Countrymen on Minnesota United make transition easier for Adrien Hunou and Franco Fragapane

As fellow Frenchmen Bakaye Dibassy and Romain Metanire came to Minnesota before new Loons striker Adrien Hunou, so, too, did Argentine countrymen Emanuel Reynoso and Ramon Abila come before newly arrived left-side attacker Franco Fragapane.

Fragapane had vacationed in Orlando and Miami, but it was both Reynoso last season and Abila this season who showed Fragapane the way to Minnesota and Major League Soccer after each spoke well about both.

"It's a nice club, a good country," Fragapane said. "They told me it was a good club, so I didn't doubt it and I came here."

Hunou had vacationed in the United States, too, and knew Loons players Dibassy and Metanire from playing against them in France's first division. Hunou took Dibassy's advice when he decided it was time at age 27 to leave the Stade Rennais team for which he played these past 12 years for a three-year contract and team option for a fourth in MLS.

"He said it was a good club, a beautiful place," Hunou said in French through interpreter and Loons player personnel director Amos Magee.

"All the infrastructure is really good and it's a good group of guys."

When Fragapane decided Minnesota was the right place for a new start, he started studying Loons games.

"I saw a good team," Fragapane said. "That's why I decided to come here, to help the team. Honestly, the city is really nice, now in the summer. In the winter, I'm not sure."

Fragapane left a soccer-crazed continent that places its own demands on players. He said Reynoso and Abila told him he would come to a team and a league where he wouldn't have such issues.

"In Argentina, it's a hard environment to live in when you play soccer," Fragapane said. "The truth is, they told me I would live well here, came and that it was good soccer."

Fragapane played for his Club Atletico Talleres team until South America's season ended. His visa paperwork was finalized the day after his final game. Talleres is the same team for which Reynoso once played in his hometown of Cordoba.

He ended his Argentine season on a scoring binge and arrived in Minnesota in rhythm and ready to resume where he left off in his country's top division. His MLS debut scheduled for last Saturday's game at Real Salt Lake was delayed when final paperwork from Argentina didn't arrive because of a COVID-19 spike that has locked down that country.

Hunou made his debut in the 1-1 comeback draw in which he started and played the first 65 minutes before Abila subbed in for him.

He analyzed his first game this way: "Missed a [scoring] chance, thought I was pretty good keeping possession. The team did pretty good to get a point, but I think we can get a lot better and go a lot further."

Both players came to Minnesota with nicknames given them in their homeland. They called Fragapane "Fra-ga-gol" in Argentina for his goal- scoring gifts.

"I don't know who started it," he said. "Everyone called me 'Fraga,' but they can only call me 'Fra-ga-gol' when I start scoring goals here."

Hunou is nicknamed "Pippo" after former Italian scoring star Filippo Inzaghi, who himself was nicknamed "Super Pippo."

Hunou said he finds himself in good scoring places like Inzaghi did in his playing days.

"I got that nickname in Rennais," he said. "Here, I'm Adrien Hunou. Pippo is good because it represents being a good goal scorer, but I'm Adrien."