It’s not 2025... yet... but for all intents and purposes it might as well be. At least for FC Cincinnati.
Sure the MLS Cup needs to be played. LA Galaxy will host the New York Red Bulls on Saturday and that will cap off the 2024 season of soccer in MLS, but Chris Albright and FC Cincinnati have already moved on to 2025 and used this unexpected and (frankly) unwanted time off to prepare for that.
On Monday, FC Cincinnati announced their end of season roster decisions, formally setting the stage for the offseason. Contract options on club stars like Obinna Nwobodo, Miles Robinson and Sergio Santos were exercised. Álvaro Barreal, who remains on loan until the end of the calendar year had his option for 2025 exercised, and somewhat similarly, Niko Gioacchini and Kevin Kelsy had their loans expire and they returned to their parent club.
Seven players were not retained and departed the club. Bret Halsey resigned and negotiations are ongoing with Nick Hagglund and Yamil Asad.
So there are questions remaining, but we now have a read of the field heading into the transfer window opening and free agency beginning. The roster is set at 23 players and there is work to be done, but the core of the team is mostly in place.
On Tuesday at Mercy Health Training Center, FC Cincinnati General Manager Chris Albright addressed the media to close the season and essentially deliver a “state of the team” address. With so many moving pieces and questions Albright’s availability lasted a dizzying 45 minutes, but there was a resounding theme that emerged from the day, regardless of what topic was covered.
“Oh, we still have a lot of work to do,” Chris Albright said Tuesday at the press conference. “The way this league hands you all kinds of different mechanisms by which to add and subtract players, with the Expansion Draft coming up, we have a lot of work ahead over the next two, three months.”
“We feel like we have a core in place that can be competitive right away, and so we don't feel so rushed for, let's say, February, but obviously the transfer window goes into May, so we'll have a bunch of time to continue to add to this already competitive group, and feel comfortable with our starting points.”
‘There’s work to be done but there is a solid base,’ feels like a very reasonable place to begin the offseason for FC Cincinnati. It reflects the league season in some ways, things were OK, but they didn’t reach the heights they really wished for.
Some work has been done though. In big ways.
Unlike any other club in MLS thus far, FC Cincinnati made a major splash in the transfer market and brought in Forward Kévin Denkey. In terms of aquatic allegory that was more like a tidal wave of a move than a splash, but it was the first major addition for a team league wide.
It was also covering perhaps the biggest need this team had, and getting that business done early makes it easier to focus on the more minute details down the roster.
“I think signing Kevin was the real priority,” Albright said. “And I will say, to do that as early as we did it, and with as heavy of a lift as it was, certainly took a big thing off our plate. But there's a lot more to continue to do.”
“In reality, you know a player of his age, with that profile, playing in Belgium and to lead the league there…those players don't often come to MLS. We think between his goal scoring, great work ethic, character, we think he's going to be an incredible fit in the locker room.”
“Culturally, he's a really bright kid that wants to get better,” Albright continued. “He has a huge desire to be the best. And obviously, our game is predicated upon scoring goals, and more than any other sport, the margins are very slim, and so to be able to bring in a goal scorer of Kevin's quality. We're super excited. We think he fits, in a number of ways.”
In terms of other player additions thus far, FC Cincinnati added a homegrown striker who had made waves earlier this year in Stefan Chirilia. The much hyped teenager and academy product isn’t expected to impact the first team immediately as his development continues, and is expected to continue seeing the majority of his minutes with FC Cincinnati 2, his MLS NEXT Pro contract does convey into a first team deal this winter, joining the roster. Making Him the “second” player to join the roster for 2025.
Another significant addition through continuity is the triggering of the buy option on Luca Orellano.
As the end of his loan from Brazilian Serie A side Vasco De Gama approached, it felt like it was certain he would say, but it wasn't technically inevitable. FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said he would like to see the player back. Orellano said he would like to stay in Cincinnati and the Argentine attacker had quickly become a fan favorite for his combination of flourish and reliability on the pitch.
MLS Commentators had even marked this deal, which for formalities sake was triggering the buy option set out at the beginning of the season in his loan, as the deal of the century. For a reported 3 million dollars FC Cincinnati brought in an MLS All-Star who is still on the ascent of his career trajectory.
