What Romanian winger Enes Sali brings to FC Dallas

FC Dallas made their first offseason move on Monday.

FC Dallas made a bit of a splash on Monday morning by announcing the signing of 17-year old winger Enes Sali to a four-year contract. The Canadian-born Romanian will join the club this offseason as the club rebuilds its roster following their Round One defeat in the MLS Cup Playoffs to the Seattle Sounders.

The 17-year old joins FC Dallas after spending the past couple of seasons with Farul Constanta in the first division of Romania. Sali accumulated 56 appearances with the Romanian side, scoring four and assisting twice across all competitions.

During the club’s end-of-year press conference, head coach Nico Estevez said that bringing Enes to Frisco is a great opportunity to help another young player develop early on in his career.

“One of the things that you know, Andre (Zanotta) from when I came here, he does really well is try to anticipate in the market to detect young talents to bring here, and it was a great opportunity for the club and for the future,” explained Estevez.

Estevez and Zanotta both brought up Enes’ upbringing in Toronto, Canada, as a positive thing that will help him translate into adapt quicker as a newcomer to the United States and, furthermore, to North Texas. Estevez brought up a comparison within the current roster to Bernard Kamnugo and how he was able to be patient and earn his moment with the club.

“Even though they are young, we have to be patient, and we have to help them adapt to a new country but not that new because he's from Canada. He has lived in Toronto, for a long period also, in his family will be closer than in Europe,” said Estevez. “I think that adaptation will be a part of something that we don't expect an issue.”

On the field, Estevez is already praising the young winger as someone who can contribute right away when he joins the team in 2024.

“He's a winger who is very vertical. He can come inside his good dribbler,” said Estevez. “He can combine and has really good tools that are exciting for our team. He will help us to make these quick attacks that we are well known in the league and it will give us speed and threat to the opponent's backline. Also, he works hard and has a great mentality, and he wants to be the best player that he can be. And he's young. He has a lot of ambitions and energy and this will help him to develop.”