Malanda is on Teesside now having arrived in the UK to put the finishing touches to his move, and was at the Riverside on Monday night alongside Rob Edwards, Kieran Scott and head of recruitment Chris Jones to watch Boro’s Under-21s against Manchester United.
The American market is one Scott and Jones have targeted and looked to exploit in recent years, having signed Aidan Morris last summer and identified Malanda and Columbus Crew left-back Max Arfsten as leading targets this summer.
Malanda is joining Boro on a permanent deal but it’s understood the 23-year-old will immediately head back out on loan to Charlotte FC, where’ll he finish the MLS season, which runs until mid-October.
Charlotte are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference, which is the final spot for automatic qualification for round one of the play-offs, which run from October 24 to November 9. If they were to finish eighth or ninth, they’d go into a wild card match, which takes place on October 22. The play-offs run through until December 6.
Whenever Charlotte’s season finishes, Malanda is then expected to be given a break before he links up with Boro’s squad.
Boro have beaten a number of high-profile clubs to the capture of Malanda, who has been at the heart of a fierce transfer battle this summer.
Dutch champions PSV pushed to sign the central defender earlier this summer, and at one stage it looked like a deal was on the verge of being agreed, but wasn’t finalised.
Club Brugges and Boro’s rivals Norwich City are both understood to have been interested this summer, while Benfica were keen on the defender in January.
Boro have kept close tabs on Malanda’s situation throughout the summer having first made contact at the back end of last season, and it’s understood their willingness to let the defender go back out on loan and finish the MLS season was a major factor in getting the deal done.
It’s a situation Boro are comfortable with. They have Dael Fry, Alfie Jones, the fit again George Edmundson, Luke Ayling, Neto Borges and Darragh Lenihan, who is currently sidelined but not too far away from being ready to return, competing for places at centre-half.
Malanda has played every single minute of Charlotte’s MLS Eastern Conference campaign so far, and he tops the MLS charts this season for the number of blocks made per 90 minutes and accurate long balls.
The 6ft4″ defender is athletic, physical, strong in the air and experienced, having played more than 90 MLS games since joining Charlotte from French second tier side Rodez AF in 2022.
