With Minnesota United celebrating its 10th season in Major League Soccer and opening voting for the Team of the Decade, it seems appropriate to spend this week’s storylines reflecting on a club legend who will be making his return to Allianz Field this weekend. You know him, you love him, you miss him; that’s right. I’m talking about Superman.

No, not Clark Kent. Let us not forget the glory of Christian Ramírez, the veteran forward who saw the Loons through their transition into Major League Soccer. He may not have laser eyes (though it’s a possibility — how would we know?), but his contributions to the Black and Blue are a multitude of timeless goals and top-tier leadership. 

Ramírez began his time as a Loon at the age of 23 back in 2014, when Minnesota United was still a part of the NASL. He stuck around as the club moved into MLS in 2017 and had an immensely successful first season in the league, logging 14 goals and 3 assists in 30 games played. The fans called him Superman, and this man is still a hero — even when scoring against his former club at Allianz Field last March, he stayed classy and didn’t celebrate, giving the nod to the Wonderwall. 

In his MLS Loons era, he tallied 21 goals and five assists in 3,776 minutes, including the club’s very first MLS goal. He scored once for the Loons’ first MLS point and twice for their first win. He was lethal in the run of play, always finding ways to outmaneuver the backline and engineer the perfect finishing touch. (Is this my plug to vote Ramírez for Team of the Decade? Maybe.)

After his time in Minnesota, Ramírez signed with LAFC for a season before joining the Houston Dynamo. In 2021, he bounced over to Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership for a couple of years (because why not?), and then returned to MLS as a member of the Columbus Crew from 2023–2024. With Columbus, he scored this beautiful 115th-minute goal in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals against in-state rivals FC Cincinnati, effectively sending the Crew to the MLS Cup, which they won over Ramírez’s former club, LAFC.

2025 saw the renowned forward join the LA Galaxy, who were the reigning MLS Cup champions at the time. In his time in Carson, he contributed four goals and an assist, plus a goal in Champions Cup. But just before the start of the 2026 season, the Galaxy waived him due to issues with salary cap, putting one of the league’s most seasoned strikers on the market only days before Matchday 1. 

As poetic as it would have been for Ramírez to return to Minnesota for Year 10, Austin scooped him up instead. Ah, you’re seeing why he’s this week’s storyline now, aren’t you? El Tree is Ramírez’s sixth MLS club, and he’s already booked three goals and an assist in 10 games, plus two appearances in the MLS Team of the Matchday, including for his most recent contributions against St. Louis CITY. 

Since his first MLS start in 2017, Ramírez has logged 58 goals and 22 assists in 195 regular-season games played. The 35-year-old forward is still going strong, making a name for himself on any and every lineup.

You know what we say: Once a Loon, always a Loon. And Christian Ramírez is a name we’re happy to have in our books, even as he returns to his roots this weekend for Austin’s Sunday Night Soccer matchup at Allianz Field.