The single pivot: What the reported Owen Wolff U22 deal means for Austin FC's roster build
Owen Wolff is reportedly renewing his commitment to Austin FC with an arrangement rewarding both player and club. Here's what it means for the remaining weeks leading up to the season opener.
Before we begin, a quick note to thank all of you for your support in 2025 ... thanks to those of you who are paid subscribers especially, Verde All Day delivered you 244 articles over the course of the year. If you're not yet supporting in that way, there's a new limited-time offer that, per our 2025 clip, works out to less than 11 cents per article, vs. the less than 25 cents an article that most paid subscribers are getting.
In recent weeks, Austin FC fans who talk about roster builds — and the media folks like me who aim to nurture those conversations — have been talking about the two paths available for sporting director Rodolfo Borrell.
To quickly review, Austin has the option to either:
Go with three designated players and three U22 Initiative players, or
Go with just two designated players, but with an additional, fourth U22 Initiative player, and then receive $2 million in General Allocation Money (GAM) to acquire additional players, including Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) players
In Robert Frost's somewhat misunderstood "The Road Not Taken" — let me quickly don my English professor tweed cap — Frost subtly and craftily expresses ambivalence in choosing one path over the other, saying, in the second stanza,
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
It's only at the end when Frost's narrator expresses FOMO, and then justifies choosing one over the other by saying the famed lines, "I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference," even though he starts that third and final stanza by revealing he'll be saying that "with a sigh" rather than the swelling pride that lands it on a high school guidance counselor's poster.
I bring this up because (a) I'm a huge nerd, and (b) Tom Bogert reported Friday afternoon that Austin FC has signed Owen Wolff to a new contract, which includes the new U22 designation some of us have been expecting.
🇺🇸 BREAKING: Austin FC has signed USYNT star Owen Wolff to a new, long-term contract, per sources.
Wolff's new deal is U-22 initiative. Reward for one of the team's most consistent and key players.
Wolff, 21, had career best 7g/8a in 34 MLS regular season apps in 2025
First of all, save for the supplemental deal that Wolff's been on — and realistically couldn't be on forever — a U22 designation is the best thing for both Wolff and the club. He only counts at $200,000 against the salary budget, but can be paid significantly more (per the rules below, up to what's expected to be just north of $800,000 for 2026), even after he turns 22 on Dec. 30. (Yep, this contract reportedly has arrived mere days after he's turned 21.)
This contract also means that while he still could be bound for a European club (with Borrell securing the $3 million worth of GAM that would come with that), he gets another year (or half-year, if a team comes in during the summer window) to develop and surpass the pleasantly surprising heights of 2025, leading the team in goal contributions with 15 while being deployed in arguably his second-best position for most of the season.
Could we be seeing All-Star Owen Wolff in the summer of '26 in Charlotte? It's not out of the question at all, especially given it'll likely come after a World Cup in which some candidates might end up with some (Dr. Evil-style air quotes here) "minor injuries."[[1]]
I present to you the most recent MLS rules governing U22s, with bolded sections being ones I think especially pertain to why Borrell did this for Wolff now. I'm also going to footnote this a bit. If you're getting this in email, you have to scroll to the bottom to read the footnotes. If you're viewing this on the website – how I prefer you do it – just mouseover each footnote to see the text via some YAML-enabled magic.
Number of Slots:
Each MLS team will have either three or four U22 Initiative roster slots available, with each occupying one of the 20 existing Senior Roster Slots. The number of U22 Initiative Slots available to each team will be based on the roster construction model they choose at the beginning of a respective season. For 2025, clubs must choose their roster construction path by the Roster Compliance Date on Feb. 21.
