Maurice Malone: Five things on Augsburg's German-American striker
Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson, Timothy Chandler and John Anthony Brooks: Four German-Americans who have gone on to successfully represent the USA at senior level. Could Augsburg striker Maurice Malone's name be next on the list? bundesliga.com has unearthed five interesting facts on the possible future USMNT international after he featured in a first-team squad for the first time against Wolfsburg.
1) Blowing out candles with Thierry
Born 17 August 2000, Malone shares a birthday with one of football's most prolific goalscorers: Thierry Henry. A striker himself, Malone can no doubt learn a lot from the France international who scored goals for fun during a 20-year career at Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona and New York Red Bulls.
A similar build to the current Belgium assistant coach, Malone is also frequently found out on the left wing. However, the left-footer tends to do most of his damage playing in a centre forward role – similar to Henry in his prime.
Watch: Will Malone emulate any of the Americans in the video below?
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2) Bundesliga top scorer
Twenty-four goals in a domestic season would be enough to win the Bundesliga's Torjägerkanone on 29 previous occasions. It was also the case for Malone in the 2016/17 U17 Bundesliga. Aged 16 at the time, he was the key man for Augsburg in their sixth-place finish.
Malone played all but 33 minutes of the 26 matches that season, pipping Karlsruhe's Malik Batmaz and Bayern Munich's Franck Evina to the honour in the South/Southwest division with his haul of 24 goals. Only future Hamburg forward Fiete Arp netted more goals at U17 level that year (26).
His first goal at international level will have also gone down well for either of his potential countries, coming off the bench to score for Germany U17s against none other than England in a "friendly". Double the joy for the German and American sides of his family.
The Augsburg youngster's efforts in 2017 were rewarded by call-ups to the Germany U17 squad for their UEFA European Under-17 Championship campaign, where Malone chipped in with two assists before they lost on penalties in the semi-finals to Spain. That was followed a few months later by a trip to India for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, where Germany were this time knocked out in the quarter-finals by Brazil.
The other famous Maurice Malone is regarded as one of the top denim designers in the world. Referred to as the 'Steve Jobs of denim,' it is quite a namesake to have for Augsburg's possible future USA international. Will he be the one to fit into the sizeable jeans once worn by the USMNT’s all-time top scorers Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey?