U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter has hinted that Chris Richards could be set to leave Crystal Palace in the coming days.
Richards has established himself as a key player for the USMNT, but injuries and coaches’ decisions limited him to just 10 total appearances last season after an offseason transfer from Bayern Munich.
This season has been more of the same for the 23-year-old, who has yet to play in any league games for Palace and made his first appearance of 2023-24 in a Carabao Cup win over Plymouth on Tuesday.
After naming Richards to his September roster on Wednesday, Berhalter was asked in a media availability about his lack of minutes at the club level.
“That may change in the next couple of days, right? That’s not set in stone,” the coach said, with the transfer window set to close on Friday.
“We see him as an important piece to what we’re doing,” Berhalter continued. “I think he’s got a tremendous amount of potential. Now for him, it’s about getting minutes and staying healthy. He’s a great guy, great competitor, and looking forward to having him back in camp. His last camp went really well with the Nations League and scoring a goal (in the final against Canada).
“We think that he’ll make a big impact in this camp, but also excited to see what the future brings for him.”
Richards has been capped 10 times by the USMNT, and was forced to withdraw from contention for the World Cup squad last year due to a hamstring injury.
Earlier this month, Kicker reported that Stuttgart was interested in bringing Richards in on loan to help replace Konstantinos Mavropanos, who transferred to West Ham.
Joining Stuttgart would reunite Richards with Sebastian Hoeness, who coached Richards at Bayern Munich and during two loan spells at Hoffenheim. Hoeness was named Stuttgart coach in April 2023.
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