Report: Revolution to sign Giacomo Vrioni

The New England Revolution is expected to sign striker Giacomo Vrioni, according to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano. The report was verified by Tom Bogert of MLSSoccer.com.

Vrioni, 23, joined Juventus in 2020 but spent the 2021/22 season with WSG Tirol in the Austrian Bundesliga. During this time, he had 21 goals and five assists in 30 appearances across all competitions.

The 6-foot-2 striker has six caps for the Albanian national team, most recently making late appearances in UEFA Nations League games against Iceland and Israel.

Head coach and sporting director Bruce Arena declined to speak specifically about the Vrioni reports during Friday’s pregame media availability, but did hint that news could be on the horizon.

“We expect to sign a player in the transfer window and when we’re prepared to announce that, we will,” Arena said. “That window doesn’t open up until next week. So, we’ll have something in the works over the next week or so, I hope.”

The Revs have rebounded from a difficult start and are now seventh in the Eastern Conference. The team is 4-0-5 since Apr. 23 and expects to have a strong second half of the season.

“I think as we get through the month of July, as we enter August and September and October as we close out the regular season, we’ll have hopefully a healthy team and a team that’s pretty competitive,” Arena noted. “We will have brought in a number of new players, and that takes a little bit of time. So, you see our goalkeeper is getting caught up to speed, as is [Dylan] Borrero as well. And we’ll likely have an addition next week.”

He added, “It takes a little bit of time but I think we’re heading in the right direction. We’re in much better shape now than we were in the beginning of the season, so hopefully that means we’re going to have a promising second half of the season.”