Markus Anderson is quickly making a name for himself with the Union

There’s almost a small industry these days of people who try to watch every American who’s playing professional soccer in Europe.

But even some of the most eagle-eyed scouts hadn’t heard of Markus Anderson when the Union signed him in January.

Perhaps that’s a testament to how many Americans there are in Europe right now. Or it’s a reflection that Anderson came here from Rayo Majadahonda of Spain’s third division. In either case — or in both cases — it was no surprise that the main reaction to the signing was, “Who’s he?”

Now the question has an answer. Anderson has played in four of the Union’s five games so far, and has shown pace, creativity, and some nice combinations with teammates. The 20-year-old seems to have already overtaken Tai Baribo, who has a bigger pedigree and costs a lot more money, on the forward depth chart.

The Union found Anderson in Spain through sporting director Ernst Tanner’s network of scouts and made contact in January. They knew he was American, but they didn’t yet know something that Anderson revealed to The Inquirer on Friday: He was born in Philadelphia.

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Anderson wasn’t here for long, moving to Brooklyn at age 3. That’s why the bios out there say he’s a New Yorker. He didn’t remember exactly where in Philly he lived, but he knew he was here for a brief time.

When Anderson was 13, one of his best friends from youth soccer moved to Spain. Anderson was able to convince his family to also make the move, and he did his eighth-grade and high school studies there.

“Culturally, living there was amazing,” he said. “It felt great: the food, the language, the people.”

He joined the setup at Majadahonda and rose to the club’s first team last July. He played 18 games this season before moving here, scoring three goals.

Spanish soccer is renowned for valuing speed of thought and skill over physicality. The third tier obviously doesn’t have as much star power as the top flight, but Barcelona, Real Sociedad, and other big clubs put their reserve teams in the lower leagues. That makes for lots of players with potential and dreams.

“The rhythm, the technical skill out there is on a different level,” Anderson said. “I played in third division, so I can’t say it’s as good as MLS, but technically speaking, it’s very fast, good rhythm, good coaches. They know what they’re talking about.”

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Most of his outings were as a winger in a 4-3-3, and the Union don’t use wingers. So Anderson has played as part of a forward pairing in a 4-4-2. It’s been an adjustment, but he has some past experience at forward.

“I have to get used to playing in the center, being strong up top because there’s strong defenders,” he said. “And usually when I’m out wide, I don’t really have someone man-marking me all the time. So it’s a little different, but I’ll get used to it.”

Part of that is the adjustment of going from a winger’s pass-first mindset to a striker’s shoot-first view. Anderson is well aware and showed it in his best moment with the Union to date. In the Concacaf Champions Cup home game vs. Saprissa, he high-pressed the goalkeeper to force a turnover. A few Union passes later, he pounced on a loose ball, raced forward, cut in, and shot low to force a save. Two rebounds later, teammate Quinn Sullivan scored.

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“You have to know when to be selfish and when not to be,” Anderson said. “I saw that I was one-on-one versus a defender, and I knew he was blocking me going straight down the line. So I cut in on his weak side and I shot.”

Anderson also had a sharp breakaway run in that game’s first minute, drawing two defenders and eventually forcing a corner kick.

“If you’re confident and you can see that you can beat the defender, I would say go for it,” said Anderson. “And also, if you see another player that’s open, you should — it’s just a split-second decision you have to make at the end of the day.”

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Union manager Jim Curtin likes what he’s seen so far.

“A striker that has an ability to get that half-yard of space to get a shot off,” he said. “He’ll go at a guy one-v-one, and then he’ll work very, very hard against the ball too, which is important for the way we like to play. So he checks a lot of boxes for us.”

The odds are good that we’ll see Anderson play again Saturday when the Union host the Seattle Sounders (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). It’s a headline-grabbing matchup, between the Union’s success and the Sounders’ perennial star power, amplified by it being the teams’ first meeting in five years.

The electricity will be dimmed a bit by the Union being between Concacaf Champions Cup games and by Seattle’s long injury list. So both teams will be below full strength. But that opens room for someone else to step up, and Anderson could be a candidate.

“I moved to Spain because I’ve always wanted to play in La Liga,” Anderson said. “When Philadelphia came to me, it was just another step in my career that would help me get to that path. And I think Philadelphia is doing a great job — I’m happy here, and I feel like I can learn a lot from the group of guys we have.”

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