Eligibility for U22 Initiative Slot:
Age: A player must be 22 years old or younger in the first year he is eligible to play in an MLS game (e.g., not eligible for 2025 if he turns 23 in 2025). A player who signs at age 22 or younger may continue to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot through the year in which he turns 25, provided that for non-Homegrown players, such player is on his initial contract. A Homegrown player may continue to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot through the year in which he turns 25, provided he must be on his first or second contract and the applicable contract must have been signed at age 22 or younger.[[2]]
Contract: A player is eligible to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot if signing his first contract with MLS, provided that player meets age and compensation requirements, as either a Homegrown player, or, as an international or domestic player playing outside of MLS. A player will be eligible to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot during his second contract provided that he meets the age and compensation requirements and signed his first contract with MLS as either a Homegrown or SuperDraft player.[[3]]
Compensation:A player’s salary may not exceed the Maximum Salary Budget Charge in any given year, including option years. A Homegrown or SuperDraft player on his second contract may earn up to $200,000 above the Maximum Salary Budget Charge in any given year, including option years.
In addition, clubs may pay, without limit, additional amounts in the form of acquisition fees (i.e. transfer or loan fees).
U22 Initiative Slot Budget Charge:
Players occupying a U22 Initiative Slot will have a Salary Budget Charge that mirrors that of a Young Designated Player:
Ages 20 and younger: $150,000
Ages 21-25: $200,000
All such amounts above the first $150,000 or $200,000 accounted for on the Salary Budget will be paid on a discretionary basis by the club.
Transfer of Player:
In the event a player occupying a U22 Initiative Slot is transferred outside of the League, 95% of the proceeds of the sale (after out-of-pocket amounts are recouped) will be paid to the club and such amounts may be converted to General Allocation Money based on the below sliding scale:[[4]]
Acquisition cost of the Player for coming into the League (e.g., both Loan and Transfer costs)
Revenue share convertible to GAM in 2025 (increases by five percent (5%) annually thereafter)
≤ $2,500,000
$3,000,000
$3,000,000
$2,400,000
$3,500,000
$1,800,000
$4,000,000
$1,200,000
$4,500,000
$600,000
≥ $5,000,000
$0
Reclassification of a Player from a U22 Initiative Slot:
To remove a U22 Initiative Slot classification, a club may: transfer the player out of MLS, remove the player from a U22 Initiative Slot using Targeted Allocation Money or General Allocation Money, loan the player outside of MLS, utilize one of its two Buyouts, or transition the player to a Designated Player slot.
If the contract of a player occupying a U22 Initiative Slot is renegotiated prior to its conclusion, the League will not reclassify the player and he may continue to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot until his initial contract would have otherwise expires depending on compensation.
Salary Limitation in Options and Years 26+
If a player’s contract includes Options, compensation during the Options may exceed the Maximum Salary Budget Charge only if it is in a year the player is no longer required to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot. These players would not be eligible to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot in the Option year regardless of age if the compensation exceeds the Maximum Salary Budget Charge.
If a player’s contract covers years in which he is no longer eligible to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot (i.e., the seasons of his 26+ birthday), the player’s compensation may exceed the Maximum Salary Budget Charge provided it is during an Option year.
It's wonky, but you can see why what's likely a three-year or four-year deal makes all kinds of sense at this juncture.
Here's where the roads diverge
Once this goes official, Verde will have two designated players (Myrto Uzuni and Brandon Vázquez) and three U22s (Mateja Đorđević, Nicolás Dubersarsky, and Owen Wolff) on the roster heading into the 2026 season, with up to what's likely to be Feb. 21 to finalize the roster and declare what roster build the club will go with.
Right now, that puts Borrell at the fork in the roster designation road. Veer left, say with a possibly-ill-advised Tadeo Allende signing, and it's a 3/3 build for 2026 — though moving Uzuni, which I contend is the only way an Allende signing makes sense for Verde, puts Borrell right back at the fork in the road. (Though it also sounds like, per this ESPN article, Celta Vigo's giving Inter Miami a few more days to work out a deal, which is what I suspected might happen.)
Select a fourth U22 — say, Kervin Andrade, who was tantalizingly (to me, at least) linked to Verde last year before he went to Maccabi Tel Aviv — and it can be a 2/4 build with $2 million in GAM. Given that the Jayden Nelson and Joseph Rosales acquisitions have already happened, the 2/4/$2 million build still seems the more likely of the two options.
