While European and South American club football is at a standstill due to national team competitions, MLS continues with its calendar. In 2024, Leo Messi and Inter Miami continue to grab the attention, this time with a much better sporting performance, being the team with the best finishing efficiency and showing themselves to be clear candidates for the league title. In the meantime, many other talents are clearly showing themselves, as is the case of what is probably the great revelation or most improved player of the championship compared to his 2023.
Alongside Diego Luna or Cristian Arango, the main offensive weapon of Salt Lake, another of the clear candidates to win the championship, is a 21-year-old Colombian boy who from one year to the next has positioned himself as one of the best players in American football. Carlos Andrés Gómez, as the data show, has experienced a truly unusual rise.
A product of Millonarios de Bogotá, Carlos A. Gómez left for Salt Lake for 3.5 million euros, a considerable sum for a player with great potential. A very fast 1.71m winger, he stood out mainly for his high volume of shots (on the left, performance comparison between Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2022) and quality in the final pass. But, above all, what stood out was his ability to accelerate and win the back line.
His first season in MLS (2023) was the clear case of adaptation. Playing over 1700 minutes, Gomez had five assists but only one goal and good numbers but with huge room for improvement. That improvement has not been slow in coming, placing him, at 21, as one of the top ten players in MLS according to our performance ratings. In the graph above, on the right, the radar in blue explains his enormous progression in just one year, generating imbalance game after game.
The main change has been noticeable at the goalscoring level. Gómez is not only able to start at a standstill and run towards the back line, but also to get on the scoresheet in a variety of ways. In the same minutes (12 fewer games), Gómez has ten more goals than last season, competing among the top scorers with much older players. He is the best performing young talent in MLS.
A performance that can be seen in his heat map, with more presence in the area and greater intensity and participation in 2024. From 48% of the minutes played last season, this year he has played 80% of the minutes, gaining in relevance and ascendancy within a team that will undoubtedly fight for the title in the final stretch. In his game, you quickly notice his ease and agility to outmuscle and outmuscle his team-mates. His technique is irregular in his driving when he changes direction or has to brake, needing to readjust too many gestures, but his growth in goal and his innate speed can make him a player to watch.
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