On Monday, Philadelphia Union announced that the team has recalled midfielder Michael Lahoud from his loan with the New York Cosmos.
Michael Lahoud likely on the move again
However, Lahoud will not be recalled to join the Union first team. According to a report from Big Apple Soccer, the Sierra Leone international will be sold to North American Soccer League’s Miami FC.
Tweets from Delco Times’ Matthew De George and CBS’ Kevin Kinkead from Philadelphia Head Coach Jim Curtin’s press conference corroborated that Lahoud is likely on the move.
In his short loan spell with the Cosmos, Lahoud started in seven of the team’s first eight games and played in all 630 minutes of those seven games. In most games in his career, Lahoud has been deployed in the number six role as a central defensive midfielder.
The 29 year-old Lahoud was originally sent to the Cosmos on loan as part of a move that brought Walter Restrepo to Philadelphia. By moving from the Cosmos to Miami, Lahoud will move from the first place team in NASL to the last place team. In the NASL season so far, New York sits on 15 points, which has them one point clear of FC Edmonton for first place. On the other hand, Miami FC are in last place and still without a win this season so far as they are 0-3-4 on the season. In Lahoud’s four seasons with the Union, he started in 40 games and logged over 3500 minutes on the field.
Philadelphia Union's crowded midfield lends to Michael Lahoud's expandability
For Philadelphia, the move signals that Lahoud likely had no future in an already crowded double pivot in the midfield. The Blue and Gold already have Brian Carroll and Warren Creavalle to play central defensive midfielder plus Roland Alberg as well as Vincent Nogueira to complete the double pivot. To add, Maurice Edu will likely return in the next couple months to further complicate the midfield selection choices for Curtin and his technical staff.