By Official Florida FC
Konrad de la Fuente’s budding career may be ready for the next step. The 20-year-old Miami-born winger started for Olympique de Marseille on Sunday afternoon in its opening match of the Ligue 1 season.
Marseille needed a second half comeback to beat Montpellier 3-2. de le Fuente’s started on the left wing of Jorge Sampaoli’s 3-3-3-1 system. His aggressive dribbling into the penalty area created Cengiz Ünder’s 68th minute goal to ignite Maseille’s comeback.
Dimitri Payet scored goals in the 75th and 80th minute to secure the win. de la Fuente was on the pitch for all three goals. He played 89 minutes, finished with the assist to Ünder, three key passes and three successful dribbles. Whoscored.com gave him a 7.73 rating for his performance.
It was a solid debut performance for the Florida man in France. Barcelona B sold de la Fuente was sold to Marseille in July on a $3.3 million transfer. Marseille finished fifth in Ligue 1 last year to qualify for the Europa League.
Should de la Fuente continue to perform well, he may play his way back into consideration for the USMNT. de la Fuente earned his first cap in November in a scoreless draw against Wales. Since then, he made a pair of appearances for Barcelona in the Champions League, earned a cameo in a Copa Del Rey third-round contest against UE Cornella and scored six goals and four assists for Barcelona B.