The Wolff extension means that, roster build-wise, he's the player that the next acquisition pivots around. Signing Wolff to a U22 deal doesn't lock Borrell into choosing either path, but the next big signing will.
Unless, that is, there's a move in the works for Uzuni, but based on the recent interview that We Are Austin TV did well to spot, it sounds like Uzuni's planning to move his wife and son to the U.S. for the Uzuni Redemption Arc Tour 2026.[[5]]
Where to deploy him
With Wolff firmed up for 2026, that leaves Austin FC head coach with a good problem to have: Where best to deploy the rising star.
There are four forks in the road:
Continue to cultivate him, as Estévez did in 2025, as a wide playmaker à la 2022 Diego Fagundez, starting him opposite wherever it's best to deploy Nelson, but possibly having the two of them shift sides during matches to unsettle defenses, to borrow from what the Dynamo did a few years ago when Fafa Picault was one of those wingers;
Attempt to develop Wolff as the No. 10 that Borrell hasn't been able to (or hasn't wanted to) secure on the international market, now that he's shown more acumen as a chance creator, and since Vázquez's return would currently result in a first-choice front three of Uzuni-Vázquez-Nelson;
Should a 10 arrive, or should Verde go with an assortment of 6s and 8s, deploy Wolff and Dani Pereira as dual 8s, which could possibly also allow for Nelson playing some wingback opposite Joseph Rosales in a 3-5-2 formation to allow Uzuni and Vázquez to better co-exist; or
Roll it back to 2024 and have Wolff be a Swiss Army knife, filling it at fullback as well as bouncing between wing and central midfield (though, as an inked-in starter in 2026, this seems the least likely of the four).
This decision is not just vital to Verde's 2026; it's vital to Wolff's development and where Wolff, Estévez, and Borrell see him best deployed to maximally develop. There's an investment factor here: the more Wolff can shine, the more likely it is that an older, better Wolff can convert to $3 million in GAM and elevate Verde's roster building.
But there's also an even more important factor: Doing right by a player who has already weathered a lot in his five years with Austin[[6]], and who has now reportedly newly committed to the team that has shown belief in him.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
[[1]]: If Lionel Messi didn't make his All-Star debut in Austin, I really don't think he's going to do it in Charlotte after what's probably going to be a deep playoff run before Argentina falls to France to make up for the '22 final, not that I am bitter.
[[2]]: Owen Wolff is Verde's first Homegrown player through MLS' liberal allowance of what "Homegrown" means.
[[3]]: I suspect we'll know more about the length of the deal in, to predict here, a club release on Monday or Tuesday, and when MLSPA Christmas comes in April, I suspect we'll learn he's making around $500,000.
[[4]]: It didn't cost the club a dime to bring in Owen, hence the $3 million in GAM assuming the sales price is higher than that to make up for the money that goes to the league.
[[5]]: We hope.
[[6]]: He absorbed a lot of criticism borne of an increasingly unpopular head coach who happened to be his father, and absorbed a lot of criticism from people who maybe don't fully understand 18-year-olds have learning curves when they're playing against players in their 20s and 30s.
As we officially launch into 2026, we look at a chart that tells us a lot about 2025 ... and how Verde needs to improve. (But they did improve compared to what 2024's chart revealed.)
A fan favorite may be on his way out, but an MLS Cup champion with a playoff goal contribution of nearly two per 90 minutes might be on his way in. One is more likely than the other.
Rosales comes to Austin in a cash-for-trade deal, and then by virtue of a new contract he signed, will be Verde until June 2029 with an option for the '29-'30 season.
The 25-year-old Honduran wingback is reportedly coming to Austin FC for $1.5 million in either GAM or cash. But what does that pickup mean for the rest of the roster — particularly the left backs?
