Jan 5 D.C. United Begin Roster Revamp For 2025 In Year 2 Under Troy Lesesne | OneFootball

Many clubs around MLS are going through complete roster revamps heading into 2025. The biggest one to look at in my eyes is the New England Revolution, but another low key one to view is D.C. United. After deciding to not bring back a long list of 2024 rostered players, D.C. also traded away centerback Christopher McVey to San Diego FC for $50,000 in GAM (and potential for another $50,000 in GAM if certain incentives are hit). The 27 year old McVey played about 2,200 minutes for D.C. last season across all competitions. But with all of the departures to this roster, this front office and Lesesne needs to do some work to build out a roster for 2025. Well, they’ve started to do…

First, the club began a rebuild of their goalkeeping room with the addition of Luis Barraza from NYCFC for $50,000 in GAM (and potential for $100,000 in GAM if certain incentives are hit). The 28 year old Barraza won a MLS Cup and Campeones Cup during his time with New York City. The Mexican-American keeper had 38 career games played for NYC and I think could compete for some minutes in 2025 for his new club. The club also found a replacement at centerback for Christopher McVey in a familiar face for Sporting Director Ally Mackay. Mackay ushered a deal to bring to D.C. United 29 year old Canadian International centerback Lukas MacNaughton. The former Canadian Championship and Canadian Premier League champion heads to D.C. with 124 career games played between Pacific FC, Nashville SC, and Toronto FC. Last season, he was injured for a majority of the year and will be looking to bounce back strong in 2025.

D.C. also made the move to acquire central midfielder Hosei Kijima in an Expansion Draft trade. After being selected by San Diego FC in the Expansion Draft, San Diego traded Kijima to D.C. for $400,000 in GAM. The Japanese midfielder was a rookie in 2024 and in his first campaign played in 21 games with 3 goal  contributions for St. Louis City SC. He now joins a new look D.C. midfield that is without a star for them in 2024, Mateusz Klich. I broke down the Klich news in this blog here, but a youth movement is primed for D.C. and Kijima looks to be one of those pieces in that midfield.

That youth movement for D.C. has also continued in the attack. D.C. United has signed winger Joao Peglow from Polish 1st division club Radomiak. The 22 year old former Brazilian youth international has 88 career 1st division games along with a run at FC Porto B. Peglow has 17 career goal contributions between his time at Radomiak, Internacional, Dnipro-1, and a few others. Peglow comes in with some questions for sure as his “resume” is not going to blow people away. But, there are pieces here for him to be another talented Brazilian attacker heading into 2025 and beyond.