Photo Marjorie Elzey
Periodically, PSP will report how Philadelphia players who are loaned away are doing. Transfermarkt, Wikipedia, X (formerly Twitter), and USL Championship provide the data. Data is from 2024 only.
Five professional players are currently loaned away. Four are first-teamers. The fifth, Jose Riasco, is contracted to Union II, although Ernst Tanner said early last December that he is trying to sign him to the first team. We expect three of the five to return, but not the other two, whose loans include purchase options.
Updated Monday, March 11
| Player | Ret? | Club | Level | Dress` | App | Start | Mins |
| Brandan Craig | Yes | El Paso | US 2nd | 1 | 1 | 1 | 90 |
| Nelson Pierre | Yes | Skovde AIK | Swd 2nd | 3 | 3 | 1 | 101 |
| Richard Odada | No | Aalborg BK | Den 2nd | 16 | 14 | 7 | 646 |
| Joaquin Torres | No | Univ. Catolica | Chil 1st | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jose Riasco | Yes | Boston River | Uru 1st | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
Errata
Brandan Craig started and played the entire match in El Paso Locomotive’s league-opening 1-0 penalty kick loss against Hartford Athletic. He did not commit the penalty kick foul.
Nelson Pierre started the first match in a pre-season competition and subbed on in the next two. Skovde opens its regular league season on April 1.
Richard Odada is more than just a squad player, though he is not a consistent starter in Denmark’s second division. He remains Kenya’s first-choice defensive midfielder. It seems unlikely that he will return to Philadelphia, however, since Aalborg’s announcement indicated they have a purchase option. According to the Union’s announcement last August, Odada’s loan ends on June 30.
Joaquin Torres dressed once in Catolica’s first three games of the Chilean first-division season. His age suggests he may not return to Philadelphia. The Union holds an option for the 2025 season, where his current contract still governs. However, Catolica does hold a purchase option.
Riasco
Contrary to the language of Union II’s September loan announcement, Jose Riasco’s loan at Boston River in Uruguay’s highest division continues beyond 2023. He appeared in the last four minutes of the 2-1 Saturday, March 9 win over River Plate in the 2024 Uruguayan league’s Apertura.
He missed at least a part of the club’s pre-Apertura preparation since he was away with Venezuela’s U-23s in CONMEBOL’s qualification tournament for the Paris Olympics. Venezuela made the final round of four but failed to win a trip to France.
We suspect the discovery rights reported earlier by Joe Tansey, as held by another MLS club, would be resolved by a quantity of GAM changing hands. If Riasco’s loan ends on June 30, he would rejoin when Julian Carranza might by chance be departing. Even if Carranza were to stay, there are currently enough open roster spaces to add the Venezuelan in July.
BOXSCORE
Comments