Before we begin, a quick note to thank all of you for your support in 2025 ... thanks to those of you who are paid subscribers especially, Verde All Day delivered you 244 articles over the course of the year. If you're not yet supporting in that way, there's a new limited-time offer that, per our 2025 clip, works out to less than 11 cents per article, vs. the less than 25 cents an article that most paid subscribers are getting.
In recent weeks, Austin FC fans who talk about roster builds — and the media folks like me who aim to nurture those conversations — have been talking about the two paths available for sporting director Rodolfo Borrell.
To quickly review, Austin has the option to either:
In Robert Frost's somewhat misunderstood "The Road Not Taken" — let me quickly don my English professor tweed cap — Frost subtly and craftily expresses ambivalence in choosing one path over the other, saying, in the second stanza,
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
It's only at the end when Frost's narrator expresses FOMO, and then justifies choosing one over the other by saying the famed lines, "I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference," even though he starts that third and final stanza by revealing he'll be saying that "with a sigh" rather than the swelling pride that lands it on a high school guidance counselor's poster.
I bring this up because (a) I'm a huge nerd, and (b) Tom Bogert reported Friday afternoon that Austin FC has signed Owen Wolff to a new contract, which includes the new U22 designation some of us have been expecting.
This is significant for several reasons.
First of all, save for the supplemental deal that Wolff's been on — and realistically couldn't be on forever — a U22 designation is the best thing for both Wolff and the club. He only counts at $200,000 against the salary budget, but can be paid significantly more (per the rules below, up to what's expected to be just north of $800,000 for 2026), even after he turns 22 on Dec. 30. (Yep, this contract reportedly has arrived mere days after he's turned 21.)
This contract also means that while he still could be bound for a European club (with Borrell securing the $3 million worth of GAM that would come with that), he gets another year (or half-year, if a team comes in during the summer window) to develop and surpass the pleasantly surprising heights of 2025, leading the team in goal contributions with 15 while being deployed in arguably his second-best position for most of the season.
Could we be seeing All-Star Owen Wolff in the summer of '26 in Charlotte? It's not out of the question at all, especially given it'll likely come after a World Cup in which some candidates might end up with some (Dr. Evil-style air quotes here) "minor injuries."[[1]]
The official rules
I present to you the most recent MLS rules governing U22s, with bolded sections being ones I think especially pertain to why Borrell did this for Wolff now. I'm also going to footnote this a bit. If you're getting this in email, you have to scroll to the bottom to read the footnotes. If you're viewing this on the website – how I prefer you do it – just mouseover each footnote to see the text via some YAML-enabled magic.
Number of Slots:
Each MLS team will have either three or four U22 Initiative roster slots available, with each occupying one of the 20 existing Senior Roster Slots. The number of U22 Initiative Slots available to each team will be based on the roster construction model they choose at the beginning of a respective season. For 2025, clubs must choose their roster construction path by the Roster Compliance Date on Feb. 21.
Eligibility for U22 Initiative Slot:
U22 Initiative Slot Budget Charge:
Players occupying a U22 Initiative Slot will have a Salary Budget Charge that mirrors that of a Young Designated Player:
All such amounts above the first $150,000 or $200,000 accounted for on the Salary Budget will be paid on a discretionary basis by the club.
Transfer of Player:
In the event a player occupying a U22 Initiative Slot is transferred outside of the League, 95% of the proceeds of the sale (after out-of-pocket amounts are recouped) will be paid to the club and such amounts may be converted to General Allocation Money based on the below sliding scale:[[4]]
≤ $2,500,000
$3,000,000
$3,000,000
$2,400,000
$3,500,000
$1,800,000
$4,000,000
$1,200,000
$4,500,000
$600,000
≥ $5,000,000
$0
Reclassification of a Player from a U22 Initiative Slot:
To remove a U22 Initiative Slot classification, a club may: transfer the player out of MLS, remove the player from a U22 Initiative Slot using Targeted Allocation Money or General Allocation Money, loan the player outside of MLS, utilize one of its two Buyouts, or transition the player to a Designated Player slot.
