HANOVER, N.J. — Major League Soccer has shed the “retirement league” moniker that haunted the league in its infancy and in the early days of the Designated Player.
Now, the league is known for young, dynamic players, stars like Josef Martinez, Pity Martinez and Kaku coming to the league at young ages from South America.
But for the young European players, there’s generally plenty of opportunities to grow, develop and move on to a top league without leaving the continent.
That’s why Mathias Jorgensen, the New York Red Bulls newest signing, is unique.
He’s an 18-year-old Danish youth international who was playing, and scoring goals, at OB in the Danish Superliga.
The young forward said he also heard MLS was where aging superstars went to play out their careers. But after discussing things with his agent after talks were well underway with the Red Bulls, Jorgensen soon found out how good a fit the club was for him and his career.
He noticed clubs in the biggest European leagues poaching young MLS talent, like Tyler Adams going to RB Leipzig, Alphonso Davies going to Bayern Munich and Miguel Almiron transferring to Newcastle United.
“You can see the European leagues look at MLS now,” he said in his first media availability since signing with the club on Feb. 12. “They look a lot at MLS and see there’s some young, talented players who can take the next step and get to the European leagues.”
Then, Jorgensen heard through his agent how the Red Bulls play, the commitment to attacking quickly, in addition to pressing and counter pressing to turn the ball over in dangerous spots.
“This team here likes to attack,” Jorgensen said. “My playing style is I like to run in deep, I like to put pressure on the defenders and I like to always be on the move, to run in deep and get my goals behind the back four.”
Jorgensen has quickly assimilated with his new teammates, so much so that Red Bulls coach Chris Armas brought him off the substitute’s bench for 25 minutes in a 4-2 defeat to Santos Laguna in the second leg of the Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals at Estadio Corona Tuesday.
“It ends up being a great day for him that he does get to get out there,” Armas said. “We saw him that week score a bunch of goals in training and his partnership with [Bradley Wright-Phillips], it was a great surprise just to see how quickly they were linking up and combining with each other.”
Jorgensen’s first touch for his new club was a backheel to Wright-Phillips, showing his cleverness, creativity and unselfishness.
“I like to set my teammates up and also get the ball back and to achieve some some goals for the team,” Jorgensen said. “That’s why I’m here. As a striker you need to to get some goals for yourself and you need to set up your your teammates.”
Jorgensen has made a strong first impression with his new teammates on the training ground.
“Speed. He’s fast and I think he can help to open up the back line, running behind and be dangerous on the run,” winger Danny Royer said when asked what he’s seen from Jorgensen at training. “I also think from what I’ve seen he’s a good finisher and yeah. I think he can give us a lot of options out there.”
Jorgensen gives Armas options in the attacking third now that the Red Bulls arguably haven’t had in years. He could play alongside Wright-Phillips in a two-striker system, he could play for a rested BWP or provide quality off the bench.
“We have in him a player that’s young, he’s fearless, he fits with the ball, he challenges back lines, he’s just flat out pacy. And now he’s a guy that also can play with another striker in Brad, because he’s does a lot of running for the other guy,” Armas said. “He’s thoughtful in his movements. He looks to combine. And when you have Kaku out there, it’s just another guy, you have two weapons up the field. He’s a guy who can come in for Brad in moments and he can be up there by himself or they can be together.”