Backpass: Galván has arrived
After a year of being buried at the far end of the bench, Argentinian winger Braian Galván is suddenly a threat for the Colorado Rapids.
MLS teams have a few moments in their history which can be categorized as “Achievement Unlocked”1 . There’s the simple ones - first win, first road win, first sellout crowd, first DP signed. But then there are the more advanced ones - first homegrown signed, first player named to MLS Team of the Week, first Save of the Week, first Golden Boot winner, first DP success.
There’s been one that’s eluded Colorado - the ‘first young foreign player signed that made an impact.’ Sure, the team has signed foreign players that have been relative successes like Jack Price, Kevin Doyle, and Carlos Valderrama.2 But those guys were older; known quantities brought on in the at-or-past their prime phase of life. Colorado’s front office has struggled a bit more to find a young player from abroad that could be bought for a reasonable fee and ultimately mature into a success.
They’ve certainly tried. Charles Eloundou and Luis Solignac3 and Sanna Nyassi and Gale Agbossoumonde were all Rapids signings of young foreign players - some already abroad, some playing in MLS with another team already - that the Rapids hoped might explode on the scene … and didn’t.
But the big swing-and-a-miss for the Rapids in terms of young foreign signings was Juan Ramirez. Ramirez was signed by Rapids General Manager Paul Bravo in 2015, having been the specific target of a long-running South American scouting effort by Claudio López. Ramirez signed a DP contract to join the Rapids in a deal that included a $2 million transfer fee to his home club, Argentinos Junior. And so, as you can imagine with an expensive transfer from a country with a reputation for producing talented footballers with a lot of flair, expectations were high for Ramirez.
He did not live up to them.


So of course I was skeptical when the Colorado Rapids announced that they’d signed a young Argentinian attacker named Braian Galván in January of 2020. The 19-year-old Galván had played just 9 matches for Argentinian side Colón, and there wasn’t much to go on other than an obligatory youtube-highlights video. (This youtube video was uploaded by none other than Rapids scout Chris Zitterbart. It was uploaded on January 10, 2020. Galván was signed on January 16. I am now subscribed to Zitterbart’s youtube channel.) But everybody has that video.
Galván mostly rode the pine in 2020, playing just 248 minutes with 2 starts in which he earned 1 goal, 1 assist. On the depth chart, he was buried behind the other attacking wingers like Namli, and Andre Shinyashiki, but wasn’t even quite second squad material either, as both Jonathan Lewis and Nicolas Benezet had more minutes than him. Because I am impatient, and I don’t get to go to training, I had already mentally assumed that Galván was another swing-and-a-miss, albeit not a catastrophically expensive one this time.
It’s still early, but it’s starting to look like Galván could be a real success story for the Rapids front office. He has 2 goals, 1 assist this year, and all three are memorable.
This goal from July 7:

The second goal is from August 14:
And here’s the sick assist to Mark-Anthony Kaye from Galván on the sharp-cut Cruyff turn:
The dude only scores bangers, and his assists come by straight murdering his defender, Vicente Sanchez-style.
His metrics are pretty good too, especially his 0.36 Non-Penalty Goals per 90 (88th percentile), 9.18 Progressive Carries per 90 (95th percentile) and his 2.54 Dribbles Completed per 90 (88th percentile). The numbers match what the eye observes: he’s a killer dribbler, and he scores bangers.4
Galván’s maturity and performance has been a godsend in a season where the loss of Younes Namli and the USMNT service of Jonathan Lewis has cut into the Rapids depth on the wings. His arrival certainly made it easy to ship Nicolas Benezet to Seattle.
Perhaps my friend Juan said it best on twitter:
He’s been a really wonderful late-game sub for Michael Barrios in the sense that Barrios is a fast, furious dribbler that favors his right foot but also loves to get to the end line and cut it back. Galván, on the other hand, is fast for sure, but prefers to use a sweet touch and ridiculous dribbling control to create space with his defender. Additionally, he’s left footed, usually playing inverted on the right side, so your average defender spends 70 minutes adjusted to one style of play, then with a substitution on has to deal with a whole new set of problems.
The Argentinian is still young, and we’re still looking at a sample size that’s a bit inconclusive. But he’s become a reliable threat as a sub and may soon mature into a regular starter.
He’s definitely an ‘achievement unlocked’ for Colorado - a bona fide success as a young South American transfer that has been productive and shows real promise as a long-term contributer in Major League Soccer.
This is a video game reference. I play many video games, much to the consternation of my wife. A video game ‘achievement’ is an in-game accomplishment which may or may not help someone win the game, but it’s a fun thing to do anyway. A few weeks back I unlocked an achievement on Civilization V called ‘Hannibal’s Crossing’ in which you attack a Roman unit over a mountain tile with an African Forest Elephant unit. It took me ten years to get that achievement.
Valderrama is such an interesting subject to talk about, and I sense that nobody has ever explored his time with the Colorado Rapids adequately. He joined the team in midseason 2001 as the Tampa Bay Mutiny were imploding, shortly before their complete dissolution in 2002. Valderrama was 39 years old. In a half season for the Rapids, he 3 assists in 1,130 minutes. In 2002, at the age of 40, Valderrama played 2,479 minutes and tabbed 1 goal and 7 assists - most on the team. The 2002 Rapids made it to the MLS Playoff semi-finals. Two of Valderrama’s teammates were Pablo Mastroeni … and Robin Fraser.
I was told once that Solignac was signed for a transfer fee - I forget how much, but I recall it being waaay too much - and that that experience soured the Rapids on buying with big transfer fees for a long, long time. I think the Solignac and Ramirez deals really taught Pádraig Smith that the way to do a deal is to either get a free agent, or make a deal for a loan-with-option-to-buy that you can get out of. Danny Wilson and Tommy Smith came on free transfers. So did Yannick Boli. Joe Mason was a loan. Jack Price was signed for what I was told was a modest fee. Younes Namli is a loan-with-option-to-buy situation. So the good deals weren’t expensive in the long run - and neither were the bad ones. By comparison, Inter Miami have the equivalent of a more-than a dozen Yannick Bolis on their roster right now - Gonzalo Higuain costs the same as seven Yannick Bolis, and is signed through 2022.
His ASA advanced metrics are less revealing - mostly because he’s categorized as a fullback, and thus all of the comparative numbers are going to tell you he’s a great passer and shooter, but not a good defender, because he being measured against fullbacks. Still, his xG+xA per 96 is 10th amongst Rapids players, and his G-xG of +0.27 per 90 means exactly what you see in his 2 goals this year - he scores from distance, on tough shots.