TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Loan
The Philadelphia Union have loaned homegrown midfielder Jack de Vries to Serie A side Venezia FC, the club announced Tuesday. He will remain on loan until next summer.
De Vries, 19, signed his Homegrown contract ahead of the 2020 season and made four appearances last year, all from the bench. In 2021, he's been sidelined for several months due to a concussion and hasn't made his season debut. He holds a Dutch passport, meaning Venezia don't need to use one of their two non-EU spots to sign him.
Venezia, who have an American ownership group, signed US men's national team midfielders Gianluca Busio from Sporting Kansas City and Tanner Tessmann from FC Dallas earlier this summer. The newly-promoted Italian club lost both of their first two league games to start their 2021-22 campaign.
De Vries is the latest Philly academy product to head to Europe, following Brenden Aaronson (RB Salzburg) and Mark McKenzie (KRC Genk) last winter.
Prior to signing his Homegrown contract, de Vries appeared for Bethlehem Steel FC (since rebranded as Philadelphia Union II) in the USL Championship as an academy player. He was a member of the U.S. Under-17 national team that finished as runners-up at the 2019 Concacaf Under-17 Championship and was previously committed to play NCAA soccer at the University of Virginia in the Cavaliers' 2020 recruiting class.
De Vries is also a second-generation MLSer: his father Raimo was a member of the Colorado Rapids' inaugural squad in 1996.
