Bryan Oviedo is desperate to play for Costa Rica at the 2018 World Cup – but would leaving Championship strugglers Sunderland help his chances?
Bryan Oviedo is desperate to make up for lost time. After missing Costa Rica’s remarkable run to the quarter finals of the 2014 World Cup with a broken leg, the long-serving left-back is determined to head into Russia’s festival of football at his very best.
Understandably, then, Oviedo has much to ponder in the January transfer window with his Sunderland side now bottom of the Championship table.
Despite Oviedo’s struggles at club level, however, it is far from certain that the 27-year-old will have his heart set on jumping a seemingly sinking ship midway through the season. Sunderland may be in the midst of a seemingly endless crisis but, after four years as a back-up at Everton, at least the left-back is playing regularly on Wearside.
“It’s very complex because I have to make a very good decision. This is not just thinking about my team, since I have been playing and I have rhythm and that will be very useful for the World Cup,” Oviedo told Costa Rican publication La Nacion.
“Changing teams in January can be difficult because if I change squad and I’m not a starter that could affect me in the national team and we all know how important the World Cup can be.
“I’m fine here in Sunderland.”
Oviedo, who was won 31 caps for his country, has started each of Sunderland’s last five Championship games and has been one of the better performers in a disastrous run that has the Black Cats genuinely fearful of successive relegations.
If Oviedo stays fit and remains at Sunderland, however, he could head into the World Cup on the back of his first prolonged run in a starting XI since moving to England from Copenhagen in 2012.
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