Billy Sharp is coming to play in the MLS. The 37-year-old Englishman has spent the last seven years with Sheffield United, helping them gain promotion to the English top flight on multiple occasions. Before his most reason time spent with the Blades, Sharp was a journeyman who played for various teams within the professional and amateur levels of English football. A striker with a natural eye for goal, the Sheffield-born player has amassed over 250 goals in his career, and made it on the Team of the Season in League One and the Championship. Now, he looks to impress with LA Galaxy, who at the moment are sitting outside of the playoff zone in the American top division.
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Billy Sharp Joining LA Galaxy Following 100+ Goal Stint with Blades
Can Sharp Save the Galaxy Like He Did Sheffield United?
The LA Galaxy has signed English striker Billy Sharp, a source confirms. @mcgrathmike first reported. Deal is thru end of 2023 w/ option for 2024.
Sharp, 37, gives Greg Vanney a veteran option up top. Scored 129 goals with Sheffield. Was a free agent.https://t.co/1b9jm1hSfm
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) August 15, 2023
Sharp’s contract with the Los Angeles club, according to Tom Bogert of The Athletic, and first reported by Mike McGrath of The Daily Telegraph, only runs until the end of the season, on October 21st. There is an option in the contract for the deal to be extended, but that is likely to depend on how well the next to months go. A free agent before signing on, the player is tasked with dragging them out of second-to-last in their conference. Can he do it? Maybe, but it is without a doubt that Sharp has helped his former clubs achieve great things. In the 2018/19 season, he scored 23 goals in the Championship as Sheffield United finished second and gained promotion to the Premier League. It was a short-lived dream promotion for the Blades, as they would be relegated back down in 2020/21. Then, this past season, while making 38 league appearances, Sharp got the club back up to the Premier League with another second-place finish.
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His presence in the LA Galaxy squad has been welcomed by players and staff alike. “Billy is an accomplished striker who brings experience, leadership and proven goal-scoring pedigree,” said the Galaxy’s Greg Vanney, who is both the head coach and sporting director of the American outfit. Seven points adrift from a chance at making the MLS playoffs, the Galaxy are in desperate need of what Sharp has to offer.
Their current frontline, though, in any given game, might offer the English journeyman a hard time to break into. Tyler Boyd, a former USMNT and New Zealand national team player currently occupies the right forward position. Douglas Costa, winner of the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and the Serie A with Juventus, prowls the left flank. Standing in Sharp’s preferred central role is Dejan Joveljic. A Serbian international who already made his debut and scored with his home nation, Joveljic has a bright future ahead of him with both the Galaxy and Serbia. It could be that if Sharp maintains regular playing time with the team who has scored the second-least amount of goals in their conference, he will come on as a second-half substitute, very much in the way he did for Sheffield United these past years.
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports, of the LA Galaxy Fans, on April 16, 2023.
