Minnesota United has started the 2025 season carrying over a lot of the depth that it had to end 2024 — except, perhaps, down the center of the field.

"On account of some of the exits we've had, we look a little bit light in the middle," coach Eric Ramsay said.

It's an area that Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad has been trying to improve — and the Loons are in negotiations with some players that could potentially help.

The Loons are negotiating potential deals for young midfielders Jeong Ho-yeon and Owen Gene, in addition to 21-year-old center back Nicolás Romero, a source confirmed.

Jeong, who is 24, has been a regular in the lineup for Gwangju FC in South Korea's first division, and won the league's Young Player of the Year award in 2023. He's played once for the South Korea senior men's national team, and was on the gold-medal-winning U23 side at the Asian Games late in 2023 — a big deal for him, as winning a gold medal exempts all of the team's members from mandatory military service.

Gene, who's currently with Amiens in the French second division, is just 21 years old. Despite his young age, Gene — who is listed as 6-1 on his team's official site — has already made 108 appearances for Amiens, beginning in 2021.

The midfield need

After switching to a 5-2-3 formation last season, Ramsay depended almost entirely on Wil Trapp and Hassani Dotson to fill the two midfield roles, with occasional cameos from Robin Lod — who fits better as a wide forward — and from Carlos Harvey, who ended the year as an outside center back.

Minnesota also loaned out midfielder Alejandro Bran, first to Burton Albion and then to Alajuelense in Costa Rica. The Loons also let forward Franco Fragapane leave in free agency — thus removing the option to play him up front, and move Lod back into central midfield.

Combine that with the Loons' sale of center back Miguel Tapias to Chivas, and suddenly, Ramsay's options in the middle start looking a little light.

"There's definitely scope to bring in players there," Ramsay said. "As time moves on, if we managed to strengthen the back line and we strengthen the midfield, we'll be in a good position."

Jeong is reputedly a hard-working, two-way central midfielder — a perfect fit for Ramsay's system, which often demands the most running from its two central midfielders.

Among Loons players who played regularly since Ramsay took over, Trapp and Dotson led the team in distance covered per minutes played, with each averaging just over 7 miles of running per 96 minutes.

Scouting reports peg Gene as a ball-winning, defensive-minded midfielder — a role that's almost completely fallen to Trapp over the past several seasons, since the departure of Ozzie Alonso at the end of 2021.

The roster implications

Trapp, 32, just signed a new contract, one that runs through the season and has a team option for next year. Dotson, 27, is entering the final season of his deal.

Romero and Gene would likely be eligible for U22 Initiative roster spots. Unconfirmed published reports from France have pegged Gene's potential transfer fee around $2.1 million, similar to the reports about a fee for Romero — but in an U22 spot, neither's transfer fee would count against the team's salary budget.

The Loons currently have two vacant spots for U22 Initiative players, and would add another if they complete the transfer of Teemu Pukki, which would allow them to have two Designated Players (Joaquín Pereyra and Kelvin Yeboah) and four U22 players.

Minnesota United might need to juggle things a bit to fit three more international players into its eight international roster spots, but has until Feb. 21 to get its roster compliant.