Malik Jakupović is the Union’s new hot prospect. Here’s why the team is being patient with him.
The 17-year-old striker is getting attention from some big clubs in Europe. But he has barely played for the Union yet. That will change soon enough, but he won't be going anywhere until it does.
When Brenden Aaronson rose to prominence with the Union a few years ago, the European clubs that came calling weren’t just interested in him. They also wanted to know who was coming next, so they could get in line.
Now it’s happening with Cavan Sullivan, not the exact same way but similar. The world knows he’s ticketed for Manchester City as of now, even as the world waits to see the punishments handed to the English giant for years of breaking the Premier League’s financial rules.
Some clubs are passing the time by checking out who else the Union have in their pipeline. And once again, the answer is clear — though this one isn’t a sibling, as happened with Paxten Aaronson.
Malik Jakupović’s potential has been known for some time. You’ve seen the 17-year-old striker in these pages already, and he’s being seen in increasingly more pages lately. This week, he reached the milestone of having some big European teams reportedly “interested” in him.
That produced a feast of catnip for social media aggregators, just like NFL or NBA free agency does. And of course, they’re immediately convinced he’s going to sign with their favorite club tomorrow.
Never mind if a claim that some club is in “advanced talks” then links to a report where that phrase does not exist. That happened this week. England’s Chelsea was the club, and the social account linking to the transfer buzz website was revealed to have a rather small following.
How to find the facts amid the hot air? That answer is eternal: check the source. Germany’s Sky Sports TV network reported Monday that teams scouting Jakupović right now include Chelsea, Germany’s Borussia Dortmund and Stuttgart, and Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg. That seems believable.
But there’s a difference between interest and putting a check on the table. So far, the only team known to have done that is Dortmund, which offered around $3 million for him.
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No one was surprised to learn the Union turned it down. But they didn’t just do it because the offer was much lower than what they want.
It’s also because Jakupović is barely playing for the first team yet. He has been on the field for just 179 minutes over 13 games. His longest appearances so far have been around half an hour.
This is not to deny Jakupović’s talent. He has loads of it. He has shown it with the Union’s reserve team, scoring 11 goals in 36 games, and he will show it with the Union’s first team soon enough. He might also show it with the U.S. under-17 men’s national team if he’s picked for that age group’s World Cup squad next month.
Still, just as the Union did not fully unleash Sullivan and Neil Pierre until they knew they were fully ready — or the Aaronsons, Jack McGlynn, and Quinn Sullivan in the past — they will hold the reins on Jakupović until he earns the time.
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If he bristles at that, or if fans do, it’s understandable. But this is an area where the Union’s track record earns them some benefit of the doubt.
Steady progress earns Richter’s praise
“I’ve said it a million times: no one believes in that kid more than me,” said Union interim manager Ryan Richter, who has coached Jakupović at the first-team and reserve-team levels. “I’m so happy with the way that he’s been working over the past few weeks, and he’s gaining more because of that work and because of how he’s improving as a player. He’s earning the trust of the staff, he’s earning the trust of his teammates.”
Richter was not going to smoke out where the rumors come from. He had an easy guess, though.
“Wherever that’s coming from — it’s coming from agents, normally, is how stuff like that comes out and becomes public, whether it’s real or not,” he said. “But I hope, for him and for his family, that they can keep his focus on the work that he’s been doing on a day-to-day basis. Because that’s how he’s going to get better.”
Jakupović has indeed gotten better, and earned a reward for it when he scored his first first-team goal in last month’s blowout win at San Diego. It was a close-range finish, but the run to get there and meet Quinn Sullivan’s cross showed his expertise.
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“Whatever goes out to the media about possibilities for the future, worrying about stuff like that is not going to help him get to the level to play at the clubs that are being reported,” Richter said. “What’s going to help him get to that level is focusing on the work that he’s doing every day — improving as a player, continuing to adjust to the MLS level, and getting to a position where he’s being a good player in MLS and a striker who’s scoring goals in MLS. And he’s been progressing like that in a really good way over the past couple months.”
The coaching staff knows its role too, as Richter said: “We have a lot of committed people in this building that are here to help him to get better every single day. And we have to keep approaching it like that, and he has to keep approaching it like that.”
After the San Diego game, Jakupović showed another sign that he gets what he has to do.
“I’m fully starting to trust the process and everything,” he told The Inquirer. “From the start of the year, not playing that much, scoring some goals with the second team helps a lot with me being rostered to the first team. … All the older guys are pushing me and helping me during every single training session, and they’re keeping my confidence on track. It’s a great team to be a part of as a young player.”
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Saturday’s home game against Charlotte FC at Subaru Park (2:30 p.m., Apple TV) will be another opportunity for Jakupović to earn minutes. After that, the congested schedule down the stretch could open the door a little more.
“Yeah, and it is because of the way that he’s working,” Richter said. “He’s gaining more opportunities by the way that he earns those opportunities, and I think he’s done that in a really good way over the past month or two. He needs to keep that going, and of course there will be opportunities for him.”
