With the transfer window now closed, aleagues.com.au sat down with Sydney FC’s Head of Player Management Alex Baumjohann to get the inside track on a window which saw some huge moves, both in and out of the club.
There’s been plenty of change at Sydney FC both on and off the pitch following the conclusion of the Isuzu UTE A-League 2024-25 season. In summary, there have been 12 player departures, nine new arrivals and five contract renewals – all of which have meant a mountain of work for Sydney FC and in particular, the man tasked with transfer negotiations.
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With head coach Ufuk Talay’s future sorted, attention then quickly turned to the playing group and the gaps that would need filling ahead of the new campaign. 108 days subsequently passed from the end of the season to the end of the transfer window and Baumjohann has overseen quite the squad rebuild.
In total, 12 players left the Sky Blues during that time including Brazilian star Douglas Costa and the rest of the side’s new visa players from last season as well as Socceroos duo and club icons Anthony Caceres and Andrew Redmayne.
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Taking their place are the likes of Spanish forward Victor Campuzano, Peru international attacker Piero Quispe, and Congolese defender Marcel Tisserand as well as a plethora of young Australian talent featuring names such as Al Hassan Toure, Rhys Youlley and Abel Walatee
“I would say we had a nearly perfect window so far,” said Baumjohann when sitting down to chat with aleagues.com.au at the club’s Sky Park training base.
“Especially with the foreign players, all three of them, Piero, Victor and Marcel; they were our top targets for a long time.
“I think all of them will lift the quality of the team a lot with the Australian players.”
The 2024-25 campaign was ultimately one which ended in disappointment for the club as a frustrating end to the season saw them both miss out on the Finals Series and suffer a heart-breaking exit in the Semi-Finals of the AFC Champions League Two.
As such there was plenty of change that probably needed to take place and ultimately did. Brazilian midfielder Leo Sena mutually terminated his contract, Polish forward Patryk Klimala departed following the conclusion of his loan spell and Moroccan midfielder Anas Ouahim was granted an early leave from his contract on compassionate grounds.
However, the headline departure from the squad was former Brazil international Costa who, following a lengthy spell back in his home country, ultimately agreed to mutually terminate his deal due to an ongoing legal situation which meant he was unable to return.
“I think it was a very challenging situation because obviously Douglas had a great season last year,” said Baumjohann when asked how the Costa situation panned out.
“The kind of player that he is and with his past and the success that he had in his career it’s not only one player, it was a special player, right?
“So it was challenging because we as a club try to support our players, always. We wouldn’t just for whatever reason not support a player or say, right, no problem, Douglas can’t come back, so we just pull the trigger and that’s it.
“So we really tried everything from a club perspective that we could, because we knew that he wanted to come back and we spoke nearly every day. He was in touch with the coach and we created a programme for him.
He continued: “So we had hope for a long time but then obviously, we also need to work on a Plan B. When the season finished we knew that, or we thought that, Douglas will come back and we planned to build a squad around him as one of the most important players of the team.
“But then when time passed, we just needed to work on other options, right? And as much as we would have loved Douglas back, we believed, and even it came from him, that there was not really light at the end of the tunnel. We would never throw our players under the bus – even (whilst) getting a lot of pressure from our fans, sponsors, members – but we would never give those details of his private situation to the outside.
“So we tried to keep this all as confidential as possible. We worked together as hard as possible as a club and as a player, but unfortunately, there was no way to to bring him back. Now that’s history. We need to move forward and hopefully he sorts out his stuff and he can still play some more years, because he is a fantastic person, a fantastic character.”
But a large part of Baumjohann’s edict as Head of Player Management – or Sporting Director – is to do exactly that; manage the flow of players coming in and out of the club and look to fill the gaps when they appear.
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The man tasked with filling the boots of Costa will be Peruvian attacker Quispe, who joins Sydney FC on a one-year loan deal from Mexican giants Pumas, and it was a deal that Baumjohann worked tirelessly to complete.
“I’m a big fan and have a lot of passion for South American football,” said the German, who spent two years playing in Brazil for both Coritiba and Vitoria. “I watch a lot of games in the Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and also some of the leagues in South America. So I have lists of every country’s most promising players, just out of interest.
“Obviously most of them are not realistic for us but I saw Piero for the first time four years ago when he was still playing at Universitario in Peru and I was totally impressed. I thought that he will be the next big thing from Peru.
“I played with some Peruvians before like (Jefferson) Farfan, (Carlos) Zambrano and Claudio Pizarro and with my knowledge of of South American football, I monitor this type of player.
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“Then probably six or seven weeks ago, by coincidence, I found out that Pumas is struggling and they want to sign a striker but they already had all the foreign spots occupied, so they wanted to move one of their foreign players.
“That’s when I got on the phone and called their Sporting Director, Eduardo Saracho, and had a chat with him. I asked him about the idea of loaning Piero to us and we’d give him regular game time so they can free up the foreign spot and sign a striker, which I think they have done over recent days.
