After rumors of his departure from the club during the summer, the Norwegian is destined for Denmark for the remainder of their season.
UPDATED: The LA Galaxy have officially announced Jorgen Skjelvik’s departure, on loan, to Odense Boldklub in Denmark for the remainder of their season.
“We think this deal will benefit everyone involved,” said LA Galaxy General Manager Dennis te Kloese. “We wish Jorgen the best of luck in Denmark.”
It is still expected that Skjelvik’s loan has an option to make the move permanent. Although the length of his contract is unknown and has not been confirmed by the club or the league.
With Skjelvik’s departure, the Galaxy will get both an international slot back and budget relief for his $1-million contract.
CARSON, Calif. — The LA Galaxy look to have put a deal in place to loan defender Jorgen Skjelvik to OB in Denmark for this season, with an option to make the deal permanent if all goes well.
Corner of the Galaxy reported that sources had indicated that Skjelvik was ready to make a move away from LA but didn’t indicate the team or destination. Both Kristian Dyer and Kevin Baxter reported the loan deal.
The loan deal would free up approximately $1-million in TAM — although it’s unclear if that money had already been spent on other players in camp and on the roster.
The move caps, at least temporarily, a disappointing stint with the Galaxy. Skjelvik was brought in to replace Jelle Van Damme at center-back before the 2018 season but failed to capture the position. And in 2019 was moved to his preferred left-back spot where he still struggled with the pace and technical ability of the league.
He had few bright spots and was rarely, if ever, the best defender on the field. But his real downfall was his price tag. Equal to the talent of Rolf Feltscher, who played his opposite through much of the season, Skjelvik gobbled-up over $1-million per year. Feltscher, on the other hand, cost the Galaxy less than $250,000 in 2019.
The LA Galaxy had been shopping the Norwegians contract since last summer’s transfer window. At the time, Hammarby – a company partly owned by AEG who owns the Galaxy – was the interested party. But the deal never materialized, and it’s unclear how serious it ever was.
But with the surprise that Skjelvik had at least one more year on his contract, it was clear the Galaxy had no plans to keep him on their roster this year. They signed Emiliano Insúa to take over the starting left-back role, and no team in their right mind would keep a $1-million defender on the bench — but that’s where he spent a good portion of time in 2019.
He played in just 20 of the team’s 34 games in 2019, which was down from 32 the previous season, and saw his minutes drop from 2,585 to only 1,681.
The club has made no official announcement, but it seems as though Skjelvik has already left the Galaxy.
