Red Bull New York is finalizing a deal with Colombian youth international Julián Bazán, a source confirmed to The Post on Saturday, just hours before the team’s home opener against the New England Revolution.
The 20-year-old defender will join the Red Bulls after playing seven games with Deportivo Pereira in Colombia’s top league, Liga DIMAYOR, and comes with a deep international résumé already under his belt.
Bazán has appeared in 24 matches for the U-20 Colombian national team, which included last year’s U-20 World Cup, where the Colombians came in third.
The belief is Bazán will become the Red Bulls’ starting center back when he arrives in Harrison, N.J., alongside some combination of Justin Che or Robert Voloder.
The winter of change for the Red Bulls left the club a bit shorthanded at center back after they traded away Sean Nealis to D.C. United, parted ways with Alexander Hack and Noah Eile was sent to EFL Championship side Bristol City in a transfer deal.
The Red Bulls added defender Joyeux Masanka Bungi on loan from RB Leipzig earlier in the week.
“Young, talented left-footed defender from Red Bull Leipzig,” head coach Michael Bradley said about Bungi earlier this week. “And so we are really excited to have him join us. The people in Leipzig and at Red Bull Global speak very, very highly of him. And so we are really looking forward to adding him to our group, and to seeing if we can take the really good starting points and help develop him even more.”
The club has also brought in Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty via trade with Montreal earlier this month.
“It’s a huge honor to play for this club,” Marshall-Rutty said during a press conference this week. “Obviously a great, great club, big club, great players and the coaching staff, and they made it so easy for me to kind of just come in and slide right in.”
