{"id":23566,"date":"2014-01-24T14:13:09","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T19:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=23566"},"modified":"2014-01-27T08:47:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T13:47:48","slug":"goncalves-thinking-to-be-back-in-europe-very-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=23566","title":{"rendered":"Goncalves “thinking to be back in Europe very soon”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

The New England Revolution may have exercised its purchase option on Jose Goncalves’ loan agreement\u00a0in November, but a recent interview with the Portuguese center back suggests he\u00a0could be seeking a return to Europe.<\/p>\n

According to an interview\u00a0posted to the blog\u00a0A Minute in Sports!<\/em>,<\/em> <\/a>Goncalves spoke of his intent to continue his career in Europe in the not so distant future.<\/p>\n

“For any player in the world to play in Europe is very interesting,” Goncalves told the blog on Jan. 19.\u00a0“It is the highest league and that’s why I am thinking to be back in Europe very soon.”<\/p>\n

Goncalves was born in Lisbon, Portugal before moving to Switzerland at young age. He\u00a0spent the entirety of his career on the continent before he was loaned to the Revolution last year.<\/p>\n

The 2013 MLS Defender of the Year also cited family reasons and a potential opportunity with the Portuguese National Team\u00a0behind his desire to return to Europe.<\/p>\n

“My\u00a0family is in Europe and I need a plan for my future life, definitely,” Goncalves told the blog.\u00a0“I am also fighting for a spot in the [Portuguese] national team and that has always been my goal.”<\/p>\n

Additionally, Goncalves expressed disappointment with the negotiations he had with the front office concerning the purchase option.<\/p>\n

“After the MLS season ended last year, there have been a lot of discussions and meetings with the Revs,”\u00a0Goncalves\u00a0told the blog.\u00a0“A lot of promises have been made, but nothing came at the end and the club also gave me the feeling that I am easy to replace, so for me it is a very simple answer and that\u2019s it.”<\/p>\n

Goncalves declined to advise whether his desire to go back to Europe, or his dissatisfaction with the front office, would open the door to a hasty departure.<\/p>\n

“I can\u2019t tell you more about that right now,” Goncalves told the blog.\u00a0“I am still under contract but the future will tell you more.”<\/p>\n

On Friday, Revolution general manager Michael Burns issued the following statement to New England Soccer Today<\/em> in response to the interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware of the interview Jose conducted, and want to stress that he\u2019s a valuable member of the Revolution,” Burns said in an e-mail. “Jose is under contract with MLS and New England for multiple years, but having said that, we\u2019ll continue to have dialogue with his representative regarding his contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goncalves isn’t the first player to express frustration with the Revolution front office. In 2010, former Revolution midfielder Jeff Larentowicz told the Boston Globe<\/em> that fellow teammates had been soured by the front office’s approach to personnel decisions.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Teams have decisions to make on players and players have decisions to make for themselves they have to feel comfortable with,” Larentowicz told the Globe<\/em> in 2010. “Over time, [the Revolution] weren\u2019t doing right by their players. I watched a lot of talented players and friends go and a lot seemed unhappy who were still there.”<\/p>\n

Larentowicz was traded to the Colorado Rapids prior to the 2010 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent interview with Revs skipper Jose Goncalves suggests that his time in Foxboro may come to an end sooner rather than later. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[626,190,306,49,1274],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Jose-1.bmp","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23566"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23566"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23584,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23566\/revisions\/23584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}