Report: Matt Miazga heading back to New York Red Bulls

The New York Red Bulls and their fans can breathe easy: Matt Miazga is being returned to his club. Reports out of Germany state RB Leipzig (due to end its mid-winter Qatar training camp on January 29) has released the young defender back to RBNY, just two days after he arrived.

Leipzig head coach is quoted as saying the club will retain "quite a close eye" on the player, which is in keeping with the consistent manner in which Leipzig and the German press has reported Miazga's flying visit to Qatar: he was on trial, and he is a prospect the Red Bull system would dearly like to hold up as an example of its newfound "synergy".

Miazga played 35 minutes of a friendly between the two Red Bull teams training in Qatar - Leipzig and Salzburg - on January 27. He started for Leipzig and finished on the sidelines with a dead leg. Prior to leaving the field, he committed the foul that gave Salzburg a penalty for the go-ahead goal in the sixth minute.

The player's return certainly supports RBNY's consistent claim that his training session with Leipzig absolutely, positively never was a trial. Though the club's official statement on the subject didn't communicate the certainty it may have intended: "no formal agreement" is not a phrase that quite translates into not-on-trial; and presenting the example of Santiago Castano's 2014 trip to Salzburg as evidence for the routine nature of these arrangements was similarly unconvincing - since Castano's trip was a trial.

Anyway, RBNY's curiously halfhearted effort to contradict Papa Red Bull and the German media is not of immediate concern. Miazga is coming home, and will hopefully be able to put his 72 hours in Qatar to good use in the service of the Red Bulls' 2015 season.