Gladbach interested?
FC Cincinnati striker Brandon Vazquez has been linked with a move to Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach. On Tuesday, Sky Germany reported that Gladbach sporting director Roland Virkus spent the international break in the United States to scout the 24-year-old striker.
Virkus saw Vazquez last weekend in which the US men’s national team striker (one game and one goal) scored the 1-0 winner over Nashville SC. Gladbach are currently looking for a replacement for Marcus Thuram. The French national team striker’s contract expires at the end of the season, and is expected to move on to another club.
Signing a new striker, therefore, will be crucial for Gladbach next summer. But Vazquez is under contract until 2025, and the Major League Soccer side have an option for one additional year. 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. Plus, Gladbach will be hardly the only team from a top 4 league interested in the striker, who is one of the most valuable US-eligible players on the planet.
Pulisic, Reyna, Vazquez & Co.: The 25 Most Valuable USMNT Players
Vazquez and Brenner – One of the most productive attacking duos in 2022
Vazquez, in fact, might be one of the most in-demand forwards currently playing in MLS. Together with Brazilian striker Brenner, who was heavily linked with a move to Europe in January, Vazquez formed the most dangerous attacking duo in MLS—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 once in the first five games and was also not called up to the US men’s national team for the Concacaf Nations League games against Grenada and El Salvador. Vazquez’s response to not being called up, however, was excellent, as he had his best performance of the season last weekend against Nashville SC.
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 (0.48 vs 0.55) and have close enough numbers when it comes to touches in the box (4.15 vs 4.4). Vazquez has had a slightly better goal conversion rate of 21.519 vs Thuram’s 19.227. Thuram, in the meantime, has been the better dribbler leading in that category by a significant margin (4.36 vs 1.68).
Player Comparison
FC Cincinnati
Borussia Mönchengladbach
€7.00m
Market Value
€32.00m
Centre-Forward
Position
Centre-Forward
Dec 31, 2025
Contract until
Jun 30, 2023
Full Player Comparison
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.
With Vazquez – The most valuable MLS players
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 Daniel Farke 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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