San Diego FC tease major signing: “We’re very close” | MLSSoccer.com

San Diego FC are juggling myriad complex tasks as the clock ticks down towards their 2025 MLS expansion debut, from the completion of physical infrastructure in the form of their training facility and academy center to the construction of their inaugural roster.

They’ll need to field a starting XI in February, though. So head coach Mikey Varas started with some numerical basics in speaking about SDFC’s busy day of business in and around their 2024 MLS Expansion Draft on Wednesday, via which they approximately doubled the size of their squad so far, with three additions in the draft and two separate intra-league trades.

“Well, it’s pretty hard to play a game with six players, so it’s a lot better, right?” Varas deadpanned to reporters after the event. “Because now we can field a full team. And ultimately, we were really diligent in the process. There’s a lot of smart people, much smarter than me, that were working on this day and night, and I feel really proud.”

In the long run, the Southern California side plan to rely on their academy – set to utilize the principles and curriculum of the Right To Dream system, of which it’s the latest outpost in a global network of sibling clubs – to supply a steady stream of young talent for the first team. With that pipeline not expected to produce for at least a couple of years, there’s a need to fill that gap in the meantime, which informs much of their activity this winter.

“It was always about finding the balance between immediate performance and also starting to build on that sustainability, because at the end of the day, our academy is not going to produce players for a little bit,” explained Varas. “So we’re looking, I would say, short and medium term as of right now.”

New DP on the way

San Diego made Hirving “Chucky” Lozano a centerpiece of their launch, signing the Mexican winger as their first-ever Designated Player in June, then loaning him back to Dutch side PSV Eindhoven for the rest of the calendar year. Now the focus is on who else will join him at the top of the roster.

SDFC have repeatedly been linked to Manchester City’s Belgian superstar Kevin De Bruyne and veteran Spanish defender Sergio Ramos, and while sporting director Tyler Heaps didn’t name any names on Wednesday, he sounded optimistic about getting a high-profile acquisition across the line soon.

“I told you I’m not sleeping!” Heaps joked to Expansion Draft hosts and MLS Season Pass talent Andrew Wiebe, Matt Doyle and Calen Carr. “We’re working on it, we’re definitely working on it. It’ll come. We’re very close, but you know how this industry works. It’s about negotiating, it’s about getting the right price, it’s about getting the right player. We’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes with our scouts and our recruitment staff, which has done an unbelievable job.

“It’s difficult, right? You can’t show them this clip of us playing exotic football. But we can show them the facilities, the investment that we’re making in it from our owners, but also the project of not only San Diego FC but Right to Dream.”

Reading the tea leaves, it sounds like just one more DP signing is in the works, which would suggest SDFC will adopt the U22 Initiative Player Model in its roster construction, meaning that they’d carry two senior DPs, not three, and four Under-22 Initiative roster slots, and have up to an additional $2 million in General Allocation Money compared to the Designated Player Model.

“I think the next step for us is to get our second DP,” said Varas. “We know in our league, when you get your DPs right, you’re competitive. At the same time, we’re looking for a couple more value-based assets that make sure that those DPs have the best chance of being successful.

“If you do those two things well – if you look at all the last [MLS Cup] champions, that’s what happened. Look at the LA Galaxy and you look at Columbus, the last two, they got their DPs correct. The guys who were supposed to go got numbers, and then they had value-based assets; they had guys like in Columbus [Patrick] Schulte like [Malte] Amundsen, these guys that maybe weren’t so obvious but that produced at a high level.”

The @sandiegofc roster is starting to take shape. 👀 pic.twitter.com/dnCR85xinQ
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 12, 2024

Sporting ethos

Heaps and Varas mentioned right wing and attacking midfield as priority areas for their next batch of additions, and also dropped a few more hints about their game model.

“It’ll be a team that goes after the game, plays proactively, has conviction to build up, but in a vertical and dynamic matter, and who is aggressive to press. You’ll see a team that leaves everything on the field for the fans every single weekend,” said Varas.

“We’re going to play with conviction with the ball. That means dynamic possession with a lot of mobility in the team, not afraid to play inside, but when those spaces close, we are ready to take advantage on the outside,” he later added in Spanish. “What we want to do is play inside to free up spaces for the creative players in the last lines to then exploit for goals.”

Draft haul

Perhaps the biggest surprise of SDFC’s Expansion Draft was their selection of Heine Gikling Bruseth, the 20-year-old Norwegian who Orlando City signed via the U22 initiative for a fee reportedly in the range of $1 million over the summer but never saw match action for the Lions. Heaps said San Diego’s Right To Dream colleagues at FC Nordsjælland provided key intel on the central midfielder left exposed by OCSC.

“This is where our group is so important. Our group knows him well, obviously from having a club up in Denmark, and so our scouts knew of him,” noted Heaps. “He obviously went to Orlando, didn’t get an opportunity whenever they were in a playoff run, but you can tell him when you watch him play, he’s got big potential. We see him as a [No.] 6, 8, somebody that can play in between the pocket or play deeper in buildup, and we think he can bring a lot in 2025 as well as beyond.”