Ad Disclosure
Birmingham Hasn’t Lost a Game Since Signing Kai Wagner from the Union
Published:
Ho hum, just another win for Birmingham City and Kai Wagner, this time 2-1 over Leicester:
The Union transferred Kai to Birmingham at the beginning of the year. He made his debut in a 3-2 home win against league leaders Coventry on January 4th, and has started every single game since moving to England in the middle of the season. He didn’t require any kind of fitness ramp up or adjustment period or anything like that. In addition to an FA Cup game against Cambridge, he has:
- started six times in the Championship
- logged 521 out of 540 possible minutes
- bagged an assist
- taken just one yellow card
- hit 41 crosses
- won 11 tackles
- intercepted the ball 8 times
- taken 7 fouls
Birmingham has 5 wins, 2 draws, and zero losses since Kai came over. They’ve scored 14 goals, conceded 7, and climbed to 10th place in the Championship with 45 points. They’re into the FA Cup 4th round and will play Leeds United at home this weekend.
I can’t imagine that any Philadelphia Union or MLS fans are surprised by this. Kai was probably the team’s best player over the last few seasons and had been the league’s best left back for quite some time. There are people out there acting like MLS players can’t hack it overseas, which is a jabroni take. Quality is quality. It doesn’t matter if these guys come from MLS or Argentina or Uzbekistan or wherever. If you can ball, you can ball.
Of course, there are a lot of snobby Euros who think we’re “shite” at football (soccer). Kai was linked to Rangers a few years back and all of the idiots in Glasgow were claiming he wasn’t good enough for them. That’s hilarious. Nobody has their head up their arse more than Rangers fans. They think they’re one of the greatest teams of all time when they’re really just a second division England squad that happens to play in Scotland. They’d be battling relegation in the Championship if Glasgow was 200 kilometers south. I’m not even convinced Rangers or Celtic would win the Supporters’ Shield or MLS Cup because they wouldn’t be able to beat up on minnows like Kilmarnock and Dundee every other week. They’d get worked by Miami, obviously, and I think San Diego and Vancouver and LAFC would hand them their asses, but you never know. All that you need to understand is that Rangers and Celtic fans are all delusional, basically the Dallas Cowboys supporters of world football.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com