Escalante Aiming For Return To Honduras

Just a few days after Cavalry FC midfielder Jose Escalante took to Twitter and drummed up a conversation about a potential transfer, the 24-year-old midfielder has confirmed that he’s eyeing a return home to Honduras.

Speaking with Spanish-based website Tunota, the polarizing CPL midfielder revealed that he believes playing in his home country will help improves his chances of breaking into the national team.

Escalante has played at several youth levels in the Honduran national team setup, but has yet to make an appearance for the senior side. At the age of 24, he’s hoping to make his full senior debut in the near future before the chance fades away.

Here’s a translation of what he told Tunota in a recent interview:

I’d like to stay at a club in Honduras so I can be closer and be on the radar for the national team. It’s easier if they look at your day-to-day life more closely. I still don’t have anything defined, I have an offer from Canada to renew my contract, but I’m also looking at some options in Honduras. But if I don’t have a choice in Honduras, I’ll have to go back to Canada.

Jose Escalante

For the moment, Escalante hasn’t revealed which clubs in Honduras he’s looking at. Prior to his jump to the Canadian Premier League, he arrived back in Honduras to play the Clausura with Juticalpa FC, but couldn’t save them from relegation into the second division. If he’s hoping for national team recognition, he’s likely aiming for a top division side to sign on for.

The Tegucigalpa-born midfielder says that wherever he goes, he needs to be at a club which gets him maximum minutes and the ability to show his talent. This year, he made a total of 30 appearances for Cavalry FC under Tommy Wheeldon Jr, scoring four goals and contributing seven assists across all competitions.

With OneSoccer making every Cavalry FC game universally available and the CPL sharing its in-depth match data, it’s hard to find a league that makes things easier for scouts and analysts – though its tough to beat the allure of playing at home, especially when twenty-two of the nation’s last thirty-three call-ups all play domestically. Of the twenty-two domestic call-ups, all but one of them are plying their trade in the country’s top division.

Jose also added that he dreams of playing in the Olympic Stadium in San Pedro Sula. If that name sounds familiar to Canadian Premier League fans, that’s because this year’s CONCACAF League action saw Forge FC play a closed-door match in San Pedro Sula after their bout against CD Olimpia was relocated from Tegucigalpa, Jose’s hometown.

For its part, Cavalry FC has already re-signed nine players for the 2020 season so far, retaining several key members of its core squad like Marco Carducci, Dominick Zator, Sergio Camargo, and Nik Ledgerwood. The Alberta-based club has also signed former Pacific FC youngster Jose Hernandez, a 19-year-old forward that should help the club accumulate more domestic U-21 minutes.

With Escalante stating that Cavalry FC has already offered him terms for 2020, the ball appears to be in his court as to whether he’ll return for another year in Canada. If he does head back to Alberta, one can safely expect that he’ll feature heavily for Cavalry FC once more as the club aims to make a return to the Canadian Premier League finals and lift the North Star Shield.

Source: Tunota