Ready for task presented by European talents
For the first time in its 11-year history, the Philadelphia Union’s name means something to European clubs. Not as a potential summer friendly opponent, not as a front-office case study, but as an actual soccer team with players to track and talents to evaluate.
That step in the evolution of the club is a prerequisite to the next:
The first sale of a player grown and groomed in Philadelphia, a date that seems closer with every dazzling performance that Mark McKenzie and Brenden Aaronson give. And though it’s not required of the Union for them to have reached this juncture, they approach a new frontier with something just as preciously rare in their history: The kind of organizational structure that makes you reasonably confident that they won’t mess it up.
When the time comes for a European suitor to whisk Aaronson and/ or McKenzie away from Chester, it’ll be a deal that serves the Union as a club, not one that checks off a box on an aspirational to-do list. It’ll be a move that furthers (not to mention funds) the Union’s built-from-within mission, that reinforces an identity increasingly praised in MLS.
Journey back 10 ( !!!! ) years to when Zach Pfeffer was signed. The fourthyoungest Homegrown in MLS history, inked in December of 2010, joined a club with no idea how to develop him as a player or move him as an asset. Consequently, a teen tapped for soccer stardom is now an investment banker.
Thanks to the work of Earnie Stewart and now Ernst Tanner, the organization scores much lower in the naiveté department.
When the front office ventures into the deep end of the European market, it’ll be with a sporting director steeped in that arena for more than two decades and a technical director in Chris Albright who has learned at the foot of two veterans of European soccer.
That means the Union won’t sell Aaronson, McKenzie or any of their other talents just to be able to wave around a check embossed by some vaunted club shield during the next MLS executives’ Zoom call. They’ll do it because it’s the right move for the club, that makes the club better in some dimension.
“It’s always flattering to have reports and some interest in your young players,” manager Jim Curtin said in August during the MLS Is Back tournament. “It’s no secret that our model is now to sell our first player to Europe. Keeping Mark and Brenden specifically humble is the job of our entire technical staff. Their talent is there, certainly, and if they continue to play the way they do, I’m sure some real, concrete offers will come in for them. And if it’s the right time and it makes the right sense for both sides, then we maybe make a transaction.”
It’s got to be right for the Union’s vision, extracting value from a player into whom they’ve invested substantial capital (both financial and human). It’s got to be right for the player, an environment where they can continue to develop and be the club’s best advertising. And it’s got to be right in the short-term for the team Curtin has to field each week in chasing the very real possibility of a trophy. Whether that’s Tanner preemptively hedging his bets with Jakob Glesnes as a third starting-caliber center back or trusting Jack de Vries and Anthony Fontana when Aaronson departs, he’s aware that a key departure midseason can halt momentum. With players most likely to move to Europe during a continental offseason smack in the middle of the American calendar, that’s a hazard many clubs have tripped over.
On the coaching side, Curtin’s role is to meter expectations, sometimes a cause of progress-freezing discord. He’s quick to point out that that job is first and foremost accomplished by the parents of McKenzie and Aaronson, whom he’s known for years and who he regularly praises. Neither player is looking past his MLS present to a European future, judging by their statements and play.
“I’ve seen some of the stuff that’s going around but I don’t really like to pay attention to that stuff because I’m in a tournament and I want to play the best that I can,” Aaronson said after the win over Sporting Kansas City in August. “That stuff can get under young kids, but it didn’t for me and I just went out and tried to play my game and I didn’t worry about that kind of stuff. All I wanted to do was win for the team and help my team win.”
“It’s always a blessing to be able to draw interest from clubs in Europe,” echoed McKenzie. “As a kid, you dream of playing in the top clubs in the world, playing in the top leagues and Champions League and whatnot. But ultimately, it’s a matter of the individual, remaining humble. My parents instilled that in my as a young kid, to never get to high in the good moments and never to get too low, so I think it’s a balance of that. It’s great and all that there’s interest, and that’s exciting. But ultimately
I’m here to do my job, and that’s to help the club in any way I can.”
Any chance he gets, Curtin draws from his quiver of caveats, that he’s happy to coach McKenzie and Aaronson for as long as he can, not knowing how long they’ll be around. Whatever the ratio of sincerity to salesmanship in that appeal, Curtin alone knows. But just as this is the first time the Union have talents worthy of international attention, it’s also the first time the club has been capable of coping with the pressures that brings.
Whenever the time comes, it’s likely that the Union will be ready for it.