The Reclamation of Hannes Wolf

The Austrian winger's journey from Bundesliga disappointment to New York City standout reveals how persistence and the right opportunity can reignite a stalled career.

Hannes Wolf has arguably been New York City FC’s best player this season. The Austrian has produced at a designated player (DP) level and has been one of the most prolific wingers in Major League Soccer with 2.37 g+ above average, ranking 15th among all players and sixth in the position group. Sporting director David Lee found this immense value—DP quality at a Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) price—because Wolf is a bit of a reclamation project.

With the benefit of hindsight, it may seem harsh to call Hannes Wolf a reclamation project, but this level of success was far from a certainty when the Austrian signed with New York City. Wolf had played just 524 minutes over the last season and a half in Germany, and his inconsistent production made it uncertain how good he would be in MLS, even considering the transition from the Bundesliga to a lower-quality league. His tenure at Borussia Mönchengladbach had reached a breaking point, making him available on a free transfer— a surprising turn of events given the high esteem he garnered as a prospect just a few years earlier. His 2019 transfer to RB Leipzig for €12 million and 2021 loan and transfer to Gladbach for €11 million¹ would have made him a designated player in MLS and one of the highest inbound transfers in MLS history.

Hyped youngsters have been failing to live up to expectations for as long as sports have existed. They’ve been given second and third chances to prove themselves just as long, with teams willing to bet they have the special sauce to unlock the potential that made them so highly touted in the first place. New York City is no stranger to this roster-building technique. The player Wolf replaced, Matías Pellegrini, was their most recent attempt to find value in these high-reward moves.

The higher-end outcomes are inherently unlikely for reclamation projects, which is why they typically require modest investment relative to their risk. Pellegrini was also acquired on a free transfer in the hopes he’d perform like the designated player he failed to be for Inter Miami three years earlier. 

Identifying why young players have stumbled at previous stops is crucial. Often, they are simply not as good as once projected, as was the case with Pellegrini. However, the key is to identify players like Wolf, who are held back by circumstances. Removing these stressors can allow them to flourish into the players they are capable of becoming. Wolf is now in an environment free of such impediments, but he faced many challenges in prior years that stalled his growth into the attacker he’s become with New York City.

A major injury. Veterans blocking the pathway to playing time. A stylistic mismatch with the tactical philosophy. Frequent coaching changes. A crippling global pandemic. Even one of these stressors can inhibit a young player’s development. The presence of several of them builds a groundswell that impedes them from becoming the players they are capable of being. 

For Hannes Wolf, a gruesome leg fracture while playing for Austria’s Under-21 team in the summer of 2019 significantly altered the trajectory of his career. He put himself on the map as a 19-year-old by producing 19 goal contributions for RB Salzburg in 2018-19, earning a promotion up the Red Bull ranks to Leipzig. The €12 million transfer went through despite the injury, but it might as well have doomed it. Sidelined for more than five months, Wolf struggled to find his footing upon his return in December. Head coach Julian Nagelsmann played him just 58 minutes in the 2019-20 season, further upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not in Nagelsmann’s plans for 2020-21, the transfer to Gladbach was the first attempted iteration of the Hannes Wolf reclamation project. The move reunited Wolf with Marco Rose, the coach who had guided him throughout his entire Salzburg career, from joining the U16s in 2014 to his ascent to the first team in 2016. Under Rose’s familiar eye, Wolf played over 1,600 minutes and looked like he belonged in the Bundesliga at the age of 21. He ranked above average in expected assists and progressive passes, teasing at the potential overshadowed by his leg injury the previous season. 

However, Rose’s departure to Borussia Dortmund the following season, just as Wolf was settling in, undermined his place in the team. Early in the 2021-22 season, Wolf was given the chance to prove himself to new manager Adi Hütter but was asked to do so as a left winger after playing nearly exclusively centrally under Rose. Wolf, who told The Outfield he prefers to play centrally, struggled in the new position. After 300 minutes of play, he ranked within the bottom 5% of Bundesliga wingers at 0.17 non-penalty expected goals and assists (npxG+xA) per 90 and quickly fell out of favor with Hütter. A second-half loan to Swansea City provided Wolf with consistent minutes (turns out for the final time before coming to MLS), but not a long-term home, as financial constraints prevented the deal from becoming permanent.

