After signing Enea Mihaj to strengthen a very porous defense, Atlanta United is continuing its backline rebuild with another center back addition.
According to Tom Bogert of GIVEMESPORT, Atlanta United is finalizing a deal to sign center back Juan Berrocal on loan with an option to buy from Spanish LaLiga club Getafe.
Berrocal, 26, played 21 games across all competitions for Getafe, helping the team earn clean sheets against teams like Sevilla and Real Sociedad. Before last season, the Spanish midfielder spent most of his career in LaLiga2, primarily with CD Eibar, where he made 73 appearances. He also had brief stints at CD Mirandés and Sporting Gijón.
Though appearing to be two-footed, Berrocal seems to primarily play as a left-sided center back. This would imply that he and Mihaj will make up the team’s starting center back pairing going forward.
What do you think of this signing? Let us know in the comments below.
New CBs are welcome! Much needed! But please address the Wing Backs next.
I think it is easier to fine “cost-effective” CBs. Good fullbacks are more expensive and harder to come by. We definitely need at least 1 RB that is good quality.
Chris He detain moves fast. I like that. Yea this season has been more than a disappointment. But luckily it will only take another 2-14 transfer windows to fix it.
Seriously, at least we’re trying. I mean, failing spectacularly, but still giving our best effort. I assume this means SG or LA will get bought out at the end of the transfer window.
Season ticket prices just went up for the 2026 season and that’s after the email that was sent out earlier this week to STMs from Garth about feeling our frustration and understanding what a disappointment this season was. I beg to differ because raising STM prices is not the way to show a fan-base that you are with them especially after the disaster of a season this has been and will continue to be.
Don’t they raise them in general for any new members but renewals don’t get affected? That’s what I recall but i’ve never been a STM so I only hear things.
No, existing STMs are impacted by the STM increase too which is why last year was such a joke because the increase was like ATL UTD was rewarding themselves for putting a poor product on the field minus the Cinderella run that Rob went on and this season we are having an even worse season and they are again rewarding themselves for the poor product that’s been displayed on the field.
Also, here’s a reference thread I found that was posted on reddit regarding the varying degrees of how some STMs weren’t impacted regarding the 2026 season invoices, but far more were impacted by the increase including myself than those whose seats stayed the same as in 2025:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AtlantaUnited/comments/1m79g90/2026_season_ticket_invoices_released/
Does this mean we need another international slot, or did one of our international slot guys get a green card?
Do people on loan occupy those types of spots? I never looked at the details before so I could be wrong.
I assume he is taking xande silvas spot. 🤷♂️
Hard to keep up with the slot changes. We have Minhaj and Alzate also coming in, so they will each need an international slot. So Berrocal would make a need for a 3rd slot.
Again, I won’t give a rat’s patootie for any signing until this team plays cohesive, fast, attractive attacking soccer. Done with this possession, slow moving crap.
Also in the “show me” camp.
Agreed.
Gotta show me. Until then, he’s just a guy.
So true. Remember the “trust the FO” days at DSS? What a joke we’ve become.
Huh wdym
wdym “wdym”? I thought Poppo was pretty clear.
Back in 2019 when Boca and Eales were dismantling the team after Tara left the big refrain on the old Dirty South Soccer message boards was “trust the FO” (front office) which, at the time, was hot baby reasonable position as we had had the most successful startup franchise in league history, just won MLS Cup, and generally felt like we could do no wrong.
The general mood shifted with the FdB hire, got worse throughout the season as it was clear that the FO was going to move on from any player that displayed even a modicum of concern about our on-field play or anything else, and basically died at the end of the 2019 season when the club doubled down on FdB and rebuilding Atlanta United in his image despite our success only coming following a players revolt led by Josef.
For some this was only exacerbated by the fact that Boca only saw what was happening, and tried to save his job, during the infamous “tranquillo” game during MLS is back – a tournament in which our players had clearly just lost any desire or will to play for the man. For others this was a sign that Boca was getting his mojo back and we could return to a good place. My heart told me the latter; my brain told me the former.
Things were looking up when we went out and got Heinze, who seemed like an absolute triumph of a hire but turned out to be a lunatic, and as far as I can tell, other than Almada we haven’t hit on a coaching or DP hire since.
I, at least, felt quite a bit of hope around hiring Garth, and was really excited about the Delia hire, so I certainly can’t judge the club for them, but for whatever reason they, too, aren’t working out and we are left with a franchise that raises ticket prices while putting out a product that looks like it is designed specifically to confirm the worst stereotypes of American non-soccer fans while driving those of us that love the game right back to the Brewhouse early on Sunday mornings to watch premier league games instead of this crap.
In other words, I no longer trust the FO, or particularly care about Atlanta United, and whenever the club reaches the tipping point that I can no longer recoup 90% of the cost of my tickets through resale, this Founding Member will be a Former Member.
Wow – forgive the typos there as I wrote that from my phone while sitting in traffic!
The FO and coaching hires all seemed like good ideas at the time, as did player signings.
One thing that has been questioned consistently by many is our practice of signing players before signing a coach. We’ve had a lot of players, past and present, that are talented but appear to be a bad fit with what the coach wants to do.
The coaches have either been unwilling or unable to manage to the strengths of the players.
Hopefully Delia has had a lot of input into the acquisitions reported during this window, and any future ones that come. I’d willing to at least give him a chance to build a roster (and this needs to happen within a year) of his guys to play his system before I call for his firing. If we do that and still fail, we hired the wrong guy.
His inability to get results with the team he has says we may have hired the wrong guy anyway. At the same time I think it would be bad for the future if we become known as a team that doesn’t let the coach have input into the roster and fires the coach after a year if he can’t make it work.
I can’t see any way to keep Delia as HC. I get you might not be as effective cause of players not fitting your profile, but 4 wins. 4. Not enough. And half those wins are due to own goals from the other team. Delia is not right. He’s failed. Pineda had set records for losses and Delia came in.and said hold my beer and watch this. He is to blame. Not all of it is on him, but hes the head coach. Good, bad, it’s his fault. At this point, id imagine Delia staying the rest of the season and getting fired at the end of the season with 5 wins, due it being cheaper, contract wise to do so.
With that being said, I do agree with it would be a good idea to get a coach and have them help with the signings.
I don’t think firing Deila in the offseason make it cheaper. I am pretty sure coaching contracts are typically fully guaranteed, so whether he gets fired today or at the end of the season it won’t make a difference. I say we should only fire him if we have a replacement line up, we can’t keep going through transfer windows without a HC to give input to the FO because that is putting the next HC in a tough spot as well and we will repeat the cycle again.
[…] REPORT: Atlanta United finalizing deal to sign center back Juan Berrocal on loan […]