U.S. phenom Sargent inks first pro deal on 18th birthday

Josh Sargent's 18th birthday was probably better than yours.

In addition to the milestone birthday for the U.S. Soccer phenom, he signed his first professional soccer contract on Tuesday to play for Werder Bremen of the German Bundesliga league.

"Now it's official. Joshua Sargent has signed a professional contract at SV Werder Bremen on his eighteenth birthday," the team announced. "Sporting director Frank Baumann confirmed as much on Tuesday afternoon."

Sargent already had reportedly trained numerous times with Werder Bremen and notched an assist for the club's under-23 squad in January.

"All the formalities have been completed and Josh has now signed his professional contract with us," Baumann said. "We're really happy that he has decided to take this next step in his career at SV Werder Bremen.

"He has really impressed us since the beginning of this year and has gathered experience in first team training as well as some games with the Under-23s."

Sargent, then at age 17, became the youngest American player to score a goal in FIFA U-20 World Cup history when he netted two tallies against Ecuador. Sargent joined Freddy Adu as just the second U.S. man to play for both the U-17 and U-20 World Cups in the same calendar year. When he earned a call-up to the senior squad in November, Sargent became the first to accomplish the feat in American soccer history.

For Bremen, this marks a move to reverse the club's fortunes after finishing no higher than eighth in the league's standings since 2009-10.

--Field Level Media