The Union added Uruguayan forward Bruno Damiani:

It’s reportedly a $3.4 million transfer fee, which clears the ~$3 million they paid for Mikael Uhre a few years ago. Damiani is relatively unknown, a forward who played a couple of seasons for two different teams in his home country but apparently caught Ernst Tanner’s eye. This is the same Tanner who pulled Kai Wagner out of the German third division and turned him into an All Star, so “in Ernst we trust,” as was said during the incredible run the Union went on from 2020 to 2023. Damiani is only 22 years old, and with Ian Glavinovich and Jovan Lukic the Union have added young foreign players at every level this offseason. By Philly standards, it’s a pretty good offseason, since we’re used to being disappointed.

What’s funny is that the Union’s club-record transfer fee doesn’t even crack the top-100 inbound fees in Major League Soccer history. That record was broken twice this offseason, first when Cincinnati paid Cercle Brugge about 15 million Euros for Kevin Denkey and then shattered when Atlanta gave Middlesboro more than 21 million Euros for Emmanuel Latte Lath. Atlanta and Cincinnati have paid nine of the 11 highest transfer fees in MLS. The rest of the top 25 is a smattering of the LA teams, Portland, Columbus, Toronto, and even Houston, Chicago, and Dallas.

As for the Union, well, they don’t have a transfer fee that cracks the top 100. I scrolled as far as I could at TransferMarkt and the list stops after four pages and 100 players. They’ve got Damiani listed at 3 million Euros, so considering the list terminates at 3.9 million, you would think he’d probably land somewhere around 125 or so:

As for outbound transfer fees, the Union do have three in the top 50. That’s the Aaronson brothers and Mark McKenzie.


Anyway, it’s funny that the Union are touting their club-record signing when the fee amounts to chump change for serious franchises that spend money and win trophies. But as you know, the Union do things differently. They like to bring kids through the academy, find diamonds in the rough, and develop players internally. Before they came to Philadelphia and tore it up, Kai Wagner and Jose Martinez were nobodies. Julian Carranza was a reclamation project via loan move. Danny Gazdag and Jakob Glesnes were playing for small European clubs in small leagues. Tanner and company nailed pretty much all of those signings and maybe he’s done it again. We’ll see.