Subiarbe Rumors Heat Up, Zidane Returns for France, and more: Tuesday Freedom Kicks
Morning DC Footy Folk!
It’s a steamy morning in DC. I played an indoor soccer match last night where it felt like we were swimming rather than running on the pitch…
Anyways let’s get to the news!
Chelsea-linked Ian Subiabre nears surprise MLS move from River Plate (Football Place)
A bit more detail regarding the potential transfer of the Argentine teenagers to DCU. It appears as though he is being frozen out of the first team at River Plate. Allegedly because he participated in an “intercontinental tournament”? Not sure what that means…
On the social media channels, DCU teased an announcement so we shall see who it is…
France announce Zinedine Zidane as new coach, replacing Didier Deschamps
It seems some top managers are making the move from club football to the international game. After 5 years in the wilderness, Zidane will attempt to steer France to the World Cup title (which he won once and nearly again at the tail end of his career) and he’ll have 4 years to prep his team.
Trial looks to end goalkeeper tactical timeouts (Yahoo! Sports)
Honestly, I like this rule. The biggest complaints my non-soccer friends had watching the World Cup was the diving and the time wasting. FIFA would do well to cut down on these and with this trial and the “mistaken identity” rule, it will likely make games more appealing.
Real Madrid ready to seal deal for Yan Diomande after PSG pull out of move (The Guardian)
Last week I posted about stars from the World Cup who could possibly line up a big transfer off the back of some promising performances. Well nothing is bigger than Real Madrid! Mind you, he was playing high school soccer two years ago!
Italy just cannot sort itself out, it seems. It truly is astounding how a country with such a rich history in the international soccer scene continues to be so…mediocre.
NWSL Power Rankings: Spirit reclaim No. 1 spot after Gotham FC falter (ESPN)
MLS Power Rankings: Can Lewandowski propel Chicago up the order? (ESPN)
A pair of Power Ranking for you all. Spirit are top of the NWSL and top of the Power Rankings. Meanwhile, DCU is 20th out of 20 teams.
Why Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández has decided to play in the USL ($The Athletic)
I’ll be honest, I thought Chicharito had retired (especially after seeing him do commentary at the World Cup). But it looks like Mexico’s leading goal scorer will lace up his boots again.
Gotham FC, Esther González Agree to Mutual Contract Termination
Gotham part ways with Esther. Many speculated how Gotham would be able to keep all of their stars and, well, it looks like they won’t be able to.
That’s all from me folks! See you in the comments!
The incoming signing is almost certainly Nono, although the most interesting thing to me will be to see where the international slot is coming from.
My confidence in DC being able to make good use of Subiabre is very low, but I’d really like to see them try!
If they’re going to snag Nono and Subiabre, it’s good that they won’t need to trade for 2 international slots. I don’t doubt they have the GAM to get it, but GAM may suddenly be a lot less valuable if the league is about to get rid of it — a step which will change a lot of things, including the ability of teams to trade for international roster slots. Kinda wondering whether and why other teams wouldn’t be using their int’l slots and would prefer some GAM. Maybe bringing in USMNT players?
On the DC “Landing Soon” post, it very well could end up being Nono, especially since he was at the game on Saturday. But, in addition to that, Capital City Soccer Show sat down with Sogut this past weekend for an interview, and Sogut mentioned that a new Homegrown signing could be coming as soon as this week. So, there’s an off chance its that instead. Though, I feel like with the Landing Soon posts, its usually more often an international transfer coming in, so this one is probably Nono
Pretty sure they don’t use the DC landing in red mist graphic for homegrown signings. The implication is normally that someone is coming here- academy players need a pro contract and a roster spot, but are technically already here and have obviously that affiliation.
It’s almost certainly Nono.
Last night in the MLS NEXT All Star Game, Oscar Avilez scored 2 goals and had an assist in the first half of the game and was awarded the game MVP award. Good to see that guys from our very real MLS NEXT Pro team are doing so well!
MLS Next Pro team what’s that /s?
Yeah, a bit odd that the MLS Next Pro Allstar game MVP… does not have an MLS Pro team to play for
That’s okay. Ownership is going to announce a partnership six months ago.
I mean, they were just hoping that the State of Maryland would pay for a minor league stadium, which seems stupid, but also…were they just going to wait for the stadium to be built before launching a team?
While the outcomes of the ref crew applications of the identity rule were just (and I take no issue with them), they were clearly not correct. There needs to be an explicit rule that gives the ref and VAR that authority, rather than trying to shoehorn in a “whoops I was fooled and instead will give the card to the opponent” interpretation. Fully agree that the constant whining, faking and embellishments of minor fouls for tactical gain need to stop. It’s annoying in recreational soccer and really ruins the game at the professional level.
