Real Salt Lake has secured the services of U.S. international forward Bobby Wood. According to The Athletic’s Sam Stejskal, Wood inked a pre-contract with RSL that will see him join the MLS team after his contract with the German club Hamburg SV expires in June.
Wood, who had other suitors from the MLS, including FC Cincinnati, reportedly inked a deal that runs through the 2022 season. In terms of salary, the 28-year-old player is expected to receive “mid-level targeted allocation money”.
Stejskal adds that there is a good chance Wood leaves Germany before his contract expires. He is reportedly engaged in talks with Hamburg and would like to get an early termination considering he hasn’t been playing much lately.
In 2020-21, Wood played in 11 games, but all of his appearances came from the bench, and he totaled only 119 minutes of soccer. He managed to score once this season.
Bobby Wood secured a transfer to Hamburg in 2016 after a prolific outing with Union Berlin that saw him score 17 goals in 2015-16. But his goalscoring form took a significant dip since then, and he only managed to find the net 12 times in the past four years.
The struggles in front of the goal caused Wood to lose his place in the United States men’s national team. He hasn’t been part of the USMNT since Gregg Berhalter took over, making his last appearance in October 2018.
