Minnesota United sporting director Khaled El-Ahmad boldly shakes up roster during MLS transfer window

MINNESOTA UNITED | ANALYSIS

Minnesota United made a big bet in the offseason, hiring Khaled El-Ahmad to be the team’s new chief soccer officer and sporting director — by any measure, a hire from outside the usual MLS pipeline.

After his first summer transfer window in charge, one thing is clear: El-Ahmad is doubling down, and betting big on himself.

The Loons have just nine games left this season, which will be a short window in which to judge the CSO’s new acquisitions. But this is their first chance at answering an important question about El-Ahmad: just how good is he at identifying talent?

If the answer isn’t “really, really good,” then the Loons could be in trouble — and not just for this season, but for the future as well.

El-Ahmad’s latest addition, Argentinian midfielder Joaquín Pereyra, proved to be the final piece of what turned out to be a summer re-imagining of Minnesota’s roster in attack, on defense and everywhere in between.

The Loons have brought in five new international players (including two designated players), traded away Caden Clark and have sent or will send three more first-team players on loan, bringing their total of loanees up to six. All this on top of the moves they’ve already made earlier this season, including selling Emanuel Reynoso and Kervin Arriaga.

Pereyra, at age 25, is the oldest of the additions, a left-footed attacking player that can play several different roles, according to Loons manager Eric Ramsay.

“Part of the attraction for me was [his] versatility,” Ramsay said. “I think you could look at him and say that he’s a 10 [a central attacking midfielder], but also if you look at a lot of his best actions, they come from slightly deeper.

“He’s not, maybe, a 10 in the in the traditional Argentinian mold, but someone who could play across a lot of slots on that left hand side.”

The Argentinian also fits in well with the rest of Minnesota’s summer signings, plus the trade that added St. Louis City wingback Anthony Markanich. All six players — Pereyra, Markanich, Jefferson Díaz, Matúš Kmeť, Kelvin Yeboah and Samuel Shashoua (who has already debuted) — are in their early-to-mid-twenties, and have the prime of their careers ahead of them.

They’re also alike in another way: none save Markanich have MLS experience, and all of the international signings now have to make a step up.

Yeboah and Pereyra both have experience at high levels — Pereyra has over 120 appearances in Argentina’s top division, and Yeboah has played in three of Europe’s Big Five leagues. But now they’re coming in with the added pressure of being designated players, and Loons fans can reel off their own lists of Minnesota DPs that haven’t made a mark in MLS.

Diaz, Kmeť and Shashoua, meanwhile, have yet to star in a top league, never mind in North America. Much, then, is being trusted to El-Ahmad and his ability to identify talent from afar.

Ramsay, meanwhile, is already sounding a note of caution, warning the few weeks remaining in the 2024 season probably won’t be enough to judge the group as a whole.

“I’d be absolutely amazed if by the end of this period here, we’ve had all four or five be complete hits,” said Ramsay. “I just don’t think that’s going to happen until we’re building to a slightly longer time frame, and that’s been reflected in the age of the players that we brought in.

“Of course, we want as many of them as possible to come into the team relatively quickly to make a mark on the starting eleven — we wouldn’t have brought them in if we didn’t think that was the case. But I’m also realistic enough to know that that’s only going be likely probably in two or three of those cases.”

As designated players, Yeboah and Pereyra would be expected to fill big roles for Minnesota. Díaz, as a right-sided center back, and Kmeť, a right wingback, also seem poised to potentially play a big part for Minnesota down the stretch. The Loons are currently without a first-choice right center back after Kervin Arriaga’s departure, and DJ Taylor is still working back from injury at right back.

As a club, Minnesota now also has the task of integrating the new players — not only working them into a new team, but settling them in a new country. They’ve been variously successful at that this season. On the one hand, they brought in Alejandro Bran from Costa Rica on loan, and have liked him so much they’re planning to buy his contract from his team, then loan him to Burton Albion of the English third division for further development.

On the other hand, there’s the saga of Victor Eriksson, who never seemed to mesh in at all and ended up returning to Sweden after just a few months with Minnesota.

The club now has a huge challenge in front of it: a first-year manager with a new chief soccer officer, trying to quickly mold a squad with a handful of new players into a team that can climb up the standings. It won’t be easy, but all along, this is the bet Loons leadership has made — that they have the right people in places to make it work.