Grading Andre Zanotta's 2025

With the 2025 season in the books, it's time to evaluate how the power brokers at World Cup Way performed.

We did this in part already with Zanotta regarding his winter window activity, but now with the full context of the season behind us we have a much clearer picture of how Dallas' Chief Soccer Officer's decisions panned out.

Without further ado, let's get to it.

The Good

Signing Osaze Urhoghide

There's no doubt that Urhoghide is the best acquisition Dallas made during this campaign. He's the top end center back the Burn have been searching for since Matt Hedges departed, and at 25 still has a the better part of a decade in front of him.

It's not just the player himself, but what they paid in acquiring his services. While we've never seen a definitive number, the reporting has been around 3 million Euros. The current exchange rate has that at about $3.5 million, but back in February that was close to $3.01 million. Either way, that's a steal at twice the price for a player like Urhoghide.

This acquisition sets up Dallas well for the future one way or another. Either Dallas will have made one of MLS' best value signings ever, or if another team comes calling for him the profit margin will be healthy. There's no bad outcome here for the Toros.

Upon the rock of Urhoghide, Zanotta can build this team. No matter what else happens, this transfer will go down as one of if not Zanotta's best during his Frisco tenure.

Acquiring Shaq Moore from Nashville SC for $50,000 in 2025 GAM, with $100,000 in incentive based GAM

Another strong pickup, this one from within MLS. Nashville coming into this season was strapped for cash, needing to clear salaries to balance their budget. Dallas, with an abundance of both GAM and cap room, swooped in getting their former Academy product for basically nothing.

Relative to what they paid, Moore has been a great addition. 3,032 total minutes across 33 MLS starts with three goals and two assists while playing three different positions. Moore finished 2025 strong with an arguable Man of the Match performance in Game Two against Vancouver, including one of two players to make a penalty in the shootout.

At a position where Dallas has struggled over the last few seasons, Moore brought stability and quality to the right side of the Burn's defense. Just for fun, Moore did some of that good work at center back on both the left and right sides. While it's unknown what the future holds formation wise for Dallas, it's reasonable to expect Moore will be a big part of it somewhere.

Trading Jesus Ferreira to Seattle

I covered this deal extensively when it happened, so if you're looking for the nitty gritty on the trade I direct you here.

This deal needed to get done for a few reasons. Dallas needed to build around some new faces, such as Petar Musa. Ferreira needed a clean start after two disappointing seasons in '23 and '24. Sure Leo Chu didn't work out in Dallas; he was later shipped to Portugal in the summer window. Dallas did get a big chunk of GAM and a sell-on assuming Ferreira ever makes it to Europe.

Above all it gave Dallas a fresh start under a new manager, which paid off in the long run of 2025. It's a net positive all around for everyone.

Extending Logan Farrington and Bernard Kamungo

Within two weeks of each other in January Zanotta locked up this young duo which didn't make huge headlines at the time. Kamungo was coming off a severe sophomore slump season featuring no goals despite playing over 1300 minutes in 29 MLS matches. Farrington meanwhile had a fruitful debut season, with nine goal contributions in just 10 starts.

Fast forward 10 months and the extensions look masterful. Farrington has turned into a full blown starter, with 18 across his 32 MLS appearances. While his goal contributions dropped by one, anyone watching his partnership with Petar Musa saw them become one of the league's most formidable strike duos. The Big Dog is just shy of his 24th birthday, meaning he's got years to come of excellent production.

Meanwhile Kamungo rebounded from a disastrous 2024 to become a fixture in Eric Quill's 5-2-3 at left wing back. With every game Kamungo started at the position, he grew even more into the role. Assuming Dallas stays with this formation going forward, Kamungo's a write in starter going forward. He's also about to turn 24 on New Year's Day, giving the Burn a long-term starter at a crucial position.

Signing Michael Collodi to a Homegrown contract

Dallas' 40th Homegrown in franchise history, Collodi came into the season on a heater. The former Academy keeper was 2024's MLS Next Pro Keeper of the Year while leading North Texas SC to the MLS Next Pro championship. That performance earned him a chance at the main roster.

Collodi seized every opportunity given in a big way. His MLS debut at Real Salt Lake saw him grab a clean sheet, his first of two in 2025. With a save percentage of almost 80% at this writing, with 39 saves and just 12 goals allowed Collodi has become Dallas' #1 keeper in Maarten Paes' injury and international absence.

All of this at a price of just $116,425 Guaranteed Compensation per the MLSPA's most recent salary release makes him a tremendous bargain relative. It's to the point now where one of Dallas' major storylines going into the off-season will be who starts at keeper in 2026. Unlike plenty of teams without quality keepers, the Burn have a surplus from which to deal.

Drafting Sam Sarver 41st overall in the 2025 SuperDraft

Speaking of North Texas success stories, Sarver went from unknown to supernova in the span of a season. With the second team, Sarver won MLS Next Pro MVP and Best Eleven scoring 19 goals with four assists. He also had the club's first hat trick and four goal game in MLS Next Pro, including a trio of scores on MLS Next Pro Decision Day to put NTSC in the playoffs.

