With MLS’s offseason almost officially in full swing, the Philadelphia Union has loads of work to be done to overhaul a roster that greatly underachieved in 2024. Ernst Tanner and the front office have their work cut out for them. Philly needs to hire a new head coach for the first time in over a decade, and they will need to improve in all areas on the pitch as well. Here’s a look at some forward targets Philadelphia could go after in free agency.
Union Forward Targets in MLS Free Agency
Josef Martínez
- Option Declined by MTL – 31 years old
- 2024 Base Salary: $1,309,091.00
- 2024 MLS Season Stats:
- Games Played: 23
- Minutes Played: 1,373
- Goals: 11
- Assists: 3
Much of the conversation around Josef and bringing him to Philadelphia in the past has been about disrupting locker room continuity, but one has to wonder how “together” this Philadelphia Union team is heading into a foggy off-season. At 31 years old, Martínez showed in 2024 that he can still log considerable minutes while continuing to produce at a respectable rate.
Martinez was just one of eight players in MLS to score more than 10 goals while playing less than 2,000 minutes. In what might be a transition year for the Union, adding Martinez as the 3rd forward on a short-term deal might actually work out, but his price tag will probably turn the Union away unless he is willing to take a pretty considerable pay cut.
Johnny Russell
- Out of Contract at SKC – 34 years old
- 2024 Base Salary: $1,000,000.00
- 2024 MLS Season Stats:
- Games Played: 29
- Minutes Played: 1,735
- Goals:4
- Assists: 5
Sporting Kansas City is moving on from Johnny Russell after seven seasons with the club. The Scottish International leaves Kansas City as its third-leading goal scorer, hitting the back of the net 67 times across all competitions.
Russell’s four goals in the 2024 MLS season was the lowest total in his seven-year tenure with SKC, but he played on a pretty bad team that won just twice in their first 16 games of the season. At 34 years old and being a guy that mostly plays Winger, Johnny Russell isn’t a guy I see Union going after this off-season.
Kei Kamara
- Option Declined by LAFC – 40 years old
- 2024 Base Salary: $89,716.00
- 2024 MLS Season Stats:
- Games Played: 27
- Minutes Played: 1,001
- Goals: 3
- Assists: 6
Kei Kamara is the definition of an MLS Journeyman. After LAFC declined the option on his contract following the end of the 2024 season, Kamara will look for a new landing space and might find himself on his 12th new club in Major League Soccer. Kamara notched three goals and six assists in just over 1,000 minutes of MLS regular season play in 2024, which isn’t an awful output for someone playing in their 17th season in the league, but there has to be a reason he never stays in one place for long, right?
He’d be relatively cheap, he’s Major League Soccer‘s 2nd all-time leading scorer, and he doesn’t have plans of retiring after playing his first game of international football for Sierra Leone since 2022, but I just don’t think this is the direction Union should be heading down unless they fail to nail all of their other targets.
Jeremy Ebobisse
- Option Declined by San Jose – 27 years old
- 2024 Base Salary: $859,478.00
- 2024 MLS Season Stats:
- Games Played: 31
- Minutes Played: 1,947
- Goals: 6
- Assists: 2
Now, this is an option I actually kind of like. Ebobisse had a down year on an awful San Jose team in 2024, scoring just six goals and two assists in 1,947 minutes. But on top of San Jose being the fourth-worst goal-scoring team in the League, Ebobisse also logged 1,000+ minutes less this season than he did in 2023, when he scored 10 goals, and in 2022, when he had 17 goals and finished fourth in Major League Soccer’s Golden Boot race.
While Ebobisse’s Goal Total, Expected Goals, and Shot Totals took a dip in 2024, potentially pointing to a lack of service from his team-mates, he ranked in the 80th percentile in Shot-Creating Actions, and in the 88th percentile or above in Passes Attempted, Pass Completion Percentage, and Progressive Passes amongst other Forwards In the League, which could work well in a 2 Forward system if whoever Union’s next coach is sticks with that approach.
His salary in SJ was admittedly pretty high, but I’d expect Ebobisse to take a pay cut wherever he ends up. If the money is right, this is one of the better options for forwards from this year’s Free Agency pool.
Fafà Picault
- In Contract Negotiations with VAN – 33 years old
- 2024 Base Salary: $650,000.00
- 2024 MLS Season Stats:
- Games Played: 29
- Minutes Played: 1,675
- Goals: 9
- Assists: 5
Here’s another one I quite like. Vancouver declined the option on Fafà Picault’s contract following the end of the 2024 season but remains in negotiations with the 33-year-old, suggesting they might be trying to bring him back on a less expensive deal. If Vancouver and Picault can’t come to an agreement, I wouldn’t hate seeing Picault make a return to Philadelphia in 2025 during a transitional year with a new manager.
At 33 years old, Picualt logged a respectable 1,675 minutes In MLS play and tallied nine goals and five assists to go with it. Of course, Picault’s preferred position is on the Left Wing, which didn’t fit well into Union’s system in the past – we’ll have to wait and see if it would in the future. But as an option off the bench late in games or as a guy that gets the occasional start here or there, I don’t hate the idea of bringing Fafà Picault back to Philadelphia, especially if they could get him on a cheaper deal than he was on previously.
Cory Burke
- Pending Option with NYRB – 32 years old
- 2024 Base Salary: $500,000.00
- 2024 MLS Season Stats:
- Games Played: 18
- Minutes Played: 284
- Goals: 1
- Assists: 1
First things first, the Red Bulls somehow ended up in the MLS Cup Final after a lackluster regular season, so the option on Cory Burke’s contract has yet to be announced. Regardless, letting Cory Burke walk and head to the New York Red Bulls after the 2022 season was a hard pill to swallow for Union fans, and here we are, still trying to fill the hole left by his departure two off-seasons later.
It might have been for the best, though, as Cory Burke has just three goals and one assist in 41 MLS Regular Season games across two seasons for the Red Bulls. Injuries have surely slowed him down since heading north to New Jersey, and he’s not getting any younger, turning 33 a few days after Christmas – I just don’t think this is a reunion worth exploring, unfortunately.
