Photo @Fabrizio Romano

MLS’s secondary transfer window opens later this week. It seems worthwhile to present our best understanding of the Union organization’s professional rosters as we think they are while the window is opening. It is much too early to include the amateur academy players since their tryouts for Union II are just beginning. We will review Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) players, discuss international roster slots, and finally try our hand at guessing a 2026 depth chart.

The Union’s four “special players”

As of last February 24^th, 2025’s official roster profiles, five Philadelphia Union players were “special players” and six were TAM players. Since one “special player” has since been sold, there are now a total of ten. The maximum individual salary budget charge is a number crucial to the status of these ten. For the 2025 season it is $743,750. Designated players, Under 22 Initiative players, and Targeted Allocation Money players are allowed to have salaries higher than that charge. Not all do as we will demonstrate below.

• Mikael Uhre is a designated player, and his salary is above the upper limit for a TAM or GAM buy-down. We do not know the upper limit for 2025 in exact numbers. For 2024 it was somewhere around $1.7 million.
• Bruno Damiani is a young DP since he is under 24 years old. His salary lies between the upper and lower limits for a TAM or GAM buy-down.
• Olwethu Makhanya is a U22 player and his salary lies between the upper and lower limits for a TAM or GAM buy-down.
• Quinn Sullivan is a U22 player and his salary lies between the upper and lower limits for a TAM or GAM buy-down.

Current TAM players

Below we enumerate the Union’s TAM players as listed on the official February ’25 roster profile.

• Andre Blake’s salary is above the 2025 maximum individual salary budget charge, so it must be being bought down.
• Kai Wagner’s salary is above the maximum individual salary budget charge, so it must be being bought down.
• Jakob Glesnes’s salary is above the maximum individual salary budget charge, so it must be being bought down.
• Danley Jean Jacques’s salary is below the maximum individual salary budget charge, so it is not necessarily being bought down although that is still possible. Therefore, a transfer fee may be being amortized from his acquisition less than a year ago on August 8, 2024.
• Tai Baribo’s salary is below the maximum individual salary budget charge, so it is not necessarily being bought down although that is still possible. Therefore, a transfer fee may still be being amortized from his acquisition nearly two years ago on August 2, 2023.
• Ian Glavinovich’s salary is below the maximum individual salary budget charge, so it is not necessarily being bought down although that is still possible. It cannot be a conventional transfer fee since he is a loan player. Therefore, probably it is a loan fee being amortized from December 20, 2024.

Future international slots

As of February’s official roster profile, seven Philadelphia Union players required international roster spots. The Union traded its eighth slot to Nashville on April 22^nd for $350,000 of General Allocation Money (GAM). We are guessing the money influenced the Damiani deal somehow.

• Tai Baribo has a green card in process. It likely cannot take effect in MLS until the 2026 season, unless he has already received it or at least appeared for his visa interview. Either way, we assume he not be using an international slot in 2026.
• Bruno Damiani will probably continue to need an international slot in 2026.
• Ian Glavinovich would also probably need an international slot if, as we expect, his contract gets bought.
• Danley Jean Jacques has played well enough as a box-to-box midfielder that the Union might get an unrefusable offer for him from another club.
• Jovan Lukic will also probably continue to need an international slot.
• Olwethu Makhanya will also probably do so.
• Oliver Semmle has a club-held option for 2026. It is unlikely that the club will exercise his option, since his salary is noticeably higher than Andrew Rick’s, he is behind Rick on the depth chart, and he is almost eight full years older.

At least one and perhaps all three second team internationals might be promoted to the first team next year, although the first seems much more likely than the other two.

• Venezuelan center back Rafael Uzcategui almost certainly will gain promotion. We are guessing the Union needed the GAM it got for its eighth international slot for Damiani, so Uzcategui learned English and the Bradley Carnell system with Union II for a year.
• Venezuelan right back Giovanny Sequera perhaps might also be promoted, although he needs another year of Union II experience at his new position.
• Swiss defensive midfielder Noah Probst (yet to be announced officially) is a promotion possibility, but seems more likely to be promoted two years from now after spending next year with Union II. Probst will allow David Vazquez to return to attacking midfielder when Cavan Sullivan leaves. And he will enable Nick Pariano to begin practicing with the first team as a defensive mid next year.

Depth chart guesswork

Here is our best current guess at a 2026 organization professional depth chart with the holes identified thus . . . “??.”

We assume defensive midfielder Probst is going to be announced slightly before the secondary transfer window opens July 24^th. Union II need him to play July 26th. Cavan Sullivan’s few-week absence in England for Manchester City preseason (see photo and click the link) means Union II need Probst to cover David Vazquez who will presumably move up to cover Sullivan.