Your Loons may have saved their transfer business until late in the window, but never fear: Reinforcements are here. We’re going to be busy introducing a few new faces this week, but we’ll start in the midfield, where Austrian CAM Dominik Fitz will be slotting in alongside his new teammates.
Now, let me hit you with a few clarifiers before we get too far: I’m no professional coach (yet), I never played professionally, and I do, in fact, work for the club. But, I have watched more soccer than is probably healthy for someone my age, so when I tell you that this is a signing worth getting excited about, you can — at the very least — take that as a sign to be mildly intrigued. Now, time to get you acquainted.
The 26-year-old attacking midfielder joins the Loons from Austria Wien, his boyhood club. He’s been a part of their setup from youth all the way to pro, starting in their academy all the way back in 2006. He made the jump to the second team in 2015 as a teenager, before making his first-team debut just two seasons later in 2017. All along the way, he earned youth international call-ups with the Austrian national team, playing from the U17s to the U21s.
While Fitz has never played for any other club in his career, his skill set and confidence on the ball suggest that he’s ready for the next step. A strong runner with the ball at his feet, he demonstrates an ability to not only break lines, but to connect the field through incisive passing, natural positioning, and a direct attacking instinct that adds a cutting edge to his team.
His deft finishing ability saw him notch 54 goals across more than 200 appearances with Wien’s first team, but it’s his 63 assists that really turn the head. He’s proven that he can score in multiple ways, including late runs into the box, mazey dribbling spells that penetrate the opposing defense, and even some free kick wizardry that any team would welcome in a new signing. But each of these attributes go beyond scoring, as they create space for interplay and allow teammates to get involved in the goal-scoring fun. If he’s not finding the net himself, he’ll be setting his teammates up to do it instead.
I can’t say exactly how Coach Ramsay plans to use his newest signing, but I can provide a strong possibility for you to consider. The Loons have become pretty tied to their 5-4-1 setup, and Fitz works perfectly. I anticipate he’ll be used on the right side of the midfield four, operating in a right attacking mid role that will complement the efforts of Joaquín Pereyra on the other side and free up the striker to occupy the box and focus on finishing. He’s a slightly more direct player than Pereyra from what I can tell, making him both a natural fit in the Loons’ counter-attack and an additive signing that brings a new skill set to the squad.
No matter how he slots in, Fitz’s profile makes him a compelling addition to the current roster, especially as we head down the final stretch of the season. Stay tuned for his debut in the coming weeks, as he completes his final preparations and officially joins the team. In the meantime, watch out for more transfer news; we’re not done yet, folks.
