Thomas Amang joins San Diego Loyal through trade
Credit: SD Loyal
The San Diego Loyal announced today — Wednesday, Feb. 23 — that they have acquired forward Thomas Amang via a trade with the Colorado Switchbacks FC pending league and federation approval.
Whilst Amang joins the Loyal side before the season home-opener on Saturday, March 12, the Loyal will be sending midfielder Haji Abdikadir to Colorado in exchange for Amang’s services.
Abdikadir joined the Loyal halfway through the 2021 season and made a total of six appearances before being traded Wednesday.
Amang, the 24-year-old Cameroonian striker, managed to make 13 appearances for the Switchbacks during the 2021-22 season. Ten of those appearances came from the starting XI, Amang scored a total of three times and provided one assist during his stint in Colorado.
“We are very excited to add Thomas to our team,” said Landon Donovan, EVP of Soccer Operations and Manager. “He is a proven goalscorer with lots of experience and can play in multiple attacking positions. He is a great addition to our club.”
Before singing to the Switchbacks, Amang played two seasons with Gimnàstic de Tarragona in the Spanish Segunda División B — the third tier of Spanish Football. In his 18 appearances, he managed to find the back of the net twice.
The Brunt of Amang’s football experience comes from his first club, Molde Fotballklubb, which is a professional football club based in Molde, Norway, competing in Eliteserien, the top flight of Norwegian football.
During his time with Molde, Amang tallied a total of 50 appearances for the Norwegian club in three seasons — scoring 11 goals and providing four assists. One of Amang’s most memorable goals was a winning header in the 90th minute while playing under Molde, head coach at the time, and former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjær.
He scores for Ole.
He scores for @Molde_FK.
Thomas Amang just 𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙨! pic.twitter.com/IlpZ2KJn17— San Diego Loyal (@SanDiegoLoyal) February 23, 2022
Most of Amang’s goal contributions have come when he is played at center forward, which may provide competition to the Loyal’s new signing, Kyle Vassell — who started the Loyal’s first two preseason games up top. Amang also has experience playing on either side of the center-forward, which is where we could likely see him deployed into the Loyal squad, offering the same pace and explosiveness that Tumi Moshobane offers on the attack.
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The Loyal has two more preseason games, which will be held behind closed doors, to form some more cohesion within the squad. The season home-opener will be against LA Galaxy II on Saturday, March. 12 at 7:00 p.m. PT.
Morgan Prickett is currently studying Journalism at San Diego State and is on pace to graduate in 2023. He was born in Libreville, Gabon and lived in Pretoria, South Africa for 7 years until he moved to the Bay Area. He’s a massive soccer and basketball fan; mainly supporting Arsenal of the English Premier League and any team Chris Paul is on. He’s also an avid supporter of all sports teams in San Diego and loves watching all San Diego State sports.