Joe-Max Moore made the decision easy for Second Division club Saarbruecken, which had an option to purchase the U.S. striker from U.S. Soccer by March 30.
“I am now owned by Saarbruecken,” Moore said in a telephone interview April 3.
Saarbruecken bought Moore from U.S. Soccer for $240,000. Moore receives a percentage of the fee and is now conducting contract negotiations with the club.
On March 25, playing in Nuremberg in front of 18,000 — the largest crowd he’s played in front of since moving to Saarbruecken on loan last summer — Moore secured a 2-0 win with a headed goal in the 54th minute. The German press called it a “masterful” header.
“It’s not like me to score with my head,” said the 24-year-old Californian. “It was a really nice cross that drew the defenders to the near post. I headed from 10 yards out.”
A week later, Moore scored his sixth goal of the season in a 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin. It was another spectacular strike.
“It was a cross from the right,” Moore said. “I slid to the ball and volleyed from 18 yards.”
It marked Saarbruecken’s third straight win and pulled the former First Division club far out the relegation zone — the bottom four teams move to the amateur league at season’s end.
“Now we can breathe a little easier,” Moore said.
by Soccer America Senior Editor Mike Woitalla