TRANSFER RUMOR: Atlanta United close to signing Hull City midfielder

A new defensive midfielder signing seems imminent.

The dominoes are falling fast this summer for Atlanta United’s inevitable roster overhaul. Mere hours after the shocking news that Efrain Morales is probably about to be headed to Montreal, strong rumors of a new addition to the squad have emerged.

According to GetMeSport’s Ben Jacobs and Alex Crook, the Five Stripes are close to a deal to sign midfielder Steven Alzate from Hull City. The potential transfer fee would reportedly approach $2 million.

Alzate is a 26 year old born in England with dual-citizenship for Colombia as well. He has appeared seven times for the Colombia national team, but hasn’t been capped since 2022.

Despite being in the middle of his prime, Alzate is well-traveled. In addition to Hull City, he’s played for clubs such as Brighton, Leyton Orient, and Standard Liege. During the 2022-23 Belgian Pro League season he spent time under current Atlanta manager Ronny Deila during his stint at Liege.

It appears that Alzate is versatile midfielder, able to play in a defense, box-to-box, or attacking role. It’s likely he will be tasked with defending more in Atlanta and could pair up with a resurgent Bartosz Slisz in a double pivot.

This signing would surely make the Morales news a little more understandable, as a non-DP signing of this stature will be expensive on the heels of already bringing in a TAM player in Enea Mihaj. It’s likely the club needed to a way to pay down a transfer fee of this magnitude and the only way to do it was to find a trade.