Minnesota United, having missed out on Callum McCowatt, have turned their attention to Cătălin Cîrjan, a 23-year-old midfielder from Dinamo Bucharest per reports from Romania. If you’re short on time — Hi Hank! — here’s the quick and dirty: 

Cîrjan is a very, very good offensive player and one of the best midfielders in the Romanian league. The million dollar question is: Does that mean he’ll be good in MLS? I think it’s very possible.

Ok, time to dig deeper. 

Cîrjan was a solid prospect in the Arsenal youth set-up, playing up with the u21 and u23 teams alongside such no-name chumps as Florian Balogun, William Saliba, and Gabriel Martinelli despite being just 17. He even made the first-team bench for a few Europa League games before suffering a knee injury that would ultimately cut his time in North London short. The team renewed his contract in spite of that injury, which is another sign of how well he was thought of. 

In 2022-23, he returned to Romania on loan with Rapid Bucharest, then made a permanent move to Dinamo Bucharest in 2023-24. Last season, he was Dinamo’s top scorer and, perhaps even more impressively, their captain despite being just 22 when the season started. His seven goals and six assists earned him a place on the Superliga team of the season.

So the talent is there and has been since he was a teenager, but what kind of game has he developed?

I am on the record as being a fan of an all-gas, no-breaks attacking midfielder, and Cîrjan is no exception. I do wonder if this is selling his defense and passing a bit short and overselling his offense a bit because of his role within Dinamo’s system. They played last season almost exclusively in a 4-3-3 with Cîrjan occupying the left side of the first bank of three, so in a strict sense, he’s a central midfielder, but that makes his comparison group more possession and defense focused than an attacking midfielder would be.

Even with that caveat, Cîrjan’s profile is clear and compelling: He receives the ball and moves toward goal with pace and purpose. His top speed last year clocked at 21 mph, which would put him near the top of most leagues’ fastest wide midfielders and his high marks for progressive carrying and passing show that when he gets the ball, he’s not looking to move laterally.  

Minnesota showed against San Jose and Orlando that they do best when they attack quickly and directly, ​​Cîrjan would facilitate that even against better, more organized defenses. He also excels at the high press according to SofaScore, which means that while he may not track back as much as other midfielders might, he’s a strong defensive contributor in the way that matters most to the Loons.

Cîrjan is a right footer that played both wings last season, though predominantly on the left, which still doesn’t explain his heatmap:

There are certainly players that prefer to stay wide – chalk on his heels is a well-established player trope after all – but it doesn’t usually extend quite to this level. It looks like someone carved a demilitarized zone into his mental map. As a player who would likely spell Joaquin Pereyra, it’s interesting to see him so zealously avoid playing centrally, though Pereyra himself slides from side-to-side quite a bit as he’s looking to collect the ball.

His fit in a 3-4-1-2 is one of my concerns with Cîrjan, because while he could certainly be the central attacking midfielder and drift wide to create overloads, there isn’t an obvious way to get both Pereyra and him on the pitch at the same time without switching to a 4-4-2.

My other concern isn’t one Minnesota could easily address before they would have to commit to Cîrjan. There’s little question that he’s quite talented and has performed well in the Romanian Superlig, but, particularly after the saga of Dominick Fitz, it seems fair to wonder if that will translate to MLS.

There are myriad factors that go into that, obviously, but I’m optimistic because of his path to this point. It is quite common, unfortunately, for young players to have their careers derailed entirely by an injury like Cîrjan suffered. It’s also common for a player that gets released from an elite academy to lose motivation and end up not making the impact they believed they would. Coming back from that kind of disappointment takes a level of maturity uncommon among fully grown adults, let alone a 19-year-old.

Instead, Cîrjan worked his way back to fitness. He moved back to Romania and turned himself into a solid pro with the leadership skills to captain one of the most popular — and high-pressure — clubs in the country. Does that mean he’ll take the field against Dynamo Houston and show out? Of course not. But it does mean that he’s familiar with adversity and has shown an ability to persevere through it.

So as much as it is concerning that, according to Opta, MLS is the 19th best domestic league in the world and the Superlig is 44th, I’m less worried than I might otherwise be. Overall league quality certainly matters, but it’s not deterministic. For better or worse, individual players aren’t merely their percentile ranks compared to their peers. 

Cîrjan is a really interesting target. He’s still young enough to improve and brings an attacking flair that Minnesota doesn’t already have on the roster, but doesn’t fit as neatly within the current formation as would be ideal. He’s probably a starting caliber player once he adjusts to MLS’ physical demands, but that’s far from a given. 

It will be quite a surprise if this deal gets done. Cîrjan is Dinamo’s captain and offensive leader, and with Romania’s transfer window already closed, Dinamo can’t replace him until January. FotMob has him valued at $2.6m, Transfermarkt pushes his value to $3.5 million, and SofaScore has him a bit higher still. It’s hard to imagine, given the circumstances, that Minnesota will be able to secure his signature for less than $3 million, which would put his fee among the highest they’ve ever paid. 

I’d like to see what Cîrjan can do in MLS, I think this is exactly the kind of gamble Minnesota should be taking, but I think the timing is off for the deal to get done as quickly as it needs to. My feeling is that the Loons will walk away empty handed this time, but we’ll hear about talks restarting in January ahead of the sprint season.