ST. LOUIS - After St. Louis City SC’s quite underwhelming start to the 2024 season that eventually cost Bradley Carnell his head coaching job, sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel was tasked with making some big moves to right City’s wrongs.
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It’s been quite a busy few months for Pfannenstiel despite the transfer window only opening on July 18. City’s sporting director has stated in the past that he prefers the summer transfer window, as players in Europe have contracts expiring and good players out of contract can be signed without paying transfer fees.
Such was a sticking point in City’s signing of forward/attacking midfielder Cedric Teuchert, formerly of Hannover 96 in Germany’s second-tier Bundesliga. Talks around Teuchert began in earnest last winter, but the team held off until he was out of contract to sign him as a free agent.
It’s a similar story for Marcel Hartel, who starred in second-tier Bundesliga play for FC St. Pauli last season but found himself a free agent with St. Pauli getting promoted. City jumped at the opportunity to sign a very good player without having to pay a premium, and in Marcel Hartel City added a level of skill comparable to that of Eduard Löwen in midfield.
St. Louis City paid a Sydney FC record transfer fee of a bit under $900k for Australian youth international Jake Girdwood-Reich, or JGR for short. Only 20 years old, JGR may be one more for the future but he has already made his debut in City Red.
Another way around those transfer fees, at least for the time being, is season-long loans, which the team has utilized in bringing attacker Simon Becher back to St. Louis. Becher, a former Saint Louis University Billiken and teammate of City’s Johnny Klein, last played in MLS for Vancouver before signing for AC Horsens in Denmark.
City have an option to permanently buy Becher if his year-long stay goes well. The same goes for Jannes Horn, a defender who joins City on loan from 1. FC Nurnberg. Not the first City signing from a German 2. Bundesliga team, and likely not the last.
Horn also has plenty of experience in the German top-flight Bundesliga with 1. FC Koln, where he was a left-back first and foremost. It’s been two years since City’s first MLS signing, left-back Selmir Pidro, and the team has seemingly been searching for a starting left-back for their entire existence.
Pidro didn’t work his way into Bradley Carnell’s circle of trust, forcing Kyle Hiebert to play left back instead of his more natural center back role. Anthony Markanich seemed to have won the job after his transfer from Colorado but has fallen out of favor in 2024.
Danish youth international Nikolas Dyhr was signed for around $400k from FC Midtjylland in the offseason, and like Pidro, never seemed to work his way into the starting group. Less than half a season later, Dyhr was sold back to Denmark, only making five appearances, all off the bench.
Jayden Reid has been brought up from CITY2 and has seen a decent amount of playing time, but Jannes Horn, City hopes, will solidify the left back position in a way the team hasn’t had yet.
But perhaps the biggest shake-up of the summer transfer window came Friday, when MLS reporter Tom Bogert of GiveMeSport reported on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Tim Parker was going to be traded to the New England Revolution, with defender Henry Kessler coming back to St. Louis in the deal.
Less than two minutes after Tom Bogert’s 1:06 p.m. Central Time post, Tim Parker posted “STL, it was fun.” on his X account, confirming Bogert’s report.
After an afternoon of negotiating how much money would go to New England in the deal to cover some of Parker’s contract ($600k in 2025 General Allocation Money, in MLS contract-speak), the deal was done.
Tim Parker leaves City having been one of if not the team’s most influential figure for their first season and a half of life in Major League Soccer. Parker’s MLS career was rejuvenated by a great first year in St. Louis, one that included scoring the team’s first-ever competitive goal in their first-ever competitive win in their first-ever competitive game.
For Parker, it was a season worthy of a first-ever MLS All-Star selection. Beyond his on-field contributions, Parker was City’s vice-captain, alongside captain Roman Bürki, a veteran leader in the locker room for a young and unproven team.
“It’s really hard to see Tim (Parker) go,” said interim City head coach John Hackworth Saturday afternoon. “Really good person too, on a personal level I worked with him in the (US Youth) National Team coming through college. I want to thank him for all his contributions for what he did here for all of us, going back to him scoring the first goal in our history, I’ll remember those things for a long time, he’ll be missed.”
Parker embraced the city of St. Louis, and the city embraced him. His jerseys sold like hotcakes, and St. Louis-based sports-centric clothing line Arch Apparel printed shirts with his face on them.
He partnered with St. Louis’s 4 Hands Brewing Co. to create his own Parker Pilsner and was a legitimate part of the brewing process. The cans are, of course, City Red, with Parker’s number adorning the front.
Tim Parker will undoubtedly be missed by the city of St. Louis and City fans, while the team itself will have a veteran void to fill, or for someone in the team to step into.
“I want to thank Tim for his entire time here in St. Louis, both on and off the pitch,” said Pfannenstiel in a press release Saturday. “As a vice captain, his voice and the way he carried himself is almost irreplaceable. Tim’s intensity and his memorable goals will be cemented in St. Louis City history. We wish him and his family nothing but the best.”
On the field, Henry Kessler is a more than capable replacement, but a bit of a different center back than Tim Parker. Kessler is more comfortable with the ball on the ground at his feet, and is a bit better of a passer than Parker. Kessler isn’t the aerial threat that Parker is, so he likely won’t be crashing in on corner kicks the way we’ve seen from Tim Parker over the past year and a half.
“Henry (Kessler) is a quality center back with national team experience since being drafted in 2020,” said Pfannenstiel. “He is an aggressive defender and his vision with the ball will make him a great addition to our defense.”
It was reported that a motivator in the trade was struggles in contract negotiations between City and Tim Parker’s camp. Parker is an impending free agent after the 2024 season, and talks stalled over a new City deal.
Kessler, a little over an hour after Tom Bogert’s initial report, posted “I’ve always liked arches” as it became apparent he would soon be on his way to the Gateway to the West. While the New England Revolution are in last place of the MLS Eastern Conference in 2024, Kessler starred in their 2021 run to the Supporters Shield.
Due to both players playing in Leagues Cup games for their then-franchises, neither Kessler or Parker can debut until the MLS season resumes later this month. While some new signings are making debuts in Leagues Cup, City plans to return to something close to full strength for the MLS stretch run.
Regulars Joao Klauss and Rasmus Alm are improving day by day in their recovery from injury, and the prospect of a City midfield potentially including Alm, Marcel Hartel, Cedric Teuchert and Eduard Löwen should excite any City fan.
St. Louis City are ten points off the last Western Conference playoff place. They would need a somewhat miraculous climb from the bottom to make it, but Lutz Pfannenstiel and company have made bold moves to attempt that climb.
The hunt for a City Red October/November begins when St. Louis City returns to MLS play on August 24, when they travel to Portland to take on the Timbers.
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