When Inter Miami told Julian Gressel weeks ago he would not be a part of the club’s plans this season, he started to long for a fresh start. The 31-year-old right-sided player got that clean slate Tuesday, when his move to Minnesota United was made official.

What Miami discarded, Minnesota coveted.

“If you were to sort of script the type of player that we need,” MNUFC coach Eric Ramsay said, it would be Gressel, whom Ramsay called “a serial winner” and “a steady character.”

Gressel is under contract through 2026 with a club option for 2027. He has played 245 matches over nine seasons in MLS, winning an MLS Cup with Atlanta and Columbus, and the Supporters Shield with Miami last season.

He totaled nine assists and one goal in 2,340 MLS minutes. New Miami coach Javier Mascherano believed Gressel didn’t fit his system.“It took a lot longer than I thought, but ultimately happy to be here,” Gressel said Tuesday after training with the Loons in Blaine. “And finally, hopefully get back on the field and be a part of a club that has a lot (of room) to grow but, I also feel, is right there to compete for some really interesting things.”

Miami waived Gressel and the Loons claimed his rights. MLS rules award a player’s rights based on a number of factors, including waiver order and which club is willing to absorb a salary budget charge that is meaningfully higher than other clubs.

“I think the second he became a possibility, we started to have some conversations,” Ramsay said.

Gressel made $1.09 million in guaranteed compensation with Miami in 2024, according to the MLS Players Association. This move will lower his salary to somewhere between his former salary and at least $15,000 higher than the MLS senior minimum ($104,000). That won’t be known until the Players Association releases its salary figures later this spring.

Gressel is American, so he will not occupy an international spot. He trained fully with the players outside Miami’s first team into last week and said he’s “pretty ready to go” for Minnesota. Ramsay said Gressel’s tracking data in Miami was good and that Gressel might debut as soon as Saturday at Austin FC.

While Gressel hasn’t played this year, in 2024 he was primarily a right wing or right midfielder as Inter won the Supporters Shield. In 2023, he finished that season at right wingback as Columbus Crew won MLS Cup.

Ramsay was noncommittal on Gressel’s best spot in Minnesota but narrowed it down to right wingback, a right-sided central midfielder, or No. 8, which would help fill a need with Hassani Dotson sidelined indefinitely by a knee injury.

“I feel like the plus point for him is that he can do both,” Ramsay said. “I think he’s a player that does take a lot of pride in his versatility, from the conversation I had with him.”

Ramsay said if the club isn’t going to fill all its senior roster spots, versatility is a bigger necessity. If Gressel can fill in at right wingback, Ramsay said a “knockdown effect” could be current right wingback Bongi Hlongwane spending time at his more-natural position of forward.

Ramsay also sees Gressel providing right-footed service on set pieces, something the team doesn’t currently have.

One of the Loons’ best teams — the 2019 edition — was constructed, in part, from within MLS with Ozzie Alonso coming from Seattle and Ike Opara from Kansas City. The Gressel move is from the same playbook, and the opposite of how the Loons tried to add diminutive right back Matus Kmet from Slovakia last summer.

Kmet never fit and is out on loan in Poland this season.

“We want to bring players in that you can say with certainty are going to have a level of influence on the team’s success,” Ramsay said. “… The fact that (Gressel) has not played for five or six months with any real regularity doesn’t seem like it will be an issue. I think he’s a guy who will have looked after himself really well and should be able to hit the ground running.”