Rumors: New York Red Bulls keep missing out on loaning young defenders

Eduardo Solano, Journalist and friend of Once A Metro, draws our attention to a story in Honduras' Diez:

No creo esto! No hay manera de cambiar la estabilidad de la MLS, por un futuro incierto en Honduras. @JuanMapu @Once_A_Metro pic.twitter.com/PlGU9D7e6j

— Eduardo solano (@newguayork) July 1, 2025

In a nutshell, Diez's Frank Portillo reports that defender Dylan Andrade - a Honduras youth international recently returned from the U-20 World Cup - had a trial with Minnesota United and received an unusual offer: the MLS team had carelessly filled all of its available roster spots for international players, so it proposed to loan him to the New York Red Bulls.

Andrade declined and is currently back with Honduran club Platense, where he hopes to have a better shot at first-team minutes than he suspected he'd get in the USA. The 19-year-old did tell Diez he might try his luck with MLS again in August or January, so perhaps this is not the last we've heard of him.

From the RBNY perspective, the 19-year-old is the second young defender the rumor mill has suggested the Red Bulls failed to land on a convoluted loan in recent months. Earlier this year, there were reports out of Brazil that under-used defender Leo Duarte had been the subject of an offer that would have seen him placed with RBNY with a view to a future move to RB Leipzig. The 20-year-old's club, Flamengo, rejected the proposal.

Both rumors fit the mold of recent RBNY transfer policy, insofar as they are young and well-regarded. And the team is known to be in the market for defensive help. That help, however, was described to MSG's Kristian Dyer back in May as likely to be one of three center-backs "between the ages of 21 to 25". Neither Duarte nor Andrade quite fit that age-range, and the expectation is that the Red Bulls will sign a starting-caliber player in the summer window to boost a back line that has been rendered a little short-handed by injury since Gideon Baah was placed on the season-ending injury list at the start of the season.

The rumor mill doesn't have many ideas about RBNY's current transfer targets, but it doesn't seem short of players it can suggest the Red Bulls have recently tried and failed to sign.