Malik Jakupovic is beginning to draw serious attention at Philadelphia Union, even if his progress has come in measured steps rather than a sudden burst. While Cavan Sullivan continues to command headlines, Jakupovic is quietly building a case of his own at Subaru Park.<\/p>\n
The Michigan-born striker only made his MLS debut in March and is still waiting for a first start. His recent usage underlines that gradual path: only two of his last five appearances have lasted more than a minute. Even so, the interest around him keeps growing.<\/p>\n
Borussia Dortmund were already credited with an approach over the summer, with reports saying Philadelphia rejected a bid for the teenager. Since then, the picture has widened further, with Premier League links now circulating alongside the long-standing Bundesliga connection. For a player with just one senior goal, that level of transfer noise says plenty about how highly he is regarded.<\/p>\n
Jakupovic\u2019s record in MLS NEXT Pro helps explain why clubs are paying attention. He joined the Union academy three years ago, moving to Philadelphia at 14 with the hope of climbing the ranks and helping the club one day win its first MLS Cup. By 2025, he had become an important part of the reserve side, scoring eight times in 19 MLS NEXT Pro appearances and finishing as the team\u2019s second-highest scorer in his first campaign.<\/p>\n
His senior breakthrough followed in 2026, when the Union called him into their Concacaf Champions Cup squad. He made his official debut in the 7\u20130 win over Defence Force, then moved between the first team and Philadelphia Union II as his form dictated. That pattern continued this season until September, when he finally held his place long enough to make an impact. In his third straight appearance for the Union, the 17-year-old scored his first MLS goal, finishing from close range in stoppage time during the 5\u20130 win over San Diego FC.<\/p>\n
Minutes have remained scarce since then, however, and Philadelphia\u2019s attack is crowded. The team has scored 23 goals in its last six matches, with Sullivan in strong form, Bruno Damiani scoring freely and Milan Iloski adding another layer of competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalik has shown great growth since joining our academy, and his maturity at just 16 years old speaks to his professionalism and commitment,\u201d Philadelphia sporting director Jon Scheer said of Jakupovic back in April.<\/p>\n
That professionalism may serve him well, whether his next step comes in Philadelphia or abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jakupovic is attracting Premier League interest after a slow rise through Philadelphia Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1396,1163],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-21784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mls","category-transfers","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}