Less than one week out from the start of the Major League Soccer regular season, Philadelphia Union has fortified their squad with another addition to the 2025 roster.
The official announcement, cleverly teased on the club’s social media channels on Monday evening, came on Tuesday morning – Philadelphia Union have signed 22-year-old Uruguayan striker Bruno Damiani to a four-year contract for a club record-breaking transfer fee.
Damiani is Sporting Director Ernst Tanner’s third international signing since December, but he says the young South American is a player he’s been keen on for more than a year.
Damiani, from Montevideo, joins the club from the Uruguayan Primera División, where he played for Nacional and on loan at Boston River. He made 22 appearances for the Nacional in 2023, recording two goals and three assists. The following season, in 2024, he was loaned to Boston River, and saw even greater success, tallying 12 goals and five assists over 38 matches. Tanner tracked his development at both clubs leading up to offer.
“Bruno is exactly what we were looking for after we sold Julian [Carranza],” Sporting Director Ernst Tanner said of the move.
“In summer, it's always difficult to get players, so we were more focused on a winter transfer to have a little bit of a longer preparation to the signing as well. He is a physical player who can hold up the ball, he's good in the air, and he's used to playing against tough defenders. The Uruguayan League is very well known for ‘ugly’ play in a way, and you have to resist your opponents there. That's what he learned throughout all these years.”
When asked how Damiani fits in the new-look 2025 Union team led by Head Coach Bradley Carnell, Tanner described the six-foot-two, 176-pound goal-scorer as unique from any other attacker on the roster.
“We are, at this moment, not having a striker like him. He's totally different from all the strikers we have right now, and that gives another spicy note to our roster, I would say,” Tanner said.
“I said in my last press conference at the end of the last season that we need to overhaul the roster. The life cycle of a team nowadays is definitely two to three years, and with clubs having so much access to data, the global game is really on. So that was necessary. We also have seen that with all the prolongations we have been doing, we didn't get more successful. So you need to have some infusions, some fresh new players, time by time, and that's what we are doing right now."
Tanner is positive about what he’s seen from his new ‘infusions,’ namely Argentinian centerback Ian Glavinovich and Serbian midfielder Jovan Lukic, so far in the 2025 season preparations. Both have enjoyed seamless transitions into the Union’s team environment, and he expects the same from Damiani in the weeks to come.
“We have already seen with both of the other two boys that they are already well integrated. When we scout players, we always do our background checks, and we basically look for team players, and we ask a lot of questions in terms of family background, how they grew up, how they were playing. You can see a lot on the field as well, but to be sure, you need to do these kinds of investigations," Tanner said.
To see Damiani, Glavinovich, Lukic, and the rest of the squad in Blue and Gold for the team’s home opener against FC Cincinnati on March 1st at Subaru Park click here!
