Luca Langoni Ready to Live Up to Record Transfer Fee
"I will try to fight and give the best version of me.”
Luca Langoni participated in his first training session with the New England Revolution on Tuesday marking the beginning of what he and fans of the club will hope is a fruitful career.
Langoni comes to New England by way of Boca Juniors. The giants of Argentina sent the youngster stateside in a transfer that saw the Revolution pay a club-record transfer fee.
With that investment comes pressure but Langoni is ready to fight for his new club and repay the faith that was placed in him by the front office.
“I’m very thankful for everyone in the front office who supported me,” Langoni said via a translator when asked by The Blazing Musket about him fetching such a high fee. “I’m very thankful for that. I approach it calmly, with excitement and humility. I will try to fight and give the best version of me.”
The 22-year-old played in 70 matches for Boca Juniors where he tallied 11 goals. After rising through the ranks of their youth system, Langoni was a part of the 2022 squad that lifted a league trophy.
Langoni can’t express the gratitude he has for his now former club.
“Boca gave me everything,” he said. “It shaped me both as a person and as a player. It was honestly a dream for me and I’m forever thankful.”
Now in New England, he will face expectations of being a difference-maker. Head coach Caleb Porter believes that the attacker brings a style of play that the Revolution have been lacking.
“Every player is a piece of the puzzle and there are certain dimensions that I'm looking for in the overall group,” he said. “I felt we needed a little more penetration. A little more wing play, penetration, with crossing. We get in the half spaces a lot, but we don't get enough crosses in. Ema [Boateng] brings that, but Esmir [Bajraktarevic] and Dylan [Borrero] are more pocket guys. They come inside on their off foot. Dylan plays left, comes in on his right, and Esmir is left-footed, comes in on his left. So that's great, but we also need a dimension on the wings where guys stretch and get service in. We need, overall, a little bit more pace and penetration. It's not a knock on anybody, it's just I like to have an option of a stretch guy and a pocket guy on each wing, so he [Langoni] brings that stretch guy on the right that we didn't have.”
Langoni said that he enjoys playing on the right flank or in the middle of the pitch as a second forward. It seems likely that when New England is fully healthy, Tomas Chancalay and Langoni could become the Revs’ dangerous duo out wide.
Langoni is also a hard worker whether it be on or off the ball. He will show his pace when patrolling the flank and also will look to cause turnovers in Porter’s pressing system.
Still, the pressure will be high. If he struggles to get acclimated to MLS or the system that Porter wants to play, his transfer fee will be held over his head. Giacomo Vrioni experienced this prior to his six-goal outburst prior to getting injured in regards to his status as a designated player.
Langoni has the pedigree of a star in the making, a player worth more than any record transfer fee. But the time for projecting is over, now is the time for Langoni to turn his potential into reality.
I have never heard the “stretch and pocket” winger talk before Porter and it’s really off putting. A winger cutting inside to either channel with an overlapping fullback making a run isn’t some grand new idea that’s hard to grasp. That small personal annoyance aside, the way he talks about needing one “stretch guy” and one “pocket guy” on either wing sounds a lot like what he wants is his wingers to be predictable and one dimensional in how they attack
So how much was the transfer fee for Langoni?