This is the third time I've gone through this exercise, which originally started as a way to address how well the Rapids have done in their international scouting. the rules were simple, any player who came to the Rapids from somewhere other than a team in the U.S. or Canada, including college/high school. Essentially players that the Rapids had to find, not players that would have been on multiple radars or part of systems designed to expose them to MLS teams. This includes returning Americans.
I separated them into 5 categories, and here's the list as of this time 2 years ago. The * by the name means we'll be revaluating them in this column.
Group 1: The question marks, because we haven't seen them yet:
*Djordje Mihailović
*Zach Steffen
*Sidnei Tavares
*Sam Vines
Group 2: The failures, no sugar-coating it, these were bad to horrible signings:
Stefan Aigner
Yannick Boli
Joe Mason
Nicolas Benezet
Younes Namli
Max
Alex Gersbach
Felipe Gutiérrez
Marko Ilic
*Rafael Navarro
Sam Nicholson
Group 3: Replacement level MLS players or overpaid for their decent production:
Giles Barnes
Johan Blomberg
Tommy Smith
Edgar Castillo
Lucas Esteves
Braian Galvan
Collen Warner
Andreas Maxso
Group 4: Solid contributing players worthy of the international spot (eventually):
Danny Wilson
Connor Ronan
Group 5: Top signings:
Jack Price
William Yarbrough
Now onto the ten new players and the re-evaluation of the five above.
Group 1: The question marks, because we haven't seen them yet:
Lucas Herrington, Miguel Navarro, Hamzet Ojediran, - 2026 Winter - Too soon to have seen them.
Alexis Manyoma - 2025 Summer - Only played 38 minutes, not enough to go on
Dauoda Amadou, Ali Fadal - 2025 Winter - Technically Amadou was signed from Rapids 2 but his R2 contract included an automatic signing by the first-team. Neither of them have had time with teh first-team (10 minutes for Amadou) but time is running out to show something.
Group 2: The failures, no sugar-coating it, these were bad to horrible signings:
Lamine Diack - 2024 Winter - Bring in a guy on a TAM contract, on loan, and then never play him. He had 16 minutes over 4 appearances before the loan ended. I know the excuse was that his visa took so long he never integrated with the team, but that's why you make these moves early enough to queue up all of that work, not 3 weeks before the start of the season.
Sidnei Tavares - 2023 Summer - Last time I wrote:
5 appearances and 300 minutes on a last placed team isn't really enough to judge, but its not looking good
About 6 weeks later he was released before the start of the 2024 season. Unlike Navarro, who came in on loan at the same time, Tavares was another d-mid who could not crack the starting lineup. Of all places he's ended up in Blackburn where he got 11 appearances early but has been out since Christmas due to a knee injury.
Sam Vines - 2024 Winter - Yeah, its killing me to list him in this category, but I don't see how I can justify putting him anywhere else. After a decent 2024 Sammy fell off a cliff in 2025, making only 13 starts. We've now brought in Miguel Navarro on loan to provide competition for his role this season, which suggests that his preseason under Wells hasn't been great either. We need a lot more out of a guy we're spending $900K on.
Group 3: Replacement level MLS players or overpaid for their decent production:
Paxten Aaronson - 2025 Summer - Aaronson won't stay in this category. Either he'll find his footing and move up to 4, or he won't and he'll become a 2. Right now though he was fine in the final group of 2025 games but so far hasn't shown his $8 million in value.
Reggie Cannon - 2024 Summer - Cannon does everything decent as a MLS defender, but doesn't excel at anything. That's fine for a middle of the roster $500K guy, but its disappointing for a guy making $750K and with National Team experience. When we have a couple of young guys on the back line you hope for more from somebody as experienced as Cannon.
Rob Holding - 2025 Summer - Another guy who could move out of this category after 6 starts last season. We saw just enough of him that I couldn't put him in Group 1 but so far he hasn't been amazing and had one notable mistake late in the season. He's at $1.2M so expectations are high.
Group 4: Solid contributing players worthy of the international spot (eventually):
Rafael Navarro - 2023 Summer - Navarro only went out and challenged Rubio's goal-scoring record in 2024. The reason he's not in Group 5 is that we need to see what he can do without Mihailovic setting him up. He may also be sold before the end of the 2025 season. If he puts in another 12+ goal scoring season this year and is then sold for a profit it would be hard not to put him in Group 5.
Zack Steffen - 2024 Winter - His 2024 was a bit rough but a great 2025 puts him in this category. If he can keep that up he'll be a key part of whatever success we have in 2026. Obviously he doesn't take an international slot but as one of four players still on the roster making 7 figures he needs to keep his high level.
Group 5: Top signings:
Djordje Mihailovic - 2024 Winter - Set the team single-season goal involvement record, represented the U.S. and the Rapids in the Paris Olympics, and was sold to Toronto for a record amount. I know he "asked out" but I'm not convinced we've herd the full story there. That's really the only black mark against him in his time here. He is, arguably, our best ever DP signing.
We are now up to 37 international singings in 18 windows since Padraig Smith took over. They break down like:
Group 1: 6
Group 2: 13
Group 3: 11
Group 4: 4
Group 5: 3
Our failure rate has dropped from 40% two years ago to 35% now, which suggests that our recent signings have been better. Certainly we've added Navarro, Steffen, and Mihailovic to the success categories where the prior additions to those categories were only Ronan and Maxso and both of them barely cleared the bar. Still we need guys like Herrington and Ojediran to be successes if we're going to fully turn this around.
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