Photo courtesy Philadelphia Union Communications

After slogging through our attempt to anticipate what the Union’s 2026 Spring Roster Profile may look like, we realized that Keystone Sports and Entertainment may have spent eight figures acquiring four new players for 2026.

The roster profile estimate

We made an estimate of what the Philadelphia Union’s 2026 Spring Roster Profile might — repeat, might — look like.

• We assume there will be no more first team roster acquisitions beyond the unofficial one that acquired highly probable status around midday Friday, February 13th.
• We omit first names, and abbreviate, reword, or otherwise revise column headings and cell content to facilitate layout.
• The right side of the document below follows MLS’s Roster Profile habits and is a separate column of important but secondary lists even though it is not set off from the main column on the left. Headings do not line up between the two.

We do not have the color and layout capabilities of MLS’s official website. Horizontal ranks cannot be differentiated by color to create tiers within the senior roster list.

We project three off-roster Homegrown signings from last year’s Philadelphia Union II team in advance of any such signings being announced. All three have appeared with the first team in preseason at least once, two went to Clearwater, and the third went to Spain.

PHILADELPHIA UNION ROSTER PROFILE (est Feb-13-26)

Roster Construction Model: U22 Player Model (2:4:GAM)

Comments

In past years the Union has sometimes left a senior roster slot open in  case of an emergency, e.g., a catastrophic injury to a key player.

Alejandro Bedoya almost certainly continues his multiple roles with the front office as well as being a field player.

If the unofficial but highly reliable social media reports of Philippe Ndinga’s signing give correct details, the Union will use the 2;4;GAM roster model for the 2026 season because the Congolese is their fourth U22 player. The extra GAM from the 2:4:GAM model undoubtedly helped with the signing of five newcomers and the loan fees of a sixth (see below).

Has Philadelphia spent money?

First we update the financial details of the 2026 season.

• In 2026 the maximum individual salary budget charge for a single player is $803 K.
• The total senior roster salary budget is approximately $6.94 million.
• The 2026 minimum senior roster salary for one player is $113,400.
• The 2026 minimum supplemental roster salary for one player is $88,025.
• Minimum performance bonuses for game-day roster inclusion, game appearances, starts, and goals are set forth in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

General Allocation Money (GAM) accumulates four basic ways.

• The base allocation per club for 2026 is $3,280,000.
• Clubs can convert up to $3,000,000 from realized transfer revenues into GAM. (Think Baribo’s $ 4 million and Wagner’s $ 2,5 million.)
• An additional $2,000,000 of GAM accrues if a club chooses the 2;4;GAM roster development model. The Union must be using it for 2026 because they have four U22 initiative players.
• Clubs may receive GAM in trades, as, for example, the Union did when they traded Jakob Glesnes to the LA Galaxy ($500,000 guaranteed in 2026 and $600,000 guaranteed in 2027.)

We assume that the details generated by Artificial Intelligence are correct, and that all of the $8,780,00 of GAM detailed above has been spent acquiring Ezekiel Alladoh ($ 4.5 million), Japhet Sery Larsen ($ 1.75 million), Agustin Anello (at least $2 million), Philippe Mdinga (reportedly around $2 million), Finn Sundstrom ($ 50 thousand), and Kaiden Moore (Unknown).

If the numbers AI generated above are anywhere close to correct, Philadelphia may have spent as much as ten and a quarter million dollars for four new players for the 2026 season.