Former Borussia Dortmund midfielder Marco Reus said even though MLS isn’t highly regarded in Germany, playing in the United States for the Galaxy was his first choice.
The Galaxy introduced Reus, who has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with the club.
“It’s a little bit hard to say, to be honest, it’s not a popular league in Germany, but when players come here like [Lionel] Messi, for example, then they pay attention,” Reus said. “I think this league is great, where great players play — especially on this team. I’ve seen a lot of very good games.”
Reus was not under contract with Dortmund, but the Galaxy had to pay $400,000 to Charlotte FC in GAM, or general allocation money, for the player’s discovery rights.
“In MLS, it’s not as simple as saying, ‘OK, we want to sign you,’ because you have to deal with a lot of things, including the discovery rights,” Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz. “… When you sign a player of Marco’s caliber and it’s not a designated player contract, there’s a lot of hoops and disclosures that you have to go through with the league in this. There’s a sort of disbelief, right, sort of assuming we must be paying under the table.”
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Coach Gregg Vanney said he expects to use the Reus, who was was part of Germany’s 2018 World Cup team, in a variety of ways, slotting him into multiple positions on the field.
“He’s a great player and he can be versatile, he can have different roles among our group,” Vanney said. “We’ve talked about certain areas on the pitch where we want to give him the ball, that he can help us generate our attack and that could be more in a midfield role.”
The Galaxy have star Riqui Puig in midfield leading an attack that would differ a bit from what Reus would offer, but the new signee doesn’t see that as a problem.
“This can be good, together, but it is also important not only [to think] about me or Riqui, there are very good players in this team,” Reus said. “You can only win a championship together and not alone. It’s important that we stick together in the good times and in the bad times.”
Vanney said Reus has been in Los Angeles for a week and expects his visa to be processed as soon as possible so that he can be part of the team’s game against Atlanta FC on Aug. 24 at Dignity Health Sports Park (7 p.m. PT, AppleTV).
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