Damion Lowe departs the Union for a team in Saudi Arabia

Veteran Union centerback Damion Lowe has left the team to move to Saudi Arabian club Al Akhdoud.

Though the Union haven’t officially announced it yet, the agency that represents Lowe announced the news on Instagram on Saturday morning, and Lowe confirmed it by sharing the announcement on his personal feed.

The 31-year-old Jamaican was set to be a free agent after this season and was likely to leave no matter what as the Union embark on a needed roster overhaul. He had hinted on social media earlier this month that the Union didn’t want him anymore, or at least weren’t willing to pay him what he wanted.

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Lowe arrived in a trade before last season to be the No. 3 centerback and was a perfect fit with his significant experience in Concacaf competitions. Any player of his stature eventually would like to be more than that, though, and he did not overtake Jack Elliott or Jakob Glesnes (he is more similar to the latter as a player) on the depth chart.

The move means the Union are down to just Elliott and Glesnes as starters and 20-year-old Olwethu Makhanya as a backup. Makhanya has played 21 games for the Union’s reserve team since arriving from a club in his native South Africa last summer, but has yet to play for the first team.

Right back Nathan Harriel also can play centerback in a pinch.

After that, the top prospects in the pipeline are 20-year-old Brandan Craig, who’s spending this year on loan at El Paso Locomotive of the second-tier USL Championship; and Neil Pierre, a 16-year-old academy product with huge potential but who might not yet be ready for MLS.

That said, Pierre — who’s currently on a reserve-team contract — has been an almost-every-minute starter for the reserves this year and already stands 6-foot-4. He could have been in line for a first-team deal next year, but maybe now that gets sped up.

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Craig would be more ready to plug in now, but it’s not clear if there’s a recall clause in the loan.

At least with Lowe leaving now, the Union get a transfer fee that they probably weren’t planning to get. A source with knowledge of the deal said it is around $200,000.

Though the Union lost to the Columbus Crew in the Leagues Cup semifinals last Wednesday, they still have one game left in the tournament: Sunday’s third-place game against the Colorado Rapids at Subaru Park (4:30 p.m., Apple TV). The winner will get a berth in next year’s Concacaf Champions Cup, which gives the game at least a little importance.

“We were beat by a very good Columbus Crew team [in the semifinals],” manager Jim Curtin said at a news conference Saturday at Subaru Park. “We have to regroup quickly now, and in our own building in Subaru Park, put on a good performance for our fans, and get that Champions [Cup] berth. So while it is disappointing and it’s hard, I think the group will recover quickly and put on a good performance tomorrow.”

Colorado is led by Downingtown-bred goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who has enjoyed a nice little resurgence since leaving England’s Manchester City to return to MLS in January. The Rapids weren’t expected to do much in the Leagues Cup, but Steffen steered the team past the Portland Timbers and Mexico’s León, Juárez, Toluca, and powerhouse Club América, before a 4-0 loss at Los Angeles FC in the semis.

Steffen has made 31 saves over the six games so far, with penalty-kick shootout triumphs over León and América. He even made six stops against LAFC despite the lopsided score.

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The now-29-year-old grew up in the Union’s youth academy, playing for Curtin with an under-17 squad in the prestigious Generation adidas tournament in 2023. He then went to college at Maryland before turning pro in Germany, coming back to MLS in 2016 to play for the Columbus Crew, then making the big move to Man City in 2019. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, in part because of a series of injuries.

Sunday’s game will be Steffen’s first in Chester since March 17, 2018 with the Crew. (Alejandro Bedoya, Andre Blake, and Elliott played for the Union that day, and Columbus’ manager was future U.S. men’s national team boss Gregg Berhalter.)

Colorado’s roster also includes former Union right back Keegan Rosenberry, who spent three years in Chester after the Union made him the No. 3 pick in MLS’s 2016 college draft.

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After this weekend, the Union will return to the regular season, where they have a 6-10-9 record (27 points) and nine games left. First up is a Wednesday home date against the Crew at Subaru Park (7:30 p.m., free on Apple TV) that was rescheduled from Saturday when both teams made the Leagues Cup semis.

Lowe was going to miss that game even if he hadn’t left because of a suspension for yellow-card accumulation before the regular season stopped for the Leagues Cup. It will have been 5½ weeks since then when the Union-Columbus game kicks off.

Columbus hosts Los Angeles FC in the Leagues Cup final on Sunday (7:15 p.m., Univision 62, Apple TV). The rest of MLS resumes the regular season this weekend, and as of Saturday morning, the Union were in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, one point out of ninth and the last playoff spot.