It has been a tough few years for Austin FC.
The Texas-based membership debuted in MLS in 2021 and made all of it the way in which to the Western Convention Closing in its charmed sophomore season. Since then, although, the outfit has struggled to make an influence. It missed out on the MLS Cup playoffs in 2023 and 2024, ending each seasons with a adverse purpose distinction.
It isn’t how issues have been purported to go for Austin. The membership entered MLS with vitality, fanfare and vital monetary funding from former Columbus Crew proprietor Anthony Precourt. However a sequence of poor roster selections — many pushed by the lightning-in-a-bottle success of the 2022 workforce — have pushed Austin to the outskirts of the league it supposed to dominate.
The membership is making strikes to vary that in 2025. This week, it introduced the signing of 26-year-old USMNT striker Brandon Vazquez on a multi-year Designated Participant contract. Vazquez arrived from Monterrey in Liga MX for a club-record $10M charge.
“Brandon has already confirmed to be a purpose scorer in each MLS and LIGA MX,” said Austin sporting director Rodolfo Borrell when asked about the signing. And he is proper: Vazquez had a superb season with FC Cincinnati again in 2022, slotting residence 18 objectives over the season for a goal-per-game ratio of .59.
MLS groups should adhere to strict wage and roster rules; doing so maintains competitiveness throughout the league and prevents well-funded groups from working away with the competitors (see PSG in France or, till lately, Manchester Metropolis in England.) These rules state that every workforce can have a most of three Designated Gamers whose salaries exceed the standard cap.
If a workforce indicators simply two, it receives an additional U22 slot for a gifted prospect and a further $2M on the whole allocation cash to spend because it needs. If it indicators three, it does not obtain both.
When groups must rebuild, as drained, struggling Austin definitely does, they have an inclination to go for fewer Designated Gamers in an effort to purchase themselves extra time and adaptability. In signing Vazquez, Austin has gone within the different course, choosing three highly-paid Designated Gamers and taking a big gamble on their potential to carry out.
Austin sporting director Borrell was proper when he stated that Vazquez was a very good, confirmed MLS participant. However for a $10M charge and a 3rd Designated Participant spot, Vazquez cannot simply be good: he must be transformational.
D. C. United’s Christian Benteke is a superb comparability level for this. He arrived a number of seasons in the past with massive expectations and delivered upon all of them. Benteke’s latest output — 23 objectives for .8 objectives per recreation throughout the 2024 season — dwarfs Vazquez’s best-ever MLS efficiency and raises questions on whether or not Vazquez can contribute on the stage required of a Designated Participant.
And that issues, as a result of Austin’s present contracted Designated Gamers — Argentinian attacker Sebastian Driussi and Ghanaian winger Osman Bukari — have not lit the league on hearth in latest seasons. Driussi seemed glorious again in 2022 however scored simply seven objectives in 2024; Bukari is a younger prospect who arrived final summer season with loads of potential however little or no consistency.
It isn’t all set in stone for Austin. Driussi might but discover his approach out of his Austin contract and again to his residence nation of Argentina. However this triple barrel Designated Participant method represents an enormous gamble for the Austin entrance workplace. If it backfires, the workforce will wrestle mightily to vary its course.
It is a massive threat and an interesting one for neutrals to observe. If Vazquez, Bukari and Driussi work nicely collectively, Austin will look prescient and clever; in the event that they flop, as all of them have in latest seasons, Austin will cap off its 2025 rebuild season trying extra damaged than ever.
Austin kicks off its 2025 MLS season on Feb. 22 in opposition to Sporting Kansas Metropolis.
