Last summer, one of the players connected to Minnesota at the very end of the transfer window was Billal Brahimi, a Nice player on loan to Belgium’s Sint-Truiden. I was hopeful he’d come to Minnesota mostly because he was the polar opposite of the rest of the team:

Lightning fast, even with the ball at his feet; great crosser; good passer; shoots on sight and shoots hard enough to generate rebounds. Defense? Never heard of it. Sounds fake. 

Sint-Truiden must have a type because currently available on a free is Ryotaro Ito, who spent the last three seasons there, including 24-25 when he overlapped with Brahimi. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the two of them and their shared contempt for defense, Sint-Truiden gave up the third-most goals in the Belgian Pro League that season. So, Ito’s not going to defend much. That’s fine, Minnesota arguably have too many defenders currently and not enough of an attack to take the pressure off them. 

Last year was a breakout year for Ito and Sint-Truiden as well. Ito started 34 of their 40 games, and hit double-digit goals for the first time in his career, helping the team to their best season since 1965-66. Ito was voted to the Pro League team of the season and Sint-Truiden got a Europa League berth. It’s something of a mystery to me why his contract wasn’t renewed.

Ito has multiple tools that us uses to break open defenses, particularly off the break. He’s incredibly quick – slightly faster than Bongokuhle Hlongwane according to SofaScore – and solid with the ball at his feet. He’s also a very good passer both in close quarters and at range. So when the Loons recover the ball in their own half, he can trigger the break, either by moving the ball himself or finding a teammate streaking down the wing. 

That role has typically been filled by Joaquin Pereyra, but in both of the last two games, he’s shown how valuable he can be as the lead runner rather than the passer. Ito would allow him to do that more frequently, giving Minnesota another breakout option in addition to either Momo Dieng or Kelvin Yeboah. 

Outside of the fast break, Ito has an interesting offensive profile. He’s a central attacking midfielder, a true 10 in Sint Truden’s 4-2-3-1 or the middle of the midfield three when they moved to a 4-3-3, but his heatmap reveals his preference to drift into the channels, freeing up space up top and opening the door for overlapping runs by Anthony Markanich and Kyle Duncan. 

He can shoot effectively with both feet, which makes him harder to mark, but I do have some concerns about his ability to repeat that level of goal-scoring. He didn’t wildly outperform his xG — 10 goals on 8.5 xG is well within normal range, especially since four of them came from the penalty spot – but even if that was a bit of an aberration, he’s still capable of scoring as well as teeing up his teammates. And his willingness to shoot from long range means defenders can’t just sit in a low block and wait for a cross to come in. 

Brahimi would have been fun last year. Fast as anything, shooting as soon as he was off the bus, absolutely no interest in tracking back. I suspect he would have been infuriating as often as he was actually valuable to the team, but meme players have their place. Ito is more than just a meme. He brings a more balanced skill set, improves the Loons attack as it is now – overly reliant on the fast-break – and gives them options as it evolves, and won’t require a transfer fee.

To me, that makes him worth pursuing for the Loons, defense be damned.