“Then I spoke with Piero’s agent and then with Piero. The whole process probably took a week or so to get everyone on the same page but Piero was convinced that it’s the right step for him in his career.
“But I think Piero is a top player who can definitely play in one of the top five leagues, and if he gets it right, and if he gets enough game time, I think he can be one of the best Peruvian players ever.
He added: “With Piero he’s a player that I’m the most excited (about) since I’m here in this role because I think he will not only give us success but also a lot of flair, and the fans will love him.
“He’s a type of player that people pay money to watch him play in the stadium.”
Another player brought in to add some creative spark to the side was Spanish forward Campuzano, with the former Espanyol and Sporting Gijon frontman handed the club’s famous number nine jersey after inking a two-year deal ahead of the new season.
“A long time ago, we put together lists of players that we monitor, and then over time, similar to Douglas, similar to Leo, to Anas and Klimala, over time, if you are patient enough and things work out well for you, players become available. With Victor, that was the case.”
In what was arguably the surprise announcement of transfer deadline day, the pursuit of the 28-year-old was quite the covert operation. In fact, a simple deadline day search of the Spaniard’s name on social media platforms threw up nothing other than some of his spectacular goals and links to other Spanish clubs.
“So we’d been in touch for a long time, and I’m trying to convince him,” laughed Baumjohann when detailing his pursuit of the player.
“He’d just turned 28 and he has played on the highest level for so long. Obviously, when you look at his goal record, he hasn’t scored 20 goals every season, but what we identified is that he has the perfect attributes to fit in our squad for the way we want to play.
“We also know that if he would have scored 10-15 goals every season, he would never come to Australia at this stage of his career.
“So for us, it’s very important that we identify attributes in players and realise what they are capable to do, and that’s how we sign players. (With) Victor, we have been in touch for a while and two weeks ago, It started to get a little bit more concrete.
“At the same time, obviously (we’re) working on other options, but we always had Victor as one of our top two targets for the number nine position but (we were) being really persistent and trying to convince the player.
“I think (it was) on Friday or Saturday… actually it was maybe Sunday we then agreed the terms and he made the decision that he wants to sign with us. 24 hours later, he was sitting on the plane to Australia.
He added: “He’s the perfect fit, especially with Piero, a player that will play behind him who is very creative, who can play the final pass. Victor is someone who is not sort of a traditional number nine, who is just waiting in the box.
“He can also come off the line, drop a little bit into midfield combination play. He’s technically strong and at the same time he’s lightning quick and will give us a lot in attack. With Piero and the other players around him feeding him he will score a lot of goals for us.”
Whilst overseas signings will always grab the headlines there was plenty to be excited about when it comes to Australian players arriving at Sydney FC during the off-season.
Having already recruited Young Socceroos Paul Okon-Engstler and Youlley the Sky Blues then pulled off something of a deadline day coup, snapping up former Western United winger Walatee on a four-year deal. However, whilst the deal may have only been signed at the eleventh hour, the ground work was laid long before the 21-year-old signed on the dotted line.
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“We always look at our academy players first, right? So if we don’t believe that there’s anyone, especially with Australian players, on the outside and who is better than our own players, our academy players, who has more potential, then we would never bring in the player.
“In the A-League Abel is one of, in my opinion, the most exciting attacking players.
“I’ve been in touch with his agent since December, already starting the process to maybe lay the foundations of signing him. We tried everything we can to bring Abel in, because he’s a top kid.
“He has a top mentality, he has huge potential. Obviously, (he’s) had only one season in the A-League so far but we have a lot of faith with him. We gave him a four year contract and we believe that he can become a Socceroo and have a similar pathway to what we saw with Sega (Adrian Segecic) last year.”
With one visa spot remaining there’s a good chance Baumjohann and Co. will already be lining up their next target ahead of the mid-season window but for now the German is happy with the balance of the squad for several reasons, many of which should also be encouraging to Sydney FC fans.
“When I started here almost two-and-a-half years ago I think the team, or the squad, wasn’t in a perfect structure,” he said. “I think the overall age was too high. I think the overall spending for the team was too high and the performances were not as good as they were a while ago.
“So we identified that we needed to make some changes but as I said before, here in Australia there’s no domestic transfer system – you can’t just sell the players whenever you want, so it just takes some time until contracts expire. I think now the team that we have, only one player didn’t sign a contract under me.
He continued: “We have the strongest academy in the country, but in the past, we haven’t really maximised what we could get from our young players. Now we have an average age in the squad under 23 I think 22.7 or 22.8 which is the youngest squad in the competition, but we still have some very experienced players that have to lead the group, because you also need to find the right balance.
“(But) we are very, very happy with the current squad, because it’s totally aligned to the strategy and philosophy that we have created at the club.”
