The young center back is on the move, seeking playing time in the Premier League that could pave his way to the World Cup.
Chris Richards has become the latest young U.S. men’s national team player to secure a move to the Premier League, with the center back leaving Bayern Munich for Crystal Palace in a summer transfer worth a reported $15 million (with add-ons potentially taking it to $20 million).
The 22-year-old Richards, who spent the last season and a half on loan from Bayern to fellow Bundesliga club Hoffenheim, follows Brenden Aaronson (Leeds), Tyler Adams (Leeds) and Matt Turner (Arsenal) in securing moves to top-flight English clubs ahead of the World Cup. They join Christian Pulisic (Chelsea) and Antonee Robinson and Tim Ream (Fulham) in England’s top flight. Richards will play under an accomplished professional, with former France and Arsenal great Patrick Vieira at the helm of the Eagles. Richards’ new deal ties him to the club, which lifts the curtain on the Premier League season against Arsenal on Aug. 5, through 2027.
“I think we showed [with this deal] that we can attract players. When you look at the number of teams that were behind him and he decided to come to us, I think this is a really strong statement,” Vieira said after a preseason draw vs. Leeds United in Australia on Friday. “He’s going to give us different options at the back and competitiveness between players. I’m really pleased that an important player like that decided to come to Palace.”
Crystal Palace, which has American ownership, is among the former clubs of U.S. manager Gregg Berhalter, who played there prior to the 2002 World Cup. Now 20 years later, Richards will hope for a similar outcome, with the Alabama native eyeing a place on the U.S.’s 26-man roster for Qatar ’22.
“Crystal Palace is a great club, great stadium, great fans, Patrick Vieira's a great coach, Chris playing in the Premier League—I like it from every single side,” Berhalter told ESPN last week, when word of the potential move started to circulate.
Richards, who has eight caps with the U.S., started four games during World Cup qualifying and came on as a last-minute substitute vs. Mexico in November. He missed the final window of qualifying after suffering an ankle injury vs. Canada in January, though, and a subsequent thigh injury ruled him out of a return for the U.S. in its most recent camp last month. With a clean bill of health, a fresh start and a good run of form and playing time at Palace, he could put himself in position to be a key contributor on the U.S. back line, where a leading candidate to start, Atlanta United’s Miles Robinson, is out injured with a torn Achilles.
The busy summer of movement for U.S. players continues with Richards’s transfer. In addition to the aforementioned group of Americans heading to the Premier League, U.S. goalkeepers Zack Steffen (Middlesbrough) and Ethan Horvath (Luton Town) secured loans away from their Premier League parent clubs, which should yield a greater amount of regular playing time.
Midfielder Luca de la Torre joined Celta Vigo in La Liga from his relegated Dutch club Heracles, while forward Jordan Pefok earned a move to the Bundesliga’s Union Berlin after winning the golden boot in Switzerland with Young Boys. Another forward, Haji Wright, made his move to Turkey’s Antalyaspor permanent after thriving there on loan, and attacking midfielder Malik Tillman, who recently switched international allegiance from Germany to the U.S., has left Bayern on loan for Scottish power Rangers. He’ll have the chance to line up opposite Cameron Carter-Vickers, the U.S. center back who earned a permanent move to Celtic after standing out on loan from Tottenham last season.
Elsewhere, a pair of other moves last week resulted in players coming back to U.S. soil from overseas, with right back Shaq Moore leaving Tenerife in Spain’s second division for Nashville SC and forward Nicholas Gioacchini bolting Caen in France for Orlando City.
Everyone is doing what they can to try to position themselves for a ticket to the World Cup. And for Richards, the former FC Dallas product, that means leaving a club like Bayern, which brought in Netherlands standout Matthijs de Ligt to start at his position, for Palace, in hopes of it propelling him to the top tier of Berhalter’s depth chart over the next few months.
"Chris Richards came to the FC Bayern Campus at the age of 18. He demonstrated his talent in his first year when he played for our reserves. That's why we signed him from FC Dallas, and Chris went on to develop really well on loan at Hoffenheim. Now his big desire is to succeed in the Premier League. We wanted to make that possible and we wish him all the best at Crystal Palace,” Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić said in a statement.
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