If the contract of a player occupying a U22 Initiative Slot is renegotiated prior to its conclusion, the League will not reclassify the player and he may continue to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot until his initial contract would have otherwise expires depending on compensation.
Salary Limitation in Options and Years 26+
If a player’s contract includes Options, compensation during the Options may exceed the Maximum Salary Budget Charge only if it is in a year the player is no longer required to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot. These players would not be eligible to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot in the Option year regardless of age if the compensation exceeds the Maximum Salary Budget Charge.
If a player’s contract covers years in which he is no longer eligible to occupy a U22 Initiative Slot (i.e., the seasons of his 26+ birthday), the player’s compensation may exceed the Maximum Salary Budget Charge provided it is during an Option year.
It's wonky, but you can see why what's likely a three-year or four-year deal makes all kinds of sense at this juncture.
Here's where the roads diverge
Once this goes official, Verde will have two designated players (Myrto Uzuni and Brandon Vázquez) and three U22s (Mateja Đorđević, Nicolás Dubersarsky, and Owen Wolff) on the roster heading into the 2026 season, with up to what's likely to be Feb. 21 to finalize the roster and declare what roster build the club will go with.
Right now, that puts Borrell at the fork in the roster designation road. Veer left, say with a possibly-ill-advised Tadeo Allende signing, and it's a 3/3 build for 2026 — though moving Uzuni, which I contend is the only way an Allende signing makes sense for Verde, puts Borrell right back at the fork in the road. (Though it also sounds like, per this ESPN article, Celta Vigo's giving Inter Miami a few more days to work out a deal, which is what I suspected might happen.)
Select a fourth U22 — say, Kervin Andrade, who was tantalizingly (to me, at least) linked to Verde last year before he went to Maccabi Tel Aviv — and it can be a 2/4 build with $2 million in GAM. Given that the Jayden Nelson and Joseph Rosales acquisitions have already happened, the 2/4/$2 million build still seems the more likely of the two options.
The Wolff extension means that, roster build-wise, he's the player that the next acquisition pivots around. Signing Wolff to a U22 deal doesn't lock Borrell into choosing either path, but the next big signing will.
Unless, that is, there's a move in the works for Uzuni, but based on the recent interview that We Are Austin TV did well to spot, it sounds like Uzuni's planning to move his wife and son to the U.S. for the Uzuni Redemption Arc Tour 2026.[[5]]
Where to deploy him
With Wolff firmed up for 2026, that leaves Austin FC head coach with a good problem to have: Where best to deploy the rising star.
There are four forks in the road:
This decision is not just vital to Verde's 2026; it's vital to Wolff's development and where Wolff, Estévez, and Borrell see him best deployed to maximally develop. There's an investment factor here: the more Wolff can shine, the more likely it is that an older, better Wolff can convert to $3 million in GAM and elevate Verde's roster building.
But there's also an even more important factor: Doing right by a player who has already weathered a lot in his five years with Austin[[6]], and who has now reportedly newly committed to the team that has shown belief in him.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
[[1]]: If Lionel Messi didn't make his All-Star debut in Austin, I really don't think he's going to do it in Charlotte after what's probably going to be a deep playoff run before Argentina falls to France to make up for the '22 final, not that I am bitter.
[[2]]: Owen Wolff is Verde's first Homegrown player through MLS' liberal allowance of what "Homegrown" means.
[[3]]: I suspect we'll know more about the length of the deal in, to predict here, a club release on Monday or Tuesday, and when MLSPA Christmas comes in April, I suspect we'll learn he's making around $500,000.
[[4]]: It didn't cost the club a dime to bring in Owen, hence the $3 million in GAM assuming the sales price is higher than that to make up for the money that goes to the league.
[[5]]: We hope.
[[6]]: He absorbed a lot of criticism borne of an increasingly unpopular head coach who happened to be his father, and absorbed a lot of criticism from people who maybe don't fully understand 18-year-olds have learning curves when they're playing against players in their 20s and 30s.
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