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Where are they now? A look at departed Minnesota United players

andy greder, pioneer press, st. paul, minn.
·5 min read

Jul. 24—Former Loons forward Mason Toye presented a rare pill for Minnesota United and the club's supporters to have to swallow last weekend.

The 2018 first-round draft pick scored twice for CF Montreal on July 17 and was named to the MLS team of the week. While that performance was followed by a quiet 19-minute substitute appearance Wednesday, the 22-year-old has a strong season with six goals in 514 minutes.

Since United joined MLS in 2017, the Loons have had 51 players who earned league minutes wearing black and blue move on to other clubs, but few have given them reasons to regret or lament their departures.

While each case is different, the club has mostly been able to properly gauge when it's time to move on from players, while in some other cases, the club might have missed immediately and they might not have deserved to be in MLS in the first place.

If Toye is in the category of ones that got away, he is joined by former striker Luis Amarilla, whom the Loons tried to bring back for 2021; he instead went to Liga de Quito in Ecuador's Serie A. The Paraguyan has scored goals and helped that historic club win the Supercopa.

Two fan favorites that supporters never wanted to see go haven't been tearing it up elsewhere.

Midfielder Miguel Ibarra went to Seattle Sounders last year, but "Batman" didn't make an impact and is now with San Diego Loyal in the lower-level USL Championship. Striker Christian Ramirez didn't stick in LAFC nor with the Houston Dynamo, and "Superman" just transferred to Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership. He got off to a strong start, scoring in a UEFA Conference League match this week.

Alongside Toye are 14 other former Loons players on other MLS clubs. When Kevin Molino took a three-year guaranteed contract from MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew in the offseason, big things were expected. But Molino hasn't scored in 146 minutes this season and he continues to deal with injuries, which was a chief reason why Minnesota moved on from the Trinidadian.

Former Minnesota captain Francisco Calvo plays more than anyone in this group, but after his trade in spring 2019, his Chicago Fire have been perennial under-performers in the Eastern Conference.

Then there's Minnesota's first Designated Player, Darwin Quintero, who was traded to Houston in November 2019. The Loons' all-time record holder with 21 goals and 20 assists had 17 combined goals and assists last season but has no goals or assists in 167 minutes this year.

While Thomas Chacon is technically still a Minnesota player, the former Loons DP is on loan with Liverpool in the Uruguay Primera Division. The 20-year-old Uruguayan has no goals in six games this season, and this continued lack of production seems to portent the end of his connection to the Loons.

The Loons offered Vito Mannone a contract that would make him the highest-paid goalkeeper in MLS, but he turned that down and is now with Monaco in France's Ligue 1. The 33-year-old allowed 1.56 goals per 90 minutes, but him passing on MNUFC ended up benefiting the Loons, who now have two quality 'keepers in Tyler Miller and Dayne St. Clair.

But it could be Toye, who remains young and had been in the picture for the U.S. national team, who could really stick it to his former club from afar.

"When ... you let a young striker go, you know sometimes it takes them a lot longer for the penny to drop ..." United manager Adrian Heath said Tuesday. "I think the fact that because of their situation (in Montreal), the fact that he has played regular, I think has been a big help for him. So, no, I hope it continues for him, I really really do.

"Every decision that we make we make in the best interest of the club," Heath continued. "It's never personal; it never is. I don't have to like players to pick them every week, if I think we are going to win."

Heath pointed out that while the Loons moved on from Toye after bringing in then-Rapids target man Kei Kamara on a short-term rental during the playoff push last year, "we got good money for Mason within the league."

The Loons received $150,000 in General Allocation Money in 2020 and $450,000 in GAM this season, plus a second-round draft pick, which became the eventually unsigned Georgetown fullback Sean O'Hearn. Minnesota retains a percentage of any future transfer fee on Toye. Kamara, who had one goal with the Loons, wasn't re-signed after the season and has remained a free agent.

On the end of the spectrum of castaways are guys like once-cornerstone center back Vadim Demidov, who was a disaster at the back in 2017 and the Loons quickly cut bait. He then played in Stabaek in Norway.

Other former Loons have moved down to USL and to many different spots around the globe, including Kuwait (Maximiano), Columbia (Angelo Rodriguez), Brazil's Serie D (Ibson and Fernando Bob), Sweden (Rasmus Schuller), Costa Rica (Johan Venegas and Jose Leiton), Chile (Jose Aja), Peru (Alexi Gomez), Switzerland (Jerome Thiesson) and Austria (Franz Pangop).