Birmingham City closing in on 7-figure transfer coup for creative defender | OneFootball

Birmingham City are hitting the ground running the in January transfer window with reports of the imminent signing of MLS defender Kai Wagner.

Birmingham City aren't hanging around in the January transfer window, with reports of the imminent arrival of experienced Philadelphia Union defender Kai Wagner.

With plans for a 62,000-capacity stadium now released, the most ambitious club in the Championship at the moment may be Birmingham City.

Blues were promoted from League One with a record-breaking 111 points at the end of last season, and the expectation levels around St Andrew's upon their return to the second-tier have been very high.

But the Blues' push for a second successive promotion stalled in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Birmingham have now gone six consecutive matches without a win, and this has led to them slipping to 15th place in the table, with manager Chris Davis coming under increasing pressure as the team continues to flatline on the pitch.

One of the areas in which Birmingham need strengthening is defensively. It's now been 11 games since they last kept a clean sheet. And according to reports from the end of 2025 that have moved into the start of 2026, the Blues are set to swoop for an MLS defender with a lot of experience.

Birmingham City looking to wrap up the signing of Kai Wagner

As first reported by US-based reporter José Roberto Nuñez on New Year's Eve, Birmingham were closing in on the capture of Kai Wagner, following his impressive 2025 MLS season for the Philadelphia Union.

And those claims have been backed up locally by BirminghamLive, who expect Blues to complete their first bit of incoming January transfer business imminently with the 28-year-old.

They report that Wagner "has been a stand-out player in MLS for Philadelphia Union over the past six years", and that he's being signed to provide competition for the club's regular left-back Alex Cochrane, who has had little in the way of competition thanks to Lee Buchanan's injury issues.

Wagner signed for the Union in 2019 from German outfit Würzburger Kickers, with his six years in Pennsylvania seeing him play over 250 times in all competitions.

And whilst Philadelphia only made it to the Eastern Conference play-offs, it was a good season personally for Wagner, who racked up 10 assists in the MLS in what is looking like his final season across the Atlantic Ocean.

The German defender will now put pen-to-paper on a deal at St. Andrew's, with German reporter Florian Plettenberg claiming the deal will be worth €2.3 million (£2 million), owing to a release clause.

Recent injury to Alex Cochrane shows Birmingham's need for left-back reinforcement

That Birmingham City need extra cover at left-back has been demonstrated recently, with an injury to Alex Cochrane requiring Eiran Cashin to deputise there out of position.

Cashin, who is normally a central defender, moved into that makeshift position for their match against Southampton and got decent reviews for his performance, but this can hardly be considered a long-term solution for a club with ambitions of reaching the Premier League sooner rather than later.

And Kai Wagner ticks a lot of boxes. He's been with Philadelphia Union since 2019 and has made over 250 appearances for them since then. He was in the MLS All-Star team in 2021, 2022 and 2025, while he won the MLS Supporters Shield with his team in 2020 and 2025.

In November, Lee Buchanan said that he was targeting a return to the Birmingham team in the new year, but the imminent arrival of Wagner would seem to indicate that this isn't going to be happening now, or that if it is, then Chris Davies still believes that he needs more cover in that full-back position.

Despite their relatively lowly league position, Birmingham City remain just seven points short of a play-off position in the Championship. The Blues will be hoping that refreshing their playing squad in the January transfer window will give them the means to make up that gap. The arrival of Wagner could be the first move of a busy month in the transfer market for the club.