Photo Marjorie Elzey

Jakob Glesnes will depart the Union for the LA Galaxy for $1 million or more General Allocation Money (GAM), and sources project that Colombian center back Geiner Martinez of Juventud in the Uruguayan top division is likely being acquired.

Selling Glesnes at high value as he approaches the end of his prime years while his roster asset value starts to decline fits the Union’s business model. He has proven himself a top MLS defender and the Galaxy are willing to pay well for a year or two of that. If Geiner Martinez becomes his replacement, it is worth studying what we can of the almost 23-year-old Colombian’s recent career.

Martinez

The Colombian is eight years younger than Glesnes. He is right footed. He is 6’2” or 6’3”. Whether he is as solidly built as the blonde Viking berserker  cannot be determined at this time, but pictures on Juventud’s social media suggest he is not a stripling. We have found nothing direct about pace, agility, or quickness, let alone “soccer IQ.”

His club has had strong fall. Juventud qualified for the Copa Libertadores, apparently for the first time in their history. So Philadelphia is buying him away at a time of club success. He’s not part of a fire sale.

He achieved promotion to play in Uruguay’s first division in the middle of calendar 2025. He moved from second division Central Espanol where he may have been a Juventud player on loan. Most recently he seems to have been starting 100% of the time for the first team as part of a four-man back line. His average minutes per game for the last 12 games is 85, so he is no iron man but is an every-game stalwart. His professional career totals only thirteen starts in the Uruguayan top flight, with 30 total in their second division. He is less experienced at the highest level than Bruno Damiani was when he came last year.

Commentary

We are handicapped by not yet having information about Union II end-of-season roster decisions. Colleague Alex Hayden’s skill with social media has found third party references to Rafael Uzcategui training somewhere in South America while being referred to as a Philadelphia Union II player, a hopeful detail. It may be indicative but is certainly not conclusive that the Venezuelan is coming back. It is even less indicative that he has a role to play in the first team’s back line depth.

A Glesnes departure would intensify the importance of Uzcategui’s status, as it would for that of Neil Pierre’. And next year’s extra games in the Concacaf Champions Cup and the Leagues Cup magnify both.

The obvious move to replace Glesnes is internal. Reduce the number of outside backs by one and move Nathan Harriel into the center, a position he played with repeated success in the past two years albeit not at Defender of the Year levels. But that move reduces depth in the defense on the outside, and for whatever reasons we have never seen Olivier Mbaizo attempt to play left back since his very first preseason in the United States with Bethlehem Steel back in 2018. The lessening of outside back depth raises questions about signing academy amateur Jordan Griffin, 17.1-years-old, left footed, and back from U. S. U17 duty at the recent FIFA U17 World Cup in Qatar.

Harriel to the center would allow Martinez time to acclimate and adjust. Marabella on Spain’s Costa del Sol will be crucial to evaluate what ‘s what.  And the initial pace of regular season play with MLS’s away and home openers following three days behind C C Cup’s Round One first and second legs cries out for depth all over the squad not just on the back line.

Conclusion

No matter how the Glesnes matter evolves and is handled, the Union defensive line would become markedly less experienced with his departure. Alejandro Bedoya cannot play there.  But losing the third-choice captain might highlight Bedoya’s importance to the locker room. Only Kai Wagner and Andre Blake would be left from the defense that anchored 2022’s run to the MLS Cup final. (Damn you, Gareth Bale!)