There really was no big surprise in New England’s addition of Charlie Davies last summer. The former U.S. international spent the last few months of Major League Soccer’s 2013 season on loan from Denmark’s Randers FC.
But it a little more surprising that New England would make Davies a more permanent fixture around Gillette Stadium for 2014. The club announced Thursday that it had secured Davies on a free transfer from Randers, where his current deal would be dissolved by mutual consent.
It’s still a low-risk proposition, assuming that he’s not making much (if any) more than in 2013. Davies guaranteed salary last year was listed by the MLS Players Union figures at $60,000. Davies has played very little regular soccer since his terrible, career-altering 2009 automobile injury.
He did feature for D.C. United back in 2011 — but as we talked about before, some decent numbers that year amounted to something of a mirage, one that became all too clear toward the back half, as Davies disappeared from the playing rotation.
Davies will certainly have the opportunity to contribute for manager Jay Heaps, who talked last year about moving the player to the wing. Davies could still play at striker, where the team still looks thin, our along the outside in Heaps’ 4-1-4-1.
