Los Angeles FC snapping up Mateusz Bogusz from Premier League outfit Leeds United is a ‘very exciting’ development for Major League Soccer, the club’s director of football operations argues.
Who said the MLS was a ‘retirement league’? It’s more akin to a kindergarten these days. A league once home to countless fading fogies, swapping their studs for slippers, America’s top flight now prides itself upon identifying, attracting and providing a platform for a throng of exciting up-and-comers.
The likes of Brenner (FC Cincinnatti), Leonardo Campana (Inter Miami) and Thiago Almada (Atlanta United) have touched down in North America in recent windows.
LAFC will be hoping that Bogusz, who signed a four-year deal recently, can make a similarly immediate impact; director Marcos Graces hailing a man who will add flexibility and thrust to Steve Cherundolo’s squad.
“(Bogusz) can play as a winger. He was playing as a ‘number nine’ in Ibiza in the last games. He can play as an ‘eight’,” Garces insists in conversation with the LA Downtown News.
“With all the squad constraints, to have a player like him who can contribute in many different positions…
“That is exactly what we needed.”
Mateusz Bogusz leaves Leeds for MLS chance
A former Poland U21 international, Bogusz spent four years at Elland Road between 2019 and 2023. Once valued at £7 million and singled out for praise by Marcelo Bielsa, Bogusz only made one league appearance for the Yorkshire outfit and departs after a hit-and-miss loan spell in Spain’s second tier with UD Ibiza.
Graces, meanwhile, believes a 21-year-old brimming with potential represents another step forward for the MLS as a whole.
“It’s something very positive,” Graces adds. “We’ve become more diverse, and we have eyes on the ground in many more places. It’s not only the identification process, it’s also the recruitment process.
“Now, the MLS has become an interesting goal for young talent. We could not say that about any American league a couple of years ago. This is a change of scenery and it’s a very exciting change.”
Bogusz joins former Arsenal striker Carlos Vela at LAFC. Fellow Premier League expat Eldin Jakupovic and Italy legend Giorgio Chiellini are also at the BMO Stadium these days.
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