American Paul Caligiuri’s days at German First Division club St. Pauli are over.
St. Pauli has not exercised its option on the 31-year-old American who joined the Hamburg team in August after a standout summer with the U.S. national team.
Caligiuri began the season in the starting lineup, but he struggled at marking back against the Bundesliga’s many strong strikers.
In the last month, he only played once before being dropped from the roster for the last game of the German fall season against Uerdingen Dec. 9.
St. Pauli wishes to acquire three players to strengthen the newly promoted squad for the second half of the season. But to afford reinforcements, the team has to rid itself of current roster members.
“I don’t understand some of this,” Caligiuri was quoted as saying in the German magazine kicker before the Uerdingen match, “especially since I played well against Cologne [Nov. 24], was then taken out of the lineup, and now am not even on the bench.”
Following St. Pauli’s game with Karlsruhe Dec. 2, kicker’s headline was “Caligiuri can pack his bags.”
Caligiuri was on loan to St. Pauli from the USISL’s Los Angeles Salsa. Caligiuri has been with four other German clubs: Hamburg, Meppen, Hansa Rostock and Freiburg. He played for Meppen and Freiburg in the West German Second Division and won the last East German First Division title with Hansa Rostock in 1991.
Caligiuri isn’t the only American defender on the bench.
Alexi Lalas was dropped for the first time in his two years in Italy and did not play in Padova’s 1-0 loss to Fiorentina Dec. 3.
Lalas did not dress for Padova’s next game, either. Croatian Zoran Vlaovic, one of three foreigners Lalas is competing with for playing time, scored both goals in Padova’s 2-1 win over Inter Milan. The goals were Vlaovic’s first of the season since recovering from brain surgery this summer.
Lalas took part in the World Cup draw in Paris Dec. 12, but he was clearly down.
“It sucks,” he told Soccer America’s Duncan Irving. “When things go wrong a lot of people say, ‘Blame the American.’ It’s not easy to talk about it without coming over like a crybaby, but it’s hard to describe how excessive and blatant the trashing’s been.”
The Italian press had speculated earlier this fall that Padova might unload Lalas to another European team, possibly England’s Nottingham Forest.
Lalas may choose to stay in the United States after the Gold Cup to rest and prepare for the 1996 MLS launch, but he would prefer to leave Italy on a positive note.