The biggest question now for Luca is what comes next?
While FCC has been rather excellent in 2024 at bobbing and weaving to adjust to its needs, stability is something that Noonan has said he was looking for. Orellano was brought in initially to be a wingback despite not really playing that position before. He started on the left, moved to the right, then was moved into the attacking midfield for a new formation. By the end of 2024 he was moved to striker, another position he had never played.
“I mean, it speaks to the type of kid he is, that he embraced playing as a wing back, both on the right and the left,” Albright said. “I think Pat (Noonan’s) preference would be to have him higher up the field. Whether that's playing as a forward or a second 10. That's the beauty of his qualities; he does have that flexibility.”
“His 1 v1 quality really is elite in our league, and allows us to unbalance some teams. So I think we want to kind of push him closer to goal, is the idea. We've been having a lot of conversations about how we kind of tactically line up to best accentuate what he does well.”
There is also the matter of roster construction at an even more base form. For the first time in league history teams are able to choose how they want to build their rosters with the choice of either using three Designated Players and three U22 players, or two DP’s and four U22’s with an additional GAM infusion of two-million dollars. This option was introduced midway through the 2024 season, but this is the first “offseason” with that choice available.
FCC would currently have two guaranteed DP’s on the roster (Luciano Acosta and Denkey) but how they build their roster from there is wide open. They have zero U22 players on the roster so that provides an avenue for roster building, but in the past Albright has said the extra Allocation Money is very appealing to them because of how many high “GAM” players FCC has.
Designated Players obviously have their appeal as you can essentially bring in a player like Acosta or Denkey, or previously Obinna Nwobodo. Players that otherwise wouldn’t fit inside the salary cap. The U22 designation allows you to bring in young stars with fewer constraints, but those players are younger, need development, and may not be “win now” pieces for a team looking to do just that.
It’s a complicated question, and one that Albright said the organization is still mulling over, but he did provide further details to his thinking.
“It’s still a little premature,” Albright said of making a commitment one way or the other. “I would say that the league, to its credit, is evolving, and that these new rules should help us have more flexibility. And with a lot of things moving around this off season, I think we're still evaluating which strategy is the best for FCC Cincinnati based on our salary cap and what our needs are.”
The biggest “question” though, in a grab bag of minutia is Luciano Acosta. While under contract with FCC for another two seasons the 2023 MLS MVP, Best XI winner and overall league superstar has made his interests in departing the club public. Or, at the very least and in the most literal sense, made it known he is interested in exploring what a move would look like.
That would seemingly have to fundamentally change the way FC Cincinnati operates and envision themselves for the future. He is not a player who is easily replaceable and has been at the center for the FCC tactical identity since his breakout in 2022.
Albright was measured in his response to Acosta’s words on Tuesday. It was after all the first time the club had formally addressed Acosta’s words in the aftermath of the playoff loss to NYCFC, and Acosta did not speak again after the season as he was unavailable for his ‘exit interview’ with the media.
“He's clearly the best player to ever play at FC Cincinnati, and probably one of the best players to ever play in our league. So I think that needs to be recognized first and foremost,” Albright said to open his remarks on the FCC Captain.
“The comments after the game… that, I'm well aware of. I think emotions are running high. I think everybody in that building, certainly in our locker room, is frustrated. You know, Lucho had a difficult year in some ways, outside of the incredible production between injuries and things that he's spoken about, we continued to support him like we did. We do all our players on and off the field, and we'll continue to do that. As far as his future with FCC Cincinnati, those conversations are still ongoing. We want to obviously do what's best for us, but also make sure that he and his family are in a good place and comfortable. Tremendous amount of respect for him as a player, as a person, and we're in good discussions with him and his reps about what that looks like going forward.”
Albright furthered his response by indicating his confidence in handling any sort of drama on the basis of the backbone of the organization. Saying there are strong leaders and a strong culture to handle any sort of conflict. This isn't the first time the team has dealt with unrest or unassuredness and it likely won’t be the last. But Albright believes any problem is manageable, one way or the other.
