On Thursday, Austin FC announced a player who could be under contract with the club, should they activate his option year, until 2030.
And, since he’s a U22 Initiative player — the designation occupied by past Verde players like Moussa Djitté, Rodney Redes, and Žan Kolmanič — he’s on a salary cap-friendly roster number regardless of what Austin FC is paying him.
Nicolás Dubersarsky, whose name has bubbled up in this week’s wave of rumors, is relatively unknown compared to the seemingly outgoing Sebastián Driussi and the seemingly incoming Myrto Uzuni.
But the 20-year-old defensive midfielder — just nine days older than former teen Owen Wolff — projects as the heir apparent to the position Verde upgraded with the Ilie Sánchez signing just 17 days ago.
Dubersarsky is just a year into his pro career, playing with Instituto ACC in Argentina’s first division in 2024. According to Transfermarkt, he has no goals and a single assist in 27 total appearances.
But not to fret: He’s a pure, destroyer-type 6 (using soccer terminology that assigns numbers to positions on the field, which is actually really well explained on this save-your-Claudio-Reyna-jokes-but-on-second-thought-don’t SoccerParenting.com).
He’s the kind of player that Jhojan Valencia was supposed to be for Austin when he arrived in 2022 on a three-year contract, even more defensively minded than Alex Ring, who became an effective 6 for NYCFC in MLS even though he was an 8 for most of his career and played with 10 aspirations at times.
This offseason, sporting director Rodolfo Borrell has switched out the Ring/Valencia rotation for a Sánchez/Dubersarsky one, which initially will work out to be (as I’m predicting it now) an 85/15 minutes ratio between the two, but will see the younger player step up in 2026 and 2027 as he gains confidence and MLS experience and as retirement increasingly becomes a smart choice by Ilie.
The thing that jumped out at me about the press release that dropped at 5:30 pm (and greatly appreciated the heads-up from the club that it was imminent, although what that allowed me to do was compose a Bluesky skeet — yes, that’s what they’re called, and yes, I’m okay with that — in my head as I was driving to pick up my daughter from school) are the terms of the deal.
Through 2029. With a 2030 option. The age I will be in 2030 alarms me a little bit. There’s a non-zero chance, given the number I’m on now, that I won’t make it to Dubersarsky’s option year. Really, though, there’s a non-zero chance that any one of us will make it to Dubersarsky’s option year.
But let’s not contemplate our collective fragile mortality! And let’s especially not contemplate each of our unique paths to the great unknown! Let’s look at some charts!
