Jonathan Calleri wasn’t brought in to be the Hammers’ leading man in attack but he was expected to be a reliable goal threat whenever he featured.
The 23-year-old has been an abject failure since making his season-long loan move from Deportivo Maldonado in August and will leave the club at the end of the season.
For Calleri though, his return to South America can’t come soon enough. Speaking to Ole (h/t Sport Witness), Calleri has revealed he’d like to return to his former club Boca Juniors tomorrow.
I’d like to return to Boca tomorrow. Since I arrived there, everything was very intense, but always a beautiful pressure. Boca was the top of my career.
Calleri started his career with Boca Juniors before making a €11m move to Maldonado who immediately loaned him out to Sao Paulo where he scored 15 goals in 31 games for the Brazilian outfit prior to arriving in east London.
The intention was Calleri would impress in the Premier League and earn himself a lucrative permanent move to Europe but it’s clear that it’s not going to materialise.
He’s made 12 appearances for the Hammers this season and is yet to start a Premier League game. The rather flukey goal he scored at Middlesbrough was expected to revive his career with West Ham but he’s played just 46 minutes of football in the six games since, not featuring in each of the last three.
Calleri joins Brian Montenegro as two of the worst loan signings in recent West Ham history, both coming in from Maldonado. Let’s hope if there’s a third one it’s a marked improvement.
