Julian Carranza On Verge of Completing Ideal Move to Feyenoord

The Union striker has likely played his last game for the club. What's next for the Union is massive for the club.

Julian Carranza has most likely played his final game for the Philadelphia Union.

Carranza has been heavily linked with Feyenoord over the last week. Fabrizio Romano confirmed on Friday afternoon that personal terms were agreed between Carranza and the Dutch side.

Carranza trained with the Union first team on Thursday in Chester, but on Friday, he was not with what was assumed to be the starting group for Saturday’s game against Inter Miami, per Matt De George.

The move is ideal for Carranza, who has a chance to emulate the success Santiago Gimenez had with Feyenoord over the last two seasons.

Gimenez scored 38 goals in the Eredivisie over the last two seasons. He will likely move on from the Dutch side in the summer as one of the top young striker targets for clubs in Europe’s big five leagues.

That creates an opening at striker for Carranza to get his feet wet on the European stage.

There’s been a debate over the last 12 months inside the Union press room about what the next best step for Carranza is. The move to Europe was inevitable, but it had to be a perfect fit.

The “perfect fit” line is one that rings true with most of the outgoing transfers the Union have made over the last few years. Brenden Aaronson developed more at RB Salzburg, Mark McKenzie found a good home at Genk and Paxten Aaronson continued his development at Eintracht Frankfurt.

The best guess in these press box conversations was a Europa League-level team in one of the big five European leagues.

Union head coach Jim Curtin compared Carranza to former NYCFC striker Valentin Castellanos on multiple occasions. Castellanos made the jump within City Football Group to Girona before he signed with Lazio.

Feyenoord isn’t in a big-five league, but it is secured in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League. The Dutch club automatically qualified for the league phase of the revamped UCL along with PSV Eindhoven out of the Eredivisie.

It’s the perfect spot for Carranza to further develop his talents, and if he thrives in that environment, he will earn a move to a big-five league soon enough. Everyone always needs a striker, so let’s hope we see him in a big league in the near future.

The Union will benefit from Feyenoord’s spot in the UCL because a small transfer fee will be agreed between the two sides. Carranza’s contract was set to expire at the end of the Major League Soccer season, but the Dutch side doesn’t want to wait that long.

It is coincidental that Carranza’s impending departure comes in the week building up to an Inter Miami matchup. The Union’s acquisition of Carranza ahead of the 2022 MLS season took advantage of Miami’s poor roster building and the transaction will go down as one of the best bargains in league history.

Carranza scored 34 regular-season goals for the Union. He had 14 goals in 2022 and 2023. He had six tallies in 2024 and was well on his way to a third straight double-digit goal season had he stayed.

Carranza gave everything for the Union while working toward the next goal in his career. It was a perfect marriage of player and club and both parties were better off for it.

Now comes the harsh reality that the Union have had on their minds for most of the year.

Carranza will no longer be on the roster, and with that, comes a giant hole at the striker position.

Mikael Uhre was always the long-term plan at striker juxtaposed to Carranza’s likely short-term future in Philadelphia. The Danish forward played better of late and now needs to become the team’s top scorer. A very strong argument could be made that Uhre is the Union’s most important player over the next month with Carranza on the way out and Daniel Gazdag at the Euros with Hungary.

Chris Donovan and Tai Baribo have to be trusted more by default, which is something Curtin has actively avoided in the first half of the MLS campaign. The Union must get something out of their two reserve forwards to provide support for Uhre and whomever else emerges as the best players in front of goal.

Markus Anderson will be part of the equation as well, but he’s dealt with a few different small injuries over the last month or two. He brings a different skill set to the field, but he must contribute when fit.

Then the Union have to make the right signing in the transfer window to replace Carranza. The front office has been preparing for this moment for quite some time, but the faith that the right decision will be made has certainly dropped because of Ernst Tanner’s failures over the last two years in the transfer market.

A new and successful forward signing could be a game-changer for the franchise, but it could also further drag it into mediocrity.

Ideally, the new forward would have similar characteristics to Carranza to provide a perfect complement to Uhre, who is more of a traditional hold-up forward.

The opportunity is there for the Union to reignite the club, and if they get it right, they could find themselves back near the top of the Eastern Conference.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.