The New York Red Bulls are having conversations with KAA Gent about potentially transferring striker Dante Vanzeir to the Belgian club, multiple sources confirmed with amNewYork on Thursday.
While the progress of talks is unknown — and the two sides are only talking — one source suggested that an agreement is not imminent as of Thursday afternoon.
Vanzeir recently completed the second year of a four-year Designated Player (DP) contract that was a club record when signed before the 2023 campaign. His results had been inconsistent, significantly off from expectations of becoming a fixture up front for a Red Bulls team that lacked a true goal scorer.
He scored just two goals in his first year with the club before scoring four goals with nine assists — four of them coming in one match against Inter Miami in March — last year. He potted a pair of goals in the playoffs during New York’s unlikely run to the MLS Cup Final before it lost to the Los Angeles Galaxy.
There had been previous inclinations that Vanzeir’s time with the Red Bulls was nearing an end. Major League Soccer rules stipulate that a team can only have up to three DP contracts on its roster. Emil Forsberg, the marquee signing last offseason from Red Bull Leipzig that was the engine of New York’s success in the midfield, and mid-season signing and Uruguayan midfielder Felipe Carballo are mainstays on the roster. Last month, the Red Bulls brought in former PSG and Bayern Munich veteran striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting on a DP deal, which put four such contracts on the club’s books.
While New York sold Elias Manoel to Real Salt Lake, they brought in another striker earlier this week by completing a deal for Polish youngster Wiktor Bogacz. He will join a forward group that is also slated to feature academy products, 19-year-old Serge Ngoma and 21-year-old Roald Mitchell.
Gent currently sits in sixth place of the Belgian Pro League, the country’s top flight, just one point back of the club that New York bought Vanzeir from two years ago, Union Saint -Gilloise.
