MLS transfer news: Brandon Vazquez headed to Gladbach?

Gladbach interested? 

FC Cincinnati striker Brandon Vazquez remains heavily linked with a move to Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach. A transfer was first reported by Sky Germany all the way back in March when Gladbach sporting director Roland Virkus spent the international break in the United States to scout the 24-year-old striker. Since then, Gladbach have kept tracking the progress of the US men’s national team striker, and recent reports continue to link the forward with a move to the Bundesliga. 

Virkus watched Vazquez in March when US men’s national team striker (six games and three goal) scored the 1-0 winner over Nashville SC. Vazquez has scored six goals and one assist in 20 games across all competitions for Cincinnati this season and has been a big reason his club sits in first place in the Eastern Conference at the moment. Gladbach are currently looking for a replacement for Marcus Thuram. The French national team striker left the club this summer after his contract expired at the end June. 

Signing a new striker, therefore, will be crucial for Gladbach this summer. But Vazquez is under contract until 2025, and the Major League Soccer side have an option for one additional year. Plus, in Brazilian striker Brenner, who joined Udinese this summer, Cincinnati have already lost a top striker and are at the moment, unwilling to lose another top player.

Vazquez has seen his market value skyrocket in 2022

Furthermore, the American forward has also seen his market value skyrocket from €500,000 to €7m in 2022 after scoring 20 goals and eight assists in 37 games across all competitions last year. After selling Brenner, Cincinnati will ask in excess of Vazquez’s market value, with Sky Germany reporting a fee in the region of €8-10 million as an entry into discussions. 

Vazquez, in fact, might be one of the most in-demand forwards currently playing in MLS. Brenner and Vazquez formed the most dangerous attacking duo in MLS in 2022—together, the two strikers scored 36 goals in MLS last season, the same amount as Philadelphia Union duo Dániel Gazdag and Julián Carranza (overview). 

This season, Vazquez has had a slower start to the season, scoring just four in the first 17 games and while he was not called up to the US men’s national team for the Concacaf Nations League games against Mexico and Canada in June, Vazquez did score a crucial goal for the USA against Canada on Sunday in the Gold Cup quarterfinals. 

Either way, it appears Vazquez is now ready for the next step in his career, and moving to Europe would be consequential. But what could he offer a club like Gladbach? There is no doubt that filling the void left by Thuram—the French international helped guide his nation to a second-place finish at the World Cup—would be a big undertaking. 

Gladbach target Vazquez scouted – How does he compare to Thuram?

There are certainly some interesting parallels when you compare Vazquez and Thuram’s performances over the last calendar year on Wyscout. Both have scored a similar amount of goals per 90 minutes (0.52 vs 0.47) and have close enough numbers when it comes to touches in the box (3.9 vs 4.52). Vazquez has had a slightly better goal conversion rate of 21.739 vs Thuram’s 17.391. Thuram, in the meantime, has been the better dribbler leading in that category by a significant margin (4.11 vs 1.86).

All those numbers come with the caveat that Thuram produced them in a top 4 European league. Also, Thuram has been an established player in the Bundesliga for some time, and Vazquez is now looking back to just one fully productive season in MLS. Stylistically, there are also some significant differences between the two strikers. Whereas Vazquez is a typical box striker, Thuram is more of an inverted winger turned no.9. 

That is a big takeaway when it comes to Vazquez overall. The San Diego native is a typical no.9 who is best suited to play in a two-man attack. That could perhaps suit head coach Gerardo Seoane as he is trying to rebuild this Gladbach side in his own image. But could Gladbach pull this off? Cincinnati are a notoriously difficult negotiation partner as the talks around Brenner earlier this year highlighted. The MLS club will likely ask for north of the €7m market value, and Vazquez himself will be in high demand should he once again be productive in MLS this season.

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