson and Josh Sargent, and by Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore in a previous generation. So it seems not so problematic on the surface.
This next year is a World Cup year, though.
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And changing employers/cities/leagues this close to FIFA World Cup 2026 is a risky maneuver if playing in the world’s biggest sporting event is a goal.
Agyemang, 24, is an emerging striker who has produced five international goals in nine appearances, all in 2025. He is the only player to appear for the USMNT in every game they’ve played this year, including the three victories in the group stage of the Gold Cup that delivered the U.S. to the quarterfinal matchup Sunday at 7 p.m. against Costa Rica.
With Sargent surprisingly not selected for this tournament, with Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi and now Haji Wright all injured, Agyemang has had an unrestrained opportunity to establish himself as the No. 1 choice as the USMNT’s “No. 9”. And he has seized it.
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Add his Gold Cup success to his 16 goals for Charlotte FC in Major League Soccer since the start of the 2024 season, as well as his 6-4 frame, strength and dynamism, and it’s understandable Derby County and Ipswich Town of England’s Championship division are interested in a transfer deal for Agyemang, according to Tom Bogert of GiveMeSport.com.
Charlotte could have sold his rights in the offseason, with Luton Town of the Championship offering $4 million, but the club declined. Charles Boehm reported for MLSSoccer.com that Charlotte tried to sign Agyemang to a contract extension but did not succeed; it’s not clear how lucrative the team’s offer was, but the player is under contract for this season with a club option for 2026.
There certainly would be more money for Agyemang in England than he’s making now. Only four of the 29 players on Derby’s 2024-25 roster made less than Agyemang’s $101,000 salary. Sargent was paid $1.8 million by Norwich City and rewarded the club with 15 goals.
Agyemang is arriving at this point in his career much later than the typical soccer player. He was not a coveted prospect by the pros or colleges after finishing high school at Connecticut’s East Hartford High and began his career at the Division III level. He then spent two years at Rhode Island, not a Division I power, and scored 19 goals in 37 games.
And now here he is, suddenly.
Because he is relatively late to success, it is imperative Agyemang find a way to get that bag soon. This is where MLS in general could be doing a better job. I remember, in a press conference at the MLS All-Star Game in 2017, asking commissioner Don Garber why the only U.S. players who were making big salaries in the league tended to be those lured back from Europe with contracts that were, effectively, above market value, including Dempsey, Altidore and midfielder Michael Bradley. He didn’t really have an answer. And that’s got to be a part of why it still is happening.
Only a fraction of the league’s designated players are Americans who’ve been with MLS more or less interrupted, players like Darlington Nagbe of Columbus Crew SC, Walker Zimmerman of Nashville FC and Jordan Morris of the Seattle Sounders. But Luca de la Torre, now with the USMNT at the Gold Cup, is being paid $1.5 million by San Diego FC after returning from nearly a decade in Europe.
Charlotte does have a Designated Player spot open. They are paying forwards Wilfried Zaha $2.75 million and Liel Abada $2.5 million. With so much already invested in the attack, and with the opportunity to collect a return on a transfer of Agyemang, the incentive might be more oriented toward that direction. But with the value of an American World Cup to the league expected to be astronomical, it might not hurt MLS at least to lobby Charlotte to keep their star striker into 2026.
For the USMNT and for whatever World Cup ambitions Agyemang maintains, him moving now could be extremely disruptive. It’s only been one cycle since Ricardo Pepi established himself as a significant scoring option while playing for FC Dallas during the summer of 2021 and the early stages of qualifying for Qatar 2022.
He scored 24 goals for Dallas that season, then contributed a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win at Honduras that represented the most important episode of the qualifying process as well as both goals in a 2-0 win over Jamaica. After he transferred to Augsburg in Germany that winter, he struggled to adjust to the Bundesliga and was left off the 2022 U.S. World Cup squad.
A goal-scorer’s confidence can be a tricky thing. That’s the gamble Agyemang could be taking by moving to an unfamiliar team, league and nation this close to the World Cup. And it’s also a risk for the USMNT, which hasn’t been able to resolve this position in their lineup since Altidore pulled his hamstring in the first game of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
