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Hello, 2026! As we said goodbye to 2025 last night - many of us by watching the Stranger Things finale on Netflix - news of another potential big departure from the Philadelphia Union was spreading online. Nearly a year to the date of hiring a new head coach, uncertainty greets the Union fanbase as we head into a World Cup year.

In the email today:

1. 💰 Report: Birmingham City Finalizing Kai Wagner Transfer

Kai Wagner transfer rumors online have become a holiday tradition for Philadelphia Union fans but news first reported by Jose Nunez on New Year’s Eve that Birmingham City is finalizing a deal to acquire the star left back is far from a rumor this time.

Birmingham City is fighting for relevancy in the Championship and while Birmingham, England isn’t exactly a dream destination, Wagner has long expressed a desire to be playing at a higher level back over the pond (while making closer to the dollar figure he has shown he deserves). Promotion to the Premier League may not be likely this season for a team that just dropped to 16th place a January transfer could put the 28-year-old German in a great spot to acclimate to the Championship ahead of the 2026-2027 campaign.

The sale of the Union’s best player would be another windfall (one report states Birmingham is forking out around $3 million for a release clause) for a team that is already approaching a 2026 season with far less institutional knowledge and experience on the field. The back line has already lost its veteran leader with Jakob Glesnes sold off to LA Galaxy and leading goal scorer Tai Baribo sent to D.C. United in a $4 million deal the Union really couldn’t refuse.

Wagner, who was both a defensive force and offensive leader, will be nearly impossible to replace. While Nathan Harriel and Frankie Westfield have played left back, there isn’t a natural left back on the first team roster. Union II left back Jordan Griffin has a ton of promise but is only 17. Westfield did well in his one season there with Union II but he also excelled in his rookie season at right back so you might not want to try to “fix” that. Look for at least one more incoming transfer at left back if this deal goes through.

While the “good business” moniker Union fans have grown accustomed to using when explaining offseason moves of beloved players will again apply, a move of this nature has the real potential to lower the bar on what the Union will be able to achieve in 2026. They’re already out Quinn Sullivan for part of the season as he recovers from an ACL injury and there are going to be a number of players to acclimate to the team while also playing in Champions Cup.

Head coach Bradley Carnell - his firing as underserved in St. Louis as Jim Curtin’s in Philadelphia - was a breath of fresh air in his first season but he had a stacked roster and no Champions Cup or Leagues Cup to slow down the Supporters’ Shield quest. His tendency to roll the dice and dare teams to score on them and his currently on leave boss’s seeming refusal to acknowledge the MLS Cup as a bigger prize than Supporters’ Shields and personal accolades for transfer deals may all be too much to overcome in 2026.

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2. 🐍 The Year of the Snake: Looking Back at 2025

The Year of the Snake was a season of tremendous ups and not so great downs bookended by news of a new coaching hire and the potential departure of the team’s best player.

After a preseason that involved saying goodbye to Jack McGlynn and leading goal scorer Daniel Gazdag via a new cash transfer system, the Union started off strong, had an incredible month of May and went on to win their second Supporters’ Shield but the knockout competition draught continued with a semifinal loss in the U.S. Open Cup and a conference semifinal loss at home to NYCFC in the MLS Cup Playoffs. It was a year of wildly exceeding overly pessimistic preseason expectations but somehow ending up right back where the team has been before: cup-less.

Winning trophies wasn’t a problem for West Chester United, which reached a new level of success in 2025, winning the American Premier Soccer League in their first season and repeating as USLPA champions while capturing division titles in the NPSL and USL2 and the National Amateur Cup. It was the first win for a local team in the competition since Philadelphia Inter in 1973 and clinched a berth into the 2026 U.S. Open Cup.

The college season brought with it plenty of interesting storylines but the struggle for national relevance for the Philly Soccer 6 on both the men’s and women’s sides continued. Delaware’s men’s and women’s team reached new levels of success in their new leagues but came up short when it counted while Villanova women deserve a ton of credit for how they recovered from a brutal road loss at Xavier.

Dickinson men were the class of college soccer in the region again, making it back to the Elite 8 only to fall in a heartbreaking penalty shootout while Penn State Harrisburg women reached new heights with their first NCAA tournament win and a trip to the Sweet 16. West Chester women made another deep run in the Division II Tournament but had their season ended the same way Jefferson’s impressive year was cut short: by Franklin Pierce.

The high school season saw Paul VI girls building on their first state championship with a second state title and first South Jersey Coaches Cup championship won on the same night head coach Karen Anderson’s son Ayden Anderson scored the game-winner in the boys final for Washington Township.

Randy Garber leading Abington to their first Class 4A state title was a story that transcended every level of local soccer in 2025 and CB East girls took out their frustration from districts on CB South in the most lopsided girls state final since 2016. The DeGeorge family’s commitment to Archbishop Wood girls soccer was also capped in 2025 with Wood’s first state title. Head coach Maria Kosmin, who took over for brother Tom DeGeorge after her niece had graduated, led a team that featured daughter Mia Kosmin, a key contributor in the state title run.

Local youth and academy soccer produced another MLS Next Cup winner with the Philadelphia Union U15 team and national championships for Penn FC Youth, Lower Merion SC and Carlisle Youth. Lower Merion’s 007s made veteran head coach Charlie Dodds a state cup winner for the first time en route to their National Presidents Cup trophy.

Other notable local soccer stories - from great to tragic - include Voorhees, N.J. native Riley Tiernan’s incredible rise in LA, the tragic death of Rutgers-Camden goalkeeper Julian Naumenko, Ernst Tanner’s still unresolved nightmare boss fiasco, Ryan Richter leading Union II to another impressive season in his first year as head coach, Cavan Sullivan leading the U.S. in the U-17 World Cup and Matt Freese taking over the starting job for the USMNT.

3.💧Water Cooler: Baribo/Wagner

Thoughts On Baribo Transfer

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 It Was An Offer They Couldn't Refuse (10) 🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Tai Baribo Peaked So I'm Okay With It (6) ⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ It Will Give More Opportunities to Alladoh (0) 🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ I Get It But I'm Still Not Happy About It (5) ⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Other (1) 22 Votes

via @beehiiv polls

4. 👀 Social Post of the Day: No Next Man Up

4. 🔗 Link Roundup

• The Union also made a signing this week, adding 19-year-old center back Finn Sundstrom from now defunct USL Championship club North Carolina FC.

• Saint Joseph’s head coach Tim Mulqueen is leaning heavily on local academy talent to construct his first recruiting class.

• Brenden Aaronson and Stuart Findlay taking star turns and more are in the latest DOOPing Overseas column.

• Keep track of local offseason local player movement with the Philadelphia Soccer Now Offseason Transfer Tracker.

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