The Southampton misfit who has been handed a surprise international call-up

Several Southampton players are preparing to link up with their international teams right now, as the long three-week break, away from domestic Championship action, commences.

Divin Mubama was a late callup to the England U21s, and the Saints loanee will be playing alongside two former St Mary's youngsters in Tyler Dibling, and Samuel Amo-Ameyaw, when featuring for Lee Carsley's youthful team.

Alongside Mubama, it's very unsurprising to see the likes of Cyle Larin, Daniel Peretz, and Finn Azaz get call-ups for Canada, Israel, and the Republic of Ireland respectively, as the St. Mary's trio are very rarely out of Tonda Eckert's first team fold.

The hope will be that these guaranteed first-teamers don't pick up any unnecessary injuries, with the October fixture list looking rather tricky for the Saints, on their return to the gruelling second tier, as a trip to early top of the table contenders West Ham United goes on sale.

Away from the South Coast, even this Southampton misfit has been called up to his international team, as he gets used to his new loan environment.

This misfit has been handed a call-up

Damion Downs' last goal in league action for any team fell last April, when he scored during FC Koln's convincing 3-1 win over Preußen Münster.

Since then, the American centre-forward has been regularly firing blanks, with zero goals from 14 games for Southampton to date making him stick out as a big waste of £7m.

He has been shipped out on loan to Saint Louis City SC this summer to try and help him find his goalscoring groove again, with the aforementioned Mubama Eckert's preferred choice as back-up, away from the misfiring 22-year-old.

Amazingly, despite his poor form over recent times also seeing him fire consistent blanks for Hamburg, he has been handed a call-up to the USA national team for their clashes in September and October, with Downs drafted in last-minute to replace the injured Ricardo Pepi.

He has featured six times in the past for the USMNT, with his last outing for the Stars and Stripes coming back in September 2025, during the early days of his bumpy St. Mary's stay.

Clearly, he is well thought of in Mauricio Pochettino's camp, despite the goals significantly drying up, and if he can find his shooting boots again in Saint Louis, the door might not be completely shut on his Southampton career.

Does he have a future at the Saints?

Downs is a tad unfortunate not to be off the mark for his new short-term MLS employers.

He had a goal depressingly chalked off for offside during the St. Louis's recent emphatic 3-1 win over Toronto FC, with his inventive finish ultimately counting for nothing.

The goal-shy number 42 will just keep plugging away, praying that his horrible goal drought comes to an end sooner rather than later.

After all, he didn't fluke 13 goals in the Koln first team fold, so if he can get into a similar goalscoring rhythm for Saint Louis, he could still have a future at the Saints.

He is only 22 years of age, at the end of the day, and when Mubama returns back to Manchester City, Eckert doesn't have plentiful back-up options to compete with Larin.

Of course, the other route could be to cash in on him if he gets back into the swing of things, with only two Bundesliga goals, away from his free-flowing form in the Bundesliga 2, hardly making him stand out as a competent Premier League option if the top-flight does come knocking.

For the time being, Downs will just be focused on matters at Energizer Park, and the fact he's been given a shock call-up to the USMNT, while Southampton will make do with what they've got back at St. Mary's in the attacking ranks.

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