After more than a year and a half away, Miguel Ibarra’s path back to Minnesota hasn’t exactly been smooth. By Ibarra’s own admission his first season back stateside was a rocky homecoming, but his disappointing 2017 charted a course for the renaissance that has turned the midfielder into arguably the squad’s most indispensable player in 2018.
When Ibarra signed with the Loons in January 2017, we were all flooded with visions of the dynamic player who dazzled for MNUFC in the NASL for four seasons. Ibarra showed glimpses of his game-breaking ability in the team’s inaugural MLS season, but they were only that.