Wolf returned to Gladbach but continued to face instability. Over the next season and a half, he dealt with two different coaches, a labral tear, and a torn meniscus, all of which hampered his chances to settle into the team. While his 0.34 npxG+xA per 90 in the second half of 2022-23 under Daniel Farke showed improvement, it wasn’t enough to convince Gerardo Seoane, the head coach the following season, to seriously consider him in the matchday roster. 

The turmoil of multiple injuries and six head coaches in five seasons took its toll. Wolf found himself in desperate need of a change of scenery and, more importantly, a team willing to give him a shot at consistent playing time to find his rhythm. Swansea City offered that opportunity, and Wolf rewarded their patience. After seven games in the Championship, the Austrian had produced zero goal contributions backed by a pedestrian 0.09 xA and 2.80 shot-creating actions (SCA) per 90. However, in his subsequent 1,000 minutes, his xA and SCA per 90 jumped to 0.19 and 3.92, respectively—numbers that indicate he had become one of the more creative wingers in the league.

Lee told The Outfield that Wolf’s performance during his loan spell with Swansea City was crucial in New York City FC scouting. Both he and manager Nick Cushing demonstrated a similar commitment to Wolf from the very beginning. The attacker, now primarily playing on the right to align with Cushing’s preference for inverted wingers, did not start hot. His 0.39 npxG+xA/96 in his first 500 minutes was good (50th percentile), but not exceptional, as he worked his way back into form and built chemistry with his new teammates. Since then, Wolf has performed like one of the best wingers in MLS. A 50% increase in his npxG+xA/96 and 11 goal contributions highlight a stretch that has been the best of his career since his time at Salzburg.

Maybe that’s no surprise, given that this is the first time since leaving Salzburg that Wolf has started more than twenty games in a season with the same team. This opportunity has allowed him to exhibit that the quality that earned him the shine as a 19-year-old prospect in the Austrian Bundesliga is still intact. Wolf has proven to be an incredibly well-rounded and versatile attacking player. While Cushing prefers him on the right, playing inverted allows Wolf to tuck inside into the right half-space in the final third. His inclination to play centrally and comfort playing on the left are also useful when lineup shuffling has been necessary for the Pigeon’s recent injury spell. 

Wolf excels at combination play and is a natural in quick ball movement buildups. He effectively drops into space to link up with the midfield and defense, though sometimes defaults to a first-touch layoff pass rather than turning to exploit the space available behind him. As the season has progressed, he has increasingly capitalized on these opportunities, thanks to a growing understanding of teammates’ movement and improved communication. When receiving passes on the half-turn, Wolf’s upright gait may occasionally allow defenders to body him off the ball, but he’s often savvy enough to draw a foul or use a sneaky burst of acceleration to pull away.

Ranking eighth in MLS in expected assists, Wolf is more creator than scorer but is more than capable around goal. He’s opportunistic in finding pockets of space in the box and remains calm and composed when receiving in scoring areas—just ask Daniel Edelman’s ankles. It also helps that he can curl a free kick inside the far post from almost the goal line.

As far as reclamation projects go, Wolf is among the most successful. However, for every return on investment like this, there are ten more like those of Pellegrini, Chris Gloster, or Gedion Zelelam. Granted, reclamation projects come in all shapes and sizes, but pursuing them is always a balance of risk and reward. Wolf is certainly a luxury reclamation project, his former pedigree and the challenges he faced offer a rare combination of upside and likelihood of success for these types of moves, reflected in his $1.51 million total compensation. 

There’s no way to know what his career would have looked like if the leg fracture never happened in 2018. In his own words, that season with Leipzig after the injury was “the first time things had not been going like this,” as he motioned upward. However, his career is back on that upward trajectory. It may have taken five years to regain that momentum, but Wolf has done so by constantly betting on himself and finding the right team willing to go all-in with him. 

Lee and Cushing secured a DP-caliber player at a non-DP price for four years of his prime, a surplus in value that allows them to allocate that resource elsewhere. Now 25 years old, Hannes Wolf will be a foundational part of that next great New York City FC team, but he still has room to mature and grow as a player. With the opportunity to work under the same coaching staff for more than a season for the first time in his career, it’s easy to envision the next chapter in his story as one where he unlocks his full potential and plays a key role in NYCFC’s next trophy-winning side. ❧

Image: Frederic Remington, Moonlight Wolf

1. €1.5 million loan fee for 2020-21 and €9.5 million option to buy exercised for 2021-22. According to Transfermarkt, only seven players in MLS history have had inbound transfers exceeding €11 million.