On the field, Emanuel Reynoso is a magician. He sees spaces that others don’t see, and the ball appears in those spaces seemingly without being touched. Faced with impossible situations against defenders, he’ll pull a trick or two - a dip of the shoulder here, a fake cross there, a turn to the left and then back to the right - and somehow shimmy through a space that doesn’t seem to actually exist.

He provokes delight, on the field, the same way as watching a card or coin or person be produced from thin air on a Las Vegas stage provokes delight.

After his latest unscheduled absence, though, his most difficult trick of all would be getting Minnesota United fans to love him again.

It’s worth remembering that less than a year ago, the first time that Reynoso went back to Argentina and didn’t return on time, he was wildly cheered when he finally returned to the field. Even though it was June, and he was more than three months late. Even though he never revealed his full reasons for staying in Argentina. Even though the league had suspended him. Even though the team had struggled without him.

Judging by the roars from the Wonderwall, fans were just happy to have him back.

Reynoso scored eight goals and added ten assists in all competitions, despite playing in just 23 games. Among MLS players who played 1000 minutes, he was behind only Cucho Hernandez in terms of expected non-penalty goals + expected assists, per 90 minutes.

It is worth noting, though, that while Reynoso’s return did kick-start Minnesota’s offense, the team’s results didn’t markedly improve. In the 18 games he played, the Loons earned 1.22 points per game; in the 16 he didn’t, they earned 1.19 points per game.

He played all five games in the Leagues Cup, resulting in one win, two wins on penalty kicks, and two losses. If you count the shootout wins as draws, that’s five points in five games. And the Loons ended up with nothing to show for the year - no playoff appearance, no tournament finals, and with the manager having been fired.

When Reynoso didn’t show up on time for preseason again in 2023, fans’ reaction seemed to have shifted from worry to annoyance. And when the Loons announced Tuesday that he’d failed to show up for a green card appointment, and had stayed in Argentina instead of returning to the team, it seemed like most fans had just about had enough.

Social media is an echo chamber, and the usual home of the most strident and unforgiving fans of any team, but it was remarkable to me just how near-unanimous the reactions to the statement were. Almost all of them were some version of what David Naylor said: “He can stay there. I’m done with this nonsense.”

Even if Reynoso was to return today, it would be three and a half weeks since he’d practiced or played a game. Whatever his reasons for missing his appointment in Argentina and failing to return as planned, it seems unlikely that he’s been working on his fitness while he’s there, and so he might not be physically ready to play.

Even if he was somehow, magically, ready to play, who knows whether the team would take him back? The last line of Khaled El-Ahmad’s statement was, “Our entire focus is on the players and staff who are here.” This does not sound like the statement of a sporting director who’s ready to make a spot for Reynoso in the starting lineup.

And even if Reynoso was ready to play, and the team threw him out there, you have to wonder - would we hear the same roars for Reynoso? Or, after three versions of this same story, have Loons fans finally had enough?

The hard truth about fans and players is that, with few exceptions, the team is always going to matter more to the fan than to the player. Players know that they can be traded or sold or released, at any time, but the beauty and the curse of being a fan is that there’s no escape. They don’t get traded… but they also don’t go AWOL in midseason.

Fans want perfection, and hope for perfection, and have to deal with accepting less. But the one thing that they can’t accept is when players don’t even try.

If and when Reynoso does come back, he’s going to have an uphill battle to convince fans that he’s truly bought in to the team. It’d look a lot like one of those impossible on-field situations he has regularly faced: multiple defenders, no space, no place to put the ball.

On the field, he finds a way. Off the field, he’s going to have a much harder time.