Why FC Cincinnati fans could be watching the final months of Brenner in MLS

Pat Brennan, Cincinnati Enquirer
·6 min read

The juxtaposition that continues to be Brenner Souza da Silva's time at FC Cincinnati is once again in full view.

A recent span of just days saw Brenner's camp engaged in a push for him to transfer to one of top leagues in Europe. Simultaneously, he was on the field for FC Cincinnati in a preseason game Jan. 27 against Austin FC, ably playing the role of the leading man.

He scored a goal against Austin that goal underlined his preparedness and potential ahead of the 2023 Major League Soccer season, but the convergence of that with what ended up being another unsuccessful attempt to leave FC Cincinnati has left Brenner disappointed, according to multiple accounts of the situation, and coping with the frustration of a failed bid to leave.

Only weeks remain before the start of another MLS season in which FC Cincinnati is expected to rely on Brenner, but questions persist about the sensibility of relying on a player that's actively tried to leave the club for seemingly almost as long as he's been a part of it.

The Austin goal was Brenner at his impassioned best. It demonstrated his poise to replicate a sometimes-dominant 2022 season following his roundly disappointing MLS debut in 2021. The score was also highly suggestive of his engagement in preparations for 2023 as it elicited an interesting celebration from Brenner, mostly because the game didn't count beyond serving as a preseason tuneup.

In a video of the goal that's since been deleted from social media channels by FC Cincinnati, Brenner flashed an arm-pump while jumping.

"In terms of his form, he's been one of our best players through three weeks (of preseason)," FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said during a Thursday news conference. "He's just been really sharp and finished off a really nice sequence for the goal he scored."

But almost immediately after the scrimmage against Austin, Brenner's transfer desires dominated FC Cincinnati-related headlines. That's the challenge and frustration Brenner presents to the club.

Brenner's talent begets transfer talk involving major clubs in soccer-rich Europeans countries. It always has, and he's welcomed and invited it in attempting to depart MLS.

In recent weeks, as talk of a possible move to Nottingham Forest of the English Premier League (and Udinese of Italy's Serie A months prior to that) picked up and then faded from view this week, the muddled nature of Brenner's relationship with his current club came back into focus.

He missed two training sessions with his teammates this week during the transfer talks. Now, he'll have to pick himself up emotionally from the disappointment of his brush with jumping to Europe.

"In the days after the Austin game, it was a lot of talk around the transfer. He was off to the side (at practice), didn't want to be a distraction, which was fine," Noonan said. "His goal is to be playing in a top-five league (globally) and the Premier League, obviously, that was the conversation most recently. There will be disappointment just because the conversations and them being ongoing and it not being the time.

"Our goal is to continue to develop Brenner in a way where he can live out his dream and play in a top-five league, so we keep an important piece but the psychological piece on his end is the challenge. And so, hopefully he can be in the same form he's been in these first three weeks and at the end of 2022 as we move forward."

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Brenner is a streaky scorer. Half of his 18 regular-season goals came over three 2022 matches because he three times produced hattricks. Brenner can also disappear and have minimal impact on matches, which was the case in the club's 2022 MLS Cup playoff run.

The club abided Brenner's streakiness because when he's switched on, few in MLS can dominate as he can.

But another downside to Brenner is that his latest transfer push was only his most recent, and the appearance FC Cincinnati equipping itself for MLS championship contention is cast against Brenner's possible departure, which is seemingly always looming.

With FCC saying it is committed to eventually honoring Brenner's wishes to move on, it is once against the case in 2023 that Brenner's time at FC Cincinnati could be fleeting.

For the time being, FC Cincinnati is trying to stabilize the striker's situation and also prepare for what feels like an inevitable post-Brenner era.

The latest European transfer window closed Tuesday evening. That quashed the likelihood of Brenner departing during FCC's MLS preseason, but another transfer window opens in the summer. That means Brenner might not see out 2023 with Cincinnati.

Or he could stay again. He's under contract through the 2025. That would mean three full seasons to come in Orange and Blue, but it seems increasingly unlikely Brenner will reach the end of that deal with FCC.

Cincinnati will have to be prepared with reinforcements for the eventuality Brenner leaves this summer, and Noonan said the team has a plan in place.

"I think we understand the reality of the situation with a very talented player who is going to be a player that others want," Noonan said. "We've been talking -- Chris (Albright, general manager), myself, the scouting department -- about potential options if or when there is a transfer for Brenner, or any of our players. There are some targets in sight but now those targets kind of move back a little bit into the summer, but what it does is when you're talking about specific positions, the longer you can keep important pieces, the longer you have to find the right replacements if and when you need to.

FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan, shown here during a match last season, says the team is preparing for the possibility that the club could lose some talented players. "We've been talking a lot about what kind of pieces we want to add moving forward in the event we lose some of our key contributors," he said.
FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan, shown here during a match last season, says the team is preparing for the possibility that the club could lose some talented players. "We've been talking a lot about what kind of pieces we want to add moving forward in the event we lose some of our key contributors," he said.

"We've been talking a lot about what kind of pieces we want to add moving forward in the event we lose some of our key contributors, and what kind of attacking pieces we're looking for if Brenner were to go, if Brandon (Vazquez) were to go, you know, Lucho (Acosta). There's been talks about all of them. There's an idea of what it looks like when they're gone but now with knowing that Brenner's going to be here until the summer, we can look at what we really want in the summer window if we lose a piece or two."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincy fans could be watching the final months of Brenner in MLS