With the departures of Ali Ahmed and Jayden Nelson, the Whitecaps find themselves with relatively few players in forward positions who excel at running with the ball. I think, therefore, it makes sense to look for another player who can run the ball up the field. In this edition of sensible Whitecaps transfers, we will be doing just that.

Search Parameters:

If you want more information on how I compiled the list below, you can read the previous edition of this series. The parameters of this search were the following:

– In at least the 50th percentile for both progressive carries and xA.
– Maximum Transfermarkt value of 1.5 million unless they are eligible for the U22 initiative, in which case the limit is 3 million.
– No older than 24.
– At least 20% of games played as a winger (via transfermarkt) and at least 2.8 progressive carries per 90 UNLESS they have other significant outputs.

The Spreadsheet:

A few things stand out to me about this list. For one, it’s a lot smaller than the midfielders list from last time. This is partly because I set a stricter age limit. The reason I opted to do that is that wingers tend to peak earlier and because the Whitecaps’ core is nearing the end of their prime, and it makes sense to bring in younger players to keep the ball rolling (a rebuild on the fly, if you will). It also seems, however, that the invisible hand of the market is a lot better at figuring out that players running from one end of the field to the other and scoring are good than it is at figuring out that players dutifully winning the ball back and passing it forward are good. A downstream effect of that is that there are a lot more players who are U22 eligible. There are also a lot more players who have the carrying down but have not had the offensive explosion that leads to a skyrocketing market value; over two-thirds of the list are averaging 0.4 xG+A/90 or less.

Now, let’s zoom in on a few names that stand out to me, based on eyeballing their stats and watching some YouTube highlights (obviously, a real scouting department would go a lot more in depth than this, but I am one man with limited resources).

The Golden Boy: Montader Madjed

There is one name on that list that leaps off the page like a salmon, and that’s Mantader Madjed. Madjed has the most carries per 90 of anyone on the list by a lot and has the third highest NPxG+xA. He’s also U22 eligible. If you could get him, he would only hit the salary cap at 200k. He is an Iraqi international who will give Whitecaps fans some PTSD after their experience with Ali Adnan, but Madjed was born and raised in Sweden, so he shouldn’t have the same visa troubles. Unfortunately, we do have to be a little skeptical of Transfermarkt’s 3 million valuation of him. His club, Hammarby, just sold Sebastian Tounekti (3 years older and less productive) for 6.5 million. So it’s a bit hard to see Madjed going out the door for less than that. But if you can get this guy for that number, you pretty much have to do it.

We have the Golden Boy At Home: Severin Nioule

Normally, I wouldn’t highlight two players from the same league, but Nioule’s highlights package was so electric I wanted to point him out as well. If Madjed is too expensive, Nioule might be a savvy under-the-radar fallback. He only had 2 goals and an assist in the Allsvenskan, and he hasn’t yet played internationally for Côte d’Ivoire, so he doesn’t have some of the factors that drive up a player’s price. But his underlying numbers are really solid. He slightly under-scored his xG, and his teammates were apparently absolutely useless at putting away the chances he created for them. Also, look at him go!

The Wildcard: Ebrima Singhateh

Ebrima Singhateh is a bit of a weird one. He is more of a striker/winger, but his progressive carries are still high. He isn’t U-22 eligible, but he is still young. He has by far the highest NPxG+xA/90 of anyone on the list, and he is about to be a free agent (having played in the Czech top division last season). So, in some ways, he seems like an ideal pickup. But his Wikipedia page mentions at least one incident where he refused to train in order to force a move. So there is a possibility he wouldn’t be good for squad harmony. Of course, we don’t know all the details of that situation, maybe he was justified. But that would be something you would need to check into.

The Project: Alfa Baldé

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of these guys haven’t been able to turn their ability to run the ball into consistent outputs yet, and that’s what makes them relatively affordable. Of this group, my eye is drawn to Alfa Baldé. He’s running with the ball a lot, creating a lot of chances for teammates, but not getting many high-quality shots of his own. In many ways, he looks like what Ali Ahmed was before his big offensive breakout in 2025. Baldé’s team, Radnički, is near the bottom of the Serbian league, having scored only 22 goals in 20 games. So joining the Whitecaps, who I still expect to be pretty strong, could naturally raise his outputs. But also, looking at his highlights package, it seems obvious someone just needs to get him in the film room and help him work on his decision-making. His shot selection is very bad! But he’s 20, there’s still time to course correct! At least, that’s the impression I get from YouTube highlights, which we know can be deceiving.