Photo courtesy Philadelphia Union Communications
The Philadelphia Union announced today they have reached a transfer agreement with second-tier English Football League side, Birmingham City F.C., for defender Kai Wagner in exchange for an undisclosed transfer fee. There have been a number of changes to the Union over past week, including the addition of 19-year-old center back Finn Sundstrom, but this is a big move likely to have implications for how the Union play.
“The contributions Kai has made to this club over the last seven seasons have been nothing short of exceptional,” said Philadelphia Union Head Coach, Bradley Carnell. “He has been a crucial piece of this team’s success over the past seven seasons, and we remain grateful not only for his consistent dedication and hard work, but his staunch leadership qualities both on and off the field. At this time, we are honoring Kai’s wishes to continue his career in Europe, as he feels this is the right step for him and his family. We wish him all the best and know he will continue to find success.”
Wagner, 28, established himself as one of Major League Soccer’s top left backs since joining the league in 2019 and he will be sorely missed. He holds the club record for regular season assists with 56, surpassing Sebastien Le Toux’s previous record of 51 assists. With eight career goals, 204 games played (198 starts) and 17,785 minutes logged, Wagner has been a stalwart of the Union’s backline, helping the team secure two Supporters’ Shields and making six playoff appearances, including an MLS Cup Final. Individually, Wagner is a three-time MLS All-Star and two-time MLS Best XI selection. Prior to joining the Union, Wagner came from German third division side Würzburger Kickers.
Wagner will join Birmingham City F.C. who are in the midst of their 2025-26 EFL Championship season, sitting at 14th in the table. The Blues have earned major honors in their history, including two League Cup titles, and were recently promoted from League One to The Championship at the end of the 2024-25 season.
This is an insult. The Championship is no higher in prestige, or talent, than MLS. Also, Birmingham is not even close, this year, to promotion.
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It is my understanding that Birmingham triggered Wagner’s release clause, but is player release clause information publicly available? I would love to see how much we cheapen out on those terms. Typically, you can get away with a much higher release clause if you pay the player a higher salary, or lock in less years on a deal.
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Therefore, we lost any control on this unless Wagner failed to agree to his new contract terms with Birmingham. That would have certainly nullified it. As such, it still came down to Philadelphia’s purse strings. The Union didn’t pay him enough to have a higher release, and/or his salary wasn’t enough for him to reject Birmingham’s contract offer.
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I hope Kai received good financial, as well as sporting advice, though. I ran the cost of living AI comparison for like money for the Philly Suburbs/South Jersey versus Birmingham, and the USA came out over 10% ahead (at a $1M+ income)… assuming we would have paid him more with a rejected Birmingham offer. That is just the financials. The other superior USA intangible benefits weren’t factored in.
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Best of luck, Kai. Hopefully you get promotion to the EPL. Maybe we’ll see you in another go around (like Sebastian!). As for now, who is going to take on the enforcer role for this team (not to mention the minutes)? Kai never took any junk from opposing teams. He turned out to be a perfect Philly guy!
A couple of additional details. The transfer fee was around $2.7mil depending on the euro exchange rate. But more importantly to your point Kai did have a release clause in his renewal that triggered if a European or English team offered over a certain amount. Why not another MLS team? It was rumored that Inter-Messi was looking at him. This is important in light of the fact that he has wanted to return to Europe for a while now.
I was shocked by the news and I don’t know how we are going to replace his production, but after thinking about it I can’t blame this move on Sugerman being cheap. He signed with us for another great year and then triggered his release clause which the team is honoring. Good luck to Kai.
As an side I am not sure cost of living has anything to do with it at his income level! Plenty of “intangibles” in Europe that are superior or that hardly exist in the US so I think that is hardly relevant.
One other intangible about playing in EFL compared to MLS is that even if his team is not in a position to get promoted, he’s still getting significantly more exposure to the top European teams for a future transfer compared to playing in MLS which has to be seen as more of a retirement league, especially given the makeup of the team that just won the MLS Cup.
Good Luck to Kai !
Shit. Another one gone.
Wrexham should have got him !
(Philly connection)
You will be missed !
Please at least hire Blake and The Captain as coaches .