Blanked this comment as Brendan’s below covers the same info but better.
(I referred specifically to the apparent news of an open international slot, for reference.)
Oh yeah, I forgot to include that in my write up, but that definitely stood out for me! Possibly it means that someone has gotten a green card and it hasn’t been announced, or the team traded for an international slot and hasn’t announced that yet either.
And now my edit has mucked up your comment. So much for my attempt at efficiency, lol.
An interesting interview on WTOP (https://wtop.com/dc-united/2026/07/dc-united-enters-next-phase-of-its-rebuild-as-mls-restarts-play/) with Erkut Sogut. He says that they’re bringing in a new signing in his early 20s, which would line up with Nono who is 24, I think. He also says they’re probably not going to be bringing in another big signing, partly due to the “inflated market” following the World Cup. That likely means no third DP, despite what Levien and Kaplan promised. I don’t know if that precludes a fourth U22, like potentially Subiabre. I’ve said that I don’t necessarily mind forgoing a third DP while we’re rebuilding, just so we can bank some GAM to rollover to next year, but we then need to be maxing out the U22 slots to try and get young talent.
Speaking of, Sogut did say that the team is planning to sign another Homegrown player soon, and that there may be plans to loan out the homegrown players (no word on starting an MLS Next Pro team grumble grumble). So far, the team has loaned out their draft picks (Karamoko, Aman), but not their homegrowns (unless you’re counting Tubbs as a homegrown). Getting them playing time is vital, and Sogut also said he thought they could get some time with the first time under Weiler, but outside of a couple minutes for Gavin Turner, that hasn’t happened yet.
And finally, it seems like the club is focusing on Germany and Japan for talent identification. Kurokawa and Nono bear out the Japanese connection, and Hefti was playing in Germany. Solid acquisitions, although not necessarily difference makers.
Also of note:
“A team spokesperson told WTOP the club also has an open international spot.”
… which is news to all of us, I believe.
Yeah, that is curious
Maybe there’s a chance Peltola hasn’t been starting because he’s been over in Finland recently getting his green card situated? One can hope. Rowles and Peglow would really be the only other options, and they’ve both been here for about a year and a half
Jason Anderson is now reporting that, per team communications, that Peltola, Peglow, and Rowles have all received green cards, and the team has three open international slots following that. So, good news!
Subiabre, here we come!
That is utterly astounding. When was the last time we even got someone a green card in less than 2 years???
I think maybe Pirani did. But I don’t remember when so many players got their green cards essentially all at once. I think Kijima and MacNaughton got theirs around the same time last year, but this is unmitigated excellent work from the DC front office. The path is clear for the Nono signing. They can sign Subiabre without issue (just trying to manifest, here). And they can still get that Czech striker, or even trade an international slot for some extra GAM.
Yeah, Pirani is a weird one because he was here on loan and then came back. So he was here for like 2.5 years in total, but only like 1.5 as a permanent player. So hard to say where he actually falls on that scale.
I’m also curious what we’re going to be using the U22 GAM on. I don’t think you can roll that GAM over to next year like you can with other GAM.
Yeah, you do have to use the $2 million GAM this year. But between TAM players and maybe buying out Herrera or Badji or whatever, I’m sure they can spend it. And then that’s $2 million that would have come out of their GAM pile that CAN be rolled over, so we will hopefully have a decent amount to play with next year. That Sogut interview talks about wanting to be two starters deep at each position, and having all that extra GAM is a good step to making that happen.
Of course, The Athletic just dropped a story saying that the owners are going to hear (and vote on?) a proposal to perhaps do away with GAM and make the roster budgeting process a lot more open.
So, who knows.
Roster flexibility is good and should help teams in general. But the teams that won’t spend money will still have problems.
Two starters deep is smart. Building a team that can last a long season with injuries and international duty and just plain exhaustion will improve the team. You don’t need to sign DP’s for this rebuild. I still think with all these new players it will take some time to build team chemistry. Hopefully, sooner better than later. The last two games got results, but looked disorganized to me. Hoping that will improve.
That’s phenomenal news. I would not be shocked if we then swapped/sold one of those open international slots this year to help with the rebuild by acquiring some Garberbucks,
Depends on the ongoing owner discussions concerning roster construction.
Germany apparently looking at bidding for Men’s World Cup 2038 and/or 2042.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7472762/2026/07/28/germany-world-cup-host-2038-2042/
There was a story days ago about France and Germany agreeing to pursue a joint bid. All well and good, but there’s really little chance that the next European host won’t be England, or likely a UK hosting deal. It should’ve been England in 2018, but for FIFA corruption. I’m still surprised that England was passed by for 2030, but I can’t see that happening again.
Another rumor is DCU is pursuing David Doudera.