FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – After just a 30-minute phone call with head coach Caleb Porter, Ignatius Ganago was sold on the New England Revolution. The 25-year-old attacker admits that he wasn’t necessarily expecting to make the switch from French Ligue 1 – where he'd spent the previous nine seasons – but after talking with Porter, he felt an immediate pull toward New England.
“When I spoke with the coach, I just felt like I wanted to go [to MLS]. I spoke with him for 30 minutes and I was like, ‘He knows me, he knows my life, he knows everything about me, how I like to play.’ So, I thought, ‘Don’t think too much, just go, just move,’” explained Ganago. “For me, it is another opportunity. I’m here, I want to play, I want to enjoy football, so that’s all.”
The versatile attacker joins the Revolution on an initial six-month loan from FC Nantes. At 25, he’s already gained ample experience playing in one of the world’s best leagues, appearing in more than 150 matches in Ligue 1 with a total of 23 goals and eight assists to his name. The Douala, Cameroon native originally arrived in France in 2017 with OGC Nice, and then went on to play with RC Lens before joining FC Nantes. His experience expands beyond France and onto the international stage, where he has been capped by the Cameroon National Team 14 times.
Porter’s pitch to Ganago was simple: “We want to win a trophy.” Throughout the preseason, Porter has emphasized that with new signings like Ganago, this roster is now of his own design, molded to fit his game model. “We are building something special,” he said. “It’s our job now to show it on the pitch and it comes in the form of results. With Gana, we saw a very talented player who had a rough couple of years – an injury and he had an issue with his daughter who passed away, which is very sad. I do this for the players. I do this to help players like Gana revive their careers.
“He is a top player. I am really happy to have him here. I think he has flown under the radar a little bit, but he has played in one of the top leagues in the world. We feel like we got a good one with him. He has only been here a week and we threw him in for 35 minutes with our team after one day of training. People don’t understand how hard that is.”
After arriving towards the end of preseason, Ganago spent a week with the team in Florida before being welcomed into a snow-covered Foxborough. “It’s just like I knew about this before I came,” explained Ganago, who had just finished training with the squad Thursday afternoon in freezing rain. “I knew it would be really cold here. I knew about it, so I just have to adapt to it and play in the cold. I’m okay with this.”
Ganago is just as adaptable on the pitch as he is to the weather – something Porter was intrigued by when bringing him into the squad. Whether he plays on the wing or up top, Ganago is ready to create goal-scoring chances this season.
“For now, I will play where [Porter] wants me to play,” he said. “If he plays me on the left side or behind the striker. I will play where the coach wants me to play, and I’ll do what he wants me to do. I like to score. I like to create chances for the other players also, so for me I just want to do everything.”
For now, Ganago’s focus – beyond putting balls in the back of the net – is continuing to learn about his teammates’ style of play and building those connections on and off the pitch. He’s especially excited to develop chemistry with Revolution captain and talisman Carles Gil, a player he had heard tales about all the way across the Atlantic.
“You can see he’s a great player,” said Ganago. “When I arrived I wasn’t surprised to see him at that level. I even checked the Instagram of the club to know more about him, because I really heard about him. So no, I’m not surprised. He’s a very good player, so I’m really happy to play with him. I know I will get some balls and I will score a lot of goals, so please tell Carles to put in a lot of balls.”
Ganago’s goalscoring abilities will be put to the test one last time before the regular season opener against Nashville on February 22. With the final match of preseason taking place at Gillette Stadium this Saturday against Hartford Athletic (12:30 p.m. ET), it’s another opportunity for Ganago – and the 13 other newly-signed Revolution players – to continue developing unity and maximizing momentum for the first game of 2025.
“I’m just focused on right here, right now. I’m focused on the next game on Saturday, so that’s it. I’m focused on the next game, step by step,” he said. "[Porter] is very clear with me. He just wants me to be a free player, do what I want to do. Not doing nonsense, but I have to score goals. I have to make goals.”
