Kai Wagner added another line to his Union resume on Saturday night, becoming just the fifth player in club history to make 200 MLS starts. The German left back now sits alongside Andre Blake, Alejandro Bedoya, Jack Elliott, and Ray Gaddis as the only members of that group.
The milestone landed almost immediately after Wagner’s return to the club. Re-acquired by Philadelphia ahead of Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Red Bull New York, the veteran defender needed no time to reassert his value, setting up Neil Pierre’s first MLS goal in his first match back at Subaru Park.
Wagner has been a fixture on the left flank since arriving in Chester ahead of the 2019 season. He is the club’s all-time leader in league assists with 61, a number built on the kind of delivery from wide areas that has produced Union goals for years. His stretch in Philadelphia has coincided with some of the franchise’s best seasons, among them the 2020 Supporters’ Shield and a run to the 2022 MLS Cup Final.
Reaching 200 puts him in company only four Union players had kept before him, a marker of how central he has been to the club since 2019.
