Ethan Horvath will not be spending the upcoming Premier League season with newly-promoted Nottingham Forest as he has opted to join English Championship side Luton Town on loan, the team announced on Saturday.
The 27-year-old will remain in England’s second-tier for the season following Forest’s successful loan signing of Dean Henderson from Manchester United.
Horvath made the move to Forest in the 2021-2022 season on a free transfer following a rough few years at Club Brugge in Belgium. However, he would find it difficult to find playing time as Brice Samba was the preferred number one between the posts. He did play 11 games in all competitions in the recently concluded season.
The Colorado-born netminder will be competing for the starting spot with another new Luton Town signing, Matt Macey, who signed from Scottish Premiership side Hibernian.
With the World Cup months away and the U.S. men’s national team still looking to see who can lock down the starting spot at goalkeeper, Horvath expressed his satisfaction at making the move to Luton.
“It was a long journey to get the job done but I’m really happy to be here,”he said in a statement on the team’s website. “It has been a fantastic day so far. The people have been really nice, the club has a real family feel to it, which I like. There are good people in the business and you want good people to help you succeed.”
Speaking on the former European champion’s promotion success and the chance of playing in the English top flight, Horvath said while he was happy for his teammates, the move to try and earn a spot on the World Cup roster was no-brainer.
“It was a really long season and they got their reward in the end, but at the end of the day I needed to look myself in the mirror and the number one priority was playing time, and Luton were quick to come into the picture. Both parties worked really, really hard to get it done and I can’t wait to get started.”
Horvath could see his first action for Luton Town when they face Birmingham City in the Championship opener on July 30.
