The reconstruction of the CF Montreal CF

It may not be a coincidence that the CF Montreal trains near Notre-Dame rue. Because at present, its workforce looks like a boulevard at the gigantic nests-de-poule.

And he only has a few hours left if he wants to plug some of his most gaping holes. The summer transfers market in MLS will be completed on Thursday at the end of the day.

As such, The press May confirm that some of the rumors that run concerning Ivan Jaime, Spanish midfielder from FC Porto, and Fafa Picault, Inter Miami attacker, are indeed two files on which the CFM is actively working.

Ivan Jaime, the middle key?

In the case of Ivan Jaime, the ball is currently in the player’s camp, according to our information. At 24, or in the age flower, he must decide if he wants to continue his way in Europe or try his luck in MLS … with one of the last teams in the classification.

In 2024-2025, he started the season at FC Porto, before being loaned in February in Valencia, Spain. He will finally play a total of 1088 minutes in the campaign, all competitions combined.

It would be a creative attacking midfielder, also capable of evolving on the wings. This is a profile that would particularly help the CFM, in search of offensive creation since the departure of Djordje Mihailovic, in 2022.

Since then, Bryce Duke has been too inconsistent. The year 2025 complicated by Caden Clark ended in a transfer (still to be confirmed) to DC United on Monday. While Olger Escobar, although very promising for Montreal, has not yet 90 minutes in the legs. And at 18, he is still very young to take control of this number 10 pivot position at the Saputo stadium.

The arrival of Jaime, who could be brought into a loan from Porto according to the various Portuguese media who talked about it, would fill there, on paper, an obvious and recurrent gap of the CF Montreal.

Fafa Picault, for experience

We reproached the CF Montreal to floor on far too many players of the “project” type at the same time, this year. And if some have pulled out of the game, notably Dawid Bugaj in Defense and Victor Loturi in the middle, it was complicated in attack.

Prince Owusu is experiencing the best season of his career with professionals – 15 goals and 3 assists, all competitions combined -, but he was overworked, and is the only one to demonstrate quality regularly in front of the net.

The CF Montreal therefore seeks to find a way of supporting it with a more established profile than what Jules-Anthony Vilsaint or Owen Graham-Roache were in 2025. This is where Fafa Picault.

The American of Haitian origin has now been ten years now – and, incidentally, the cousin of Patrice Bernier! – Roll his bump in MLS, after a career start in Europe. At 34, with 24 games this season for Inter Miami, he scored 4 goals.

Currently, the CFM is waiting for a certain Domino game to start to tumble for Miami. His transfer to Montreal will depend on what the Floridians are able to accomplish on their side.

Beyond the confirmation or not of these two transfers, we can already conclude that the CF Montreal tries to add experience to its workforce. Because all players in an eleven holder cannot only be projects. If the word “victory” indeed returns to the vocabulary of this club, it cannot be satisfied with being the youngest team in the circuit.

Announced departures… and buyouts?

So much for potential arrivals. Now let’s talk about departures, and holes they leave.

We mentioned that of Caden Clark, which could be palliated by the arrival of Ivan Jaime or, temporarily, by Olger Escobar.

That of Joel Waterman, completed on Tuesday without being confirmed by the club and the MLS, still leaves Marco Donadel with the difficulty of filling his bench of replacements. He can live with Luca Petrasso, Efrain Morales, Jalen Neal and Dawid Bugaj on the XI, of course. But then, it only remains for him Fernando Álvarez and Brandan Craig as options. It’s little.

Conversely, as the head coach often recalled, there are a surplus of offensive players in this workforce. Dante Sealy, Giacomo Vrioni, Hennadii Synchuk, Duke, Graham-Roache, Fabian Herbers, at the limit…

And this is where we have to tell you about Kwadwo Open and Sunusi Ibrahim, dear readers.

Who ?

Yes, these two players are still part of the CFM training. And yes, they are still among the best paid of this team. What we are told is that the buyouts of contracts are indeed considered by the club in these two cases. But with the recent places released in the workforce, there is no longer an emergency to conclude them in this summer transfer window. It can wait in winter, we are told.

For the moment, therefore, CF Montreal has let Nathan Saliba, George Campbell, Dominic Iankov, Jules-Anthony Vilsaint, Caden Clark and Joel Waterman, leave over the past months.

Arrivals, a few hours before closing the transfer window, are fewer: goalkeeper Thomas Gillier, defender Efrain Morales and Matty Longstaff.

But with the money that the club went to seek, notably with the beautiful operation for Caden Clark (acquired for $ 50,000 from GAM, broadcast for more than $ 700,000), the long -term contract for Morals as well as the freed places, it has the impression, at the CFM, that the summer transfer window will not have been a failure.

And if he manages to materialize the arrivals of Ivan Jaime and Fafa Picault, the objectives will have been achieved.

And reconstruction, well started.