The Vancouver Whitecaps continue their busy offseason. On Friday, the club announced the transfer of the 24-year-old Brazilian winger Lucas Venuto from the Austrian Bundesliga side Austria Wien with the use of Targeted Allocation Money (TAM).
Before completing the deal, the Whitecaps had to acquire Venuto’s MLS first right of refusal from New York City FC in exchange for $150,000 in General Allocation Money.
“Lucas is a very fast and dynamic winger who has a lot of energy in his game,” Whitecaps head coach Marc Dos Santos said. “He always looks to attack, take players on, and he has an incredible work ethic on both sides of the ball,” Dos Santos added.
“This is a player who left Brazil when he was young and was able to adapt quickly in Europe. We believe he’s a perfect fit for the way we want to play, and we are very happy to add him to our roster,” the Caps head coach concluded.
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Lucas Venuto makes the move to MLS after spending the last five seasons in the Austrian Bundesliga. He arrives with a resume that includes 26 goals in 115 starts and 151 total appearances with Red Bull Brasil, FC Liefering, SV Grödig and, most recently, Austria Wien.
The winger had his best season in 2016-17, during which he scored eight goals and seven assists in 29 Austrian Bundesliga games. Venuto was among the best players for Austria that season on matchday 29 in the Vienna derby against Rapid he had to be taken off the pitch with a torn ACL right after his goal to make it 1-0 against Rapid — Austria won the game 2-0.
Since then, Venuto has struggled to regain the sort of form he displayed during the 2016-17 season. After returning from his torn ACL injury in 2017-18, the Brazilian managed just one goal and two assists in 18 games.
This year he has often struggled to make the first team and managed just one goal in 10 Austrian Bundesliga appearances. Austria’s head coach Thomas Letsch preferred other candidates and as a result Austria allowed the Brazilian to move on to MLS.
“It was Lucas’ explicit wish to move to MLS. Furthermore, the combination of the Vancouver Whitecaps’ offer and our squad planning meant that this was a plausible deal for us,” Austria’s sporting director Ralf Muhr told the press in Austria.
Said Venuto: “I had a great time at Austria Vienna. I grew here as a player and made some important steps in my personal development. The entire club, and its fans, always supported me, even during my injury, and perhaps it is not a goodbye forever.”
By adding Venuto the Whitecaps continue their policy of adding speed on the wing.
The club announced the signing of Lass Bangoura earlier this week — like Bangoura, Venuto is a fast winger with the ability to take on players in one-v-one situations. This season, Venuto has averaged 12.79 dribbles per 90 minutes of which he completed 59 percent.
The big question for Vancouver fans will be how those numbers stack up to Alphonso Davies, who was among the Whitecaps most prolific attacking players. Davies won 70.1 percent of his on average 9.81 dribble attempts last season.
Hence, although Venuto goes into dribbles more often, he was less efficient in his completion rate than Davies in what is a relatively comparable competition. During Venuto’s most successful season at Austria two years ago, he won 66.1 percent of his on average 9.01 dribbles.
Furthermore, Venuto’s scoring numbers from the 2016-17 season also compare favourably to those produced by Davies. Davies scored 0.27 goals and 0.24 assists per 90 minutes last season and Venuto managed 0.27 goals and 0.19 assists in his 29 games for Austria that season.
Venuto is, therefore, a fascinating signing that is a bit of a project. The main question concerning this transfer will be whether Whitecaps head coach Marc Dos Santos can rekindle the sort of form Venuto showed during the 2016-17 Austrian Bundesliga season.