ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis City SC has had a pretty active MLS off-season, already bringing in four players to the club this off-season, including holding midfielder Chris Durkin, and wide backs Nikolas Dyhr, Joakim Nilsson and Tomas Totland.
However, a key player on the squad is set to depart and head back to Europe.
St. Louis City SC announced Wednesday forward Niko Gioacchini will depart the club and move onto greener pastures in Europe and will be set to join Serie B and promotion fighting club Como 1907.
Famous Soccer Insider Fabrizio Romano was the first to report Gioacchini was moving back to Europe and that an agreement was reached last week between the two clubs.
City SC selected Gioacchini in the 2022 MLS Expansion Draft from Orlando City SC and he became a key player for the club, playing 37 games in all competitions and scoring club high of 10 goals, tied with striker Joao Klauss for the lead.
This will be Gioacchini second stint in Europe. Before coming to the MLS in 2022, Gioacchini began his soccer career in France, moving to the country with his parents from Kansas City, Missouri when he was 15 and joining the youth academy of Ligue 2 mainstay Paris FC. Gioacchini would make his senior career debut with Paris FC B-team, who plays in France's fifth division in 2017, but would not get first team until he joined another Ligue 2 mainstay in Caen.
Gioacchini would get his first taste of top-flight action in France in 2021, joining Ligue 1 side Montpellier on a season long loan, but the stint wasn't rather memorable, appearing in 28 games mostly off the bench, and racking up two assists overall.
Como is currently fighting for promotion in Italy's second division Serie B. They are currently second in the division and a point up on promotion rivals Venezia FC and Cremonese. The top two clubs in Serie B get automatic promotion to Serie A while teams placing third through eighth compete in promotion playoffs.
Como has not competed in the top flight of Italian Soccer since the 2002-2003 season.