His success with the second team combined with first team offensive impotence granted Sarver a chance at Toyota Stadium. He made the most of it, drawing a penalty within minutes of coming on against St. Louis City to help seal a home win. His charisma, work ethic, and tenacity made him a fan favorite to the point of signing a first team contract.

His first start was just as impactful, as he drew yet another penalty this time against Vancouver's Mathias Laborda on Decision Day. Upon review Laborda earned a red card, giving Dallas the man advantage in a must win situation. Sarver's first MLS assist came early in the second half on the game winning goal, laying off a beautiful ball to an on running Kaick.

Sarver's future is bright, already writing himself into club lore in record time.

Selling Lucho Acosta

After Acosta departed the club, Dallas went on their season defining run landing them in the postseason. It was the catalyst that unlocked this group's ability to play in a cohesive manner.

Rare is the time where a front office official recognizes a mistake and remedies it so early. Even rarer is when they're largely able to mitigate the financial drain that mistake created. By moving Acosta to Brazilian giant Fluminese for around $4 million, Zanotta picked up around 80% of what he spent getting Acosta from Cincinnati.

Nothing about the Acosta situation is ideal, but Zanotta salvaged the season with Acosta's sale. Nobody will dispute that moving him along was right and good.

The Bad

Buying Lucho Acosta

Even if the accepted logic is everyone in Zanotta's position would have done the Acosta deal, that doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake.

With the benefit of hindsight and two different 2025 tenures, it's safe in saying Acosta's prime is behind him. In Frisco Acosta never found his groove with five goals and one assist in 18 MLS starts. The stats don't bear out how bad Acosta looked on the field. Nothing ever clicked to the point of dysfunction, ruining two thirds of Dallas' season prior to his sale.

It hasn't been much better in Brazil. Across 13 games in Brazil's Serie A and the Sudamericana Acosta has two goals and one assist. Gone is the dynamic goal creating machine that won MVP two years ago. Whether he'll find a second life with this new skill set and age profile is yet to be seen. We can definitively say though that this version of Acosta is not good.

Signing him was always a gamble, and this time it came up bad for Zanotta. Based on what we know now, it would have come up bad for any team signing him. You take the good with the bad though, and Acosta in Frisco was the definition of bad.

Acquiring Louicius Deedson from Odense Boldklub

I was all set to go "unknown" on this transfer due to lack of evidence. With more thought, I had a change of opinion.

Yes, it is hard for mid-season acquisitions to make an impact in MLS if they're not already within the league. Even so Dallas found success with summer transfers both in the league (Sebastian Lletget in 2022) and out (Illara in 2023, Christian Cappis in 2025). There have been missteps, like Eugene Ansah in 2023.

Deedson falls into the latter category of what feels like wasted money. Not because of his performance; he only played 23 minutes this season. It's because despite spending somewhere in the high six/low seven figures(reporting is unclear), Deedson was inconsequential to the campaign.

Some will claim his frequent international duty with Haiti gives him a pass. Which I'd agree it gives the player a pass, but not the executive who signed him knowing he'd be gone this much. If Deedson turns into a useful player next season, I'll gladly walk this back as a case of impatience. Here in November 2025 though, this was bad.

Not finding a permanent move for Enes Sali

"But Sam, this deal happened in 2024" the initial move sure did. Despite the $2 million price tag, Sali played all of three minutes last year for the club and zero in league action.

Fast forward to 2025. Sali spent time on loan in Saudi Arabia with Al-Riyadh SC. The expectation was that he'd end up there permanently after the loan ran its course. Despite that, things happened and Sali returned to Frisco after all. He'd increased his minute count from three to 11, making his debut against Vancouver in the Game One slaughter at BC Place.

Even with the expectation that Sali was a project player, it appears that project isn't working out for the Burn. At $370,000 Guaranteed Compensation and an international roster spot, Sali isn't contributing enough to justify his space on the roster. He can't contribute if he isn't playing and the current coaching staff doesn't seem to have Sali in their plans.

Meaning it's time to cut bait. Find a reasonable landing spot for Sali, re-coup as much of the fee as you can, and move on. It's best for everyone, because right now neither side is benefiting from this current relationship.

Final grade: B+

Without the Lucho Acosta saga, this probably ends up being a low A. That fiasco, even with a positive resolution, looms over the season. Most of the season was a wash because of Acosta's presence, limiting the good work Zanotta did elsewhere.

Between adding important pieces in Urhoghide and Moore, extending key pieces in Farrington and Kamungo, and finding gems like Sarver and Collodi Zanotta's season at-large is a success. For an executive often criticized as someone who only knows how to generate profits, Zanotta improved the squad through many different channels.

All this means 2026 is an even bigger year for Dallas' Chief Soccer Officer. The second year of a build is even more crucial after getting the first year right. With the foundation laid, getting the rest of the house right is the challenge. It won't be easy, but Zanotta's 2025 gave supporters plenty of reasons to have faith in him to make the right decisions.