Happy New Year you S.O.B.’s !
DOOP !
Kai will be missed, Ring of Honor next?
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Expecting ZERO from this new 2026 squad.
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Doop!
Transfermarkt, not 100% reliable about all details always although they do try, says it understands the fee to be 2.5 million euros ($2.932 million dollars at January 3rd, 2026 exchange rates.
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Birmingham city’s website says it is a 2 1/2 year contract, so probably June 30, 2028.
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Wagner’s past history probably reduced his realizable roster asset value.
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He has wanted Europe reportedly before now, so the club is cooperating with his wishes.
Tom Bogert has posted further details of Wagner’s departure.
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https://x.com/tombogert/status/2007190176330633610
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His post includes the statement that the Union “. . . will sign [a] new left back this winter.”
This is a big loss, but probably one that that was inevitable. I don’t meant to suggest Wagner had a foot out the door, because he definitely always gave a great effort on the pitch. But, it was always clear a move back to Europe was in his sights. The release clause sucks, but I doubt the Union would have got Kai to resign without it.
The Union are going to need to sign a new attacker to help bear some of the scoring load, and get some defensive depth as well. I’m not going to criticize them on selling Wagner but I may be very ready to criticize them on not adequately replacing him if they don’t get the checkbook out here.
100% agree! I assume the Union had a plan for this – will they manage to sign a quality replacement?
2.7 million.
U agreed to release if right offer came in.
Expected.
Need 2 LB, possibly another CB if Pierre moves abroad.
HAVE To find another wide attacker. Milan can’t play in 2 spots at once.
Curious if they have a plan behind Lukic.
Danley can wait until summer.
Meantime;
Martinez and Sery Larsen en route………
The tune is always the same. Incremental to the bottom line, add players that have potential but unproven to the dertriment of total team quality, I have quit attending any union games.Woke on quality and
woke on mangement.
Good for Kai to get the move to Europe that he wanted. RE the comments above about replacing his productivity: I wonder if the sign a stay-at-home left back and turn Westfield loose on the right. He could quickly grow into a similar offensive impact to what Wagner provided.
It would be nice for the U leadership to communicate their current plan for success in 2026 given the loss of key players, the addition of a couple of youngsters, and the schedule overload they will again experience this year. Not expected but would show the fan base they at least recognize they exist.
Best LB in Union history. Best of luck. Hope he finds success. He is now got his opportunity. Convinced Union current ownership will never put together a team that wins the MLS cup. They just keep the player development machine moving along . This season does not look like they will be competitive. Not worth the price of admission and parking or Apple TV premium price. Not going out of my way to follow them unless ownership changes.
Did you say the same thing this time last year?
Congratulations to Wagner on his first assist with Birmingham today one day after his transfer!
I hope/assume that another LB has been lined up before this was agreed. Perhaps they’ll find another unknown diamond.
Based upon what I have read, there was no explicit release clause amount. There was a hand shake agreement between Kai and the U which was if a club offers a fee of this much (about 2.7M) AND you agree to their wage offer, we will let you transfer.
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This was an important factor in getting Kai to re-sign. Kai didn’t transfer before because no one else offered the wages that he wanted. The U offered the best contract, and told him they would let him go if someone offered him the big money.
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Birmingham City apparently has a lot of cash on hand and was willing to spend it. There was no way the U could/would match their offer.
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Regardless of who the U sign to replace him, there will be a drop off in performance. I’m not happy with this transaction, but I don’t think he would have re-signed without the agreement. I wish him well. He is one the greatest players the club has ever had.
Philadelphia Union finalizing deal to sign center back Sery Larsen from Brann. BT Sporten 1st.
Larsen, 25, made 98 apps for Brann. Former Denmark youth int’l.
This does show a commitment to mediocrity. Just castoffs from teams nobody’s heard of. Meanwhile, Inter Miami poach the MLS 2025 Goalie of the Year Dayne St. Clair from Minnesota united.
This is the differnce between the haves and the have-nots. The UNion sign somebody from Brann of the Denmark league while Inter Miami sign this year’s goalie of the year from Minnesota in a trade.
He was a free agent, no trade. Plus he took LESS money to sign with Miami and not return to the Loons.