Kai Wagner’s European dream meets family-first reality in Union return

CHESTER — Kai Wagner has long harbored the dream of returning to Europe to play soccer. But reality doesn’t always match the fantasy.

When Wagner, out of contract after five seasons with the Union at the end of 2023, dangled his services into European waters, he got bites. But he had to weigh his dream and the uncertainty of European soccer against the surety of Philadelphia, the reputation he’d built as an MLS All-Star and, perhaps most of all, the FaceTime calls from his two young children with neighbors and classmates in the only home they’ve ever known.

“It was a couple of tough weeks in my head,” Wagner said Thursday, three weeks after signing a new three-year contract. “But at the end, it was a big family matter. Everybody knows that I’m a big family guy. I wanted to have the best station for family to where the kids can grow up.

“I have everything here in this club. I have everything here in the neighborhood. At one point, the decision was pretty easy for me, so I said, no, we’re going to take all the offers out and just try to talk to Philly and get the best deal that I could. I’m pretty happy that it went like this.”

Wagner had concrete offers from several clubs. The two most reported were Serbian giants Red Star Belgrade and AEK Athens in Greece. For the 26-year-old left back, who came up at SSV Ulm and played for a season on Schalke’s reserve team, getting back to Europe was always the objective. But the on-paper aspiration when he crossed the Atlantic at 22 has grown with the addition of a wife, kids and an established profile in the U.S.

At times, like when he openly campaigned for a new deal last fall and celebrated his final home game at Subaru Park, Wagner looked to be stubbornly ignoring those nuances. But a hard look at the situation this winter brought him back to Chester.

“It would be maybe a different case if I was 21, if I was at the beginning of my career,” Wagner said. “But at 26, turning 27 now next month, it’s a little bit different of a situation where you can’t just try anything new out. I always said that I wanted to go back to Europe, but it has to be the right step, and the right step didn’t feel right for me in that moment.”

Wagner demurred when asked about interest from within MLS, though he would’ve had no shortage of suitors had his relationship with the Union been beyond repair. The club offered a deal at season’s end, and fellow German Ernst Tanner, whom Wagner called, “the guy who helped me the most in the club,” kept open the line of dialogue.

It means the Union get back one of MLS’ best left backs, a three-time All-Star and 2022 Best XI selection. Even if Wagner’s new salary exceeds what the club would normally allot for a left back, it’s for a durable and dependable piece who has played 138 games over the last five seasons with five goals and 39 assists, the second most in club history. Signed out of the third division of Germany, he’s one of the best signings in club history.

Not all is rosy, though. Wagner was suspended for three games, one of which he still has to serve, for violating MLS’s on-field antidiscrimination policy in an altercation with New England’s Bobby Wood in a playoff game last fall. Wagner said he’s completed the league’s mandated education and training, as well as a mediation session with Wood. The club backed Wagner in his assertion that both players provoked each other, though only Wagner was suspended.

The indiscretion dimmed fans’ support for Wagner in his campaign. But he has been involved in many community initiatives in his tenure, building up goodwill that didn’t vanish completely overnight.

“I’m really happy that the fans reacted like this,” he said. “We saw over the last couple of weeks, what we did over the last five years showed a lot of how the people respect me here and how the people treat me here. Everybody knows what happened last year, but nobody knows the truth of what happened there. I let everybody have their opinion.”

It wasn’t the first time that Wagner faced an internal battle between past and present. An objective stated at 21 looks different at 26, just as its formulator has changed. Wagner had to decide between charging toward a goal without regard for how it has evolved, or seeing the new reality to make making the best decision for the player he is, not the one he was or hoped to be.

“Some people said maybe you failed in your career now and stuff like this, but that’s not how it is,” he said. “… I will do still the best I can. I have a long-term contract and I have a big future with the Union and I want to do great things with the Union now.”