Analysis: Minnesota United signs Wil Trapp, with Bongokuhle Hlongwane maybe next

Ah, early January, when the thoughts of Minnesota sports fans naturally turn to … soccer?

Don’t laugh. As hard as it might be to believe, Minnesota United is about to get its 2025 campaign underway.

The Loons are required to return to the Twin Cities by Friday. Their first training session of the preseason is Monday. Minnesota’s first scheduled preseason game is exactly one month from today, at the Coachella Valley Invitational in Indio, Calif. — and the Loons open the regular season six weeks from Saturday, at LAFC.

Cold or not, it’s soccer season again.

Minnesota begins the year with 25 of its 30 roster spots filled. The 25 includes all 16 players who appeared in one of the team’s three playoff games last year and 19 of the 21 players who made a game-day roster in the postseason — all but center back Miguel Tapias, who was sold to Chivas, and forward Franco Fragapane, who was out of contract and returned to his native Argentina.

That’s not to mention that the Loons have three other things they didn’t have last season at this time: a chief soccer officer who has his feet under him, a non-interim manager and an entire coaching staff in place.

The returning players will include midfielder Wil Trapp, who is signing a one-year deal with a club option for 2026. Minnesota had declined an option on Trapp’s contract at the end of 2024, but even as the team declined his option for roster flexibility, the two sides were already working toward a new deal.

Though he turns 32 next week, Trapp was one of the most consistent Loons last season, playing more than 2,500 minutes and becoming one of manager Eric Ramsay’s most trusted on-field lieutenants. In four seasons with Minnesota, Trapp has started 110 MLS games, making him one of the longest-serving Loons in club history.

Minnesota is also closing in on a new deal with forward/wingback Bongokuhle Hlongwane and is hoping to get it over the line before the beginning of the season. Hlongwane, 24, is currently entering the last year of his contract.

An extension would open a U22 Initiative roster spot for the Loons, allowing them to bring in another player that’s 22 years old or younger — just as they did with Hlongwane three seasons ago. Chief soccer officer Khaled El-Ahmad has said he will be focusing on those young players in the winter transfer window, as well as the window next summer.

The U22 spots are important, especially when it comes to acquiring new players, because — unlike other nondesignated players — any transfer fees paid don’t count against the team’s salary cap, and the player’s salary counts against the cap at a reduced rate.

At the moment, Minnesota has three designated players under contract: Kelvin Yeboah, Teemu Pukki and Joaquín Pereyra. Their plan is to change that, perhaps by moving Pereyra out of a DP spot.

El-Ahmad has said that the club will be moving toward having just two designated players, which would give them four U22 spots instead of three – and also $2 million extra in “allocation money” (effectively, salary-cap space). The money could be a big deal in a league where, outside the DPs, teams spend less than $10 million on player salaries.

If Hlongwane extends his contract, the Loons would be left with two important players on their potential extension list: goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair and midfielder Hassani Dotson. The team picked up contract options for both at the end of last year, but both could be free agents at the end of 2025.

For the moment, though, the roster looks awfully familiar to those who remember 2024.

Not that this is a difficult feat, given that the Loons’ season ended barely a month and a half ago.