Photo courtesy Philadelphia Union Communications

Since the Philadelphia Union’s season has ended and the club is undergoing a self-declared roster transition, we expand our usual end-of-year analysis of the younger professional prospects to include the first team as well.

At the professional level there are two major subdivisions of the Philadelphia Union organization’s roster. In turn each of those subdivides into three parts. We will present several articles, combining or further subdividing the roster parts as seems wise.

We will finish the series with a depth chart of the professional portion of the organization’s players.

Fuller explanations of the chart below were made in part one of the series. Click here.

(Editor’s note: The article was composed and edited before Holden Trent’s  death had become public knowledge.)

Guaranteed attackers for 2025

 As far as we know the Philadelphia Union have never paid a player or staff member to not work, therefore these players with 2025 guaranteed contracts will return.

Mikael Uhre, 2025 guaranteed. Striker. Jim Curtin stated that Uhre’s statistical production had guaranteed that his option for 2025 would be exercised. His partnership with Tai Baribo and Daniel Gazdag has been quite productive statistically. We should expect that other teams in the eastern conference will devote some time over the offseason devising methods to defend them. The 30.0-year-old is a designated player, and his contract cannot be bought down with TAM or GAM. He will be a free agent after next year.

Tai Baribo, 2025 guaranteed. Striker. Baribo made the most of his opportunity once it presented itself. The 2024 partnership among himself, Uhre, and Gazdag recalls that of the summer of 2022 among Uhre, Gazdag, and Julian Carranza. He is 26.7-years-old, is a TAM player with an annualized base salary of $650,000, and the Union holds an option on his contract for 2026.

Chris Donovan, 2025 guaranteed. Reserve striker. Donovan is 24.2 years old. The organization’s need to evaluate Sam Adeniran meant Donovan received no game minutes after July 13^th. Pending free agent Adeniran signed five days later July 18^th, (see previous article). Donovan knows how to play the Union’s system and works equally hard on both sides of the ball. If Adeniran returns the two will compete to be the third out and out striker, especially if Quinn Sullivan takes over Bedoya’s right midfield slot. Jim Curtin trusts Donovan to defend and run, and he is perceptive and intelligent enough to have understood the Adeniran special circumstance.

Markus Anderson, 2025 guaranteed. Reserve striker. Anderson is almost 21 and pacey. He arrived to preseason in midseason condition and saw early season late game first-team appearances because of that conditioning, we believe. These days he starts regularly next to Eddy Davis III at striker for Union II, getting game minutes and learning the system.  If Adeniran does not return, he might backstop Donovan as the fourth striker. (See comment above about Quinn Sullivan’s role next season.)

Daniel Gazdag, 2025 guaranteed. Attacking midfielder. The Hungarian international is the third member of the summer’s highly productive attacking trio mentioned immediately above. He is 28.6-years-old, a designated payer whose contract can be bought down with allocation money, and the club holds an option on his contract for 2026.  His start on Decision Day was his 28th  with two other appearances off the bench. His primary backup this season has been Jeremy Rafanello, since Cavan Sullivan has played primarily for Union II.

Jeremy Rafanello, 2025 guaranteed. Attacking midfielder. While Rafanello is 24 ½ and unusually old for a Union developing reserve player, he defends reliably and in addition has played acceptably as a shuttling mid or even once as a defensive mid this season. He had ten appearances, four of them starts. Given that next season’s other reserve attacking mid is likely to be a 15-year-old, and that the starter is currently 28.6 and regularly called up for international duty, retaining a trustworthy fill-in at the position who is versatile elsewhere in the midfield was an obvious move. He is also insurance against deflation at other midfield positions. He was signed to a new contract October 16^th.

Cavan Sullivan, 2025 guaranteed. Attacking midfielder. The younger Sullivan turned 15 at the very end of September. For the first team he has two late game cameos of five and three minutes plus stoppage time each. Both times he was on the field with his older brother. He has been practicing consistently with the first team ever since he signed as a professional. His Union II performance will be discussed later in the forthcoming articles focused on those players.

Jack McGlynn, 2025 guaranteed. Left midfielder. McGlynn is 21.3-years-old. There have been unconfirmed reports of overseas interest in buying him. He went to the Olympics in France with the US Olympic team, having been an essential starter throughout qualification but being replaced as the attacking mid cum free kick server by Djorde Mihailovic for the Games themselves. He was the first midfield substitute off the bench in France.

Against lower rank MLS teams, he plays well both ways and his passing affects matches positively. He seems less consistently impactful against the league’s best sides.

If he and Leon Flach (see previous article) both return they will combine to make left mid a position of strength. We have no way to predict whether they will.

C. J. Olney, 2025 guaranteed. Reserve left midfielder. The 17.8-year-old has dressed 13 times between the regular season and the Leagues Cup with one 18-minute substitution appearance against Charlotte FC. He signed a homegrown contract with the Union on August 6^th. He has been practicing regular with the first team since late spring or early summer. His role next year will be influenced by the return or departure of Flach and McGlynn. He has been a mainstay of Union II in games and has been named to the League’s best XI. (See video here.) His performance for them will be discussed later in the forthcoming articles focused on those players.

Nelson Pierre, 2025 guaranteed. Loaned-away striker. From the earliest days of February, the older Pierre brother was loaned away to second division Swedish side AIK Skovde. He never saw the pitch for Skovde after March 3^rd. We do not know whether he was injured, whether the absence was the coach’s decision, or whether it was a combination of the two.

His next game action was July 21^st for Haiti’s U20s at the Concacaf U20 championships in Mexico during which he started the first two matches and subbed into the third. Haiti was eliminated at the end of the tournament’s group stage.

He was recalled from the Swedish loan on August 14^th and loaned out to Charlotte Independence of USL League One, for whom he has appeared in all eight subsequent matches but with only one start. He totals fewer than 120 minutes with the Independence at this writing with two games left in the regular season. USL League One is one of three leagues in the third tier of the US Soccer pyramid. MLS Next Pro, Union II’s league, is also considered third tier.

David Vazquez, 2025 guaranteed. Reserve right midfielder and attacking midfielder. While the 18.7-year-old sat the first team bench five times, he never saw the pitch. He will be discussed later drone treatment of Union II [;ayers on first-team contracts.

NEXT TIME: Guaranteed 2025 defenders.