When the name of a prospective player has been brought to the FC Cincinnati brain trust this offseason, the club's technical staff has made it a point to make in-person visits with the player.

It was business as usual when goalkeeper Przemyslaw "Titi" Tytoń's name came across the desks of head coach Alan Koch and goalkeeping coach Jack Stern, who was quickly dispatched to see the out-of-contract player training with Polish first-division side Wisła Plock.

Stern made the journey to Plock, which is a two-hour drive from Warsaw, and bunkered in for the better part of a week to observe and evaluate Tytoń over the course of four Wisła Plock training sessions.

Tytoń had been training with Plock since September after the club's head goalkeeping coach invited the 31-year-old talent to keep himself in shape there until he found a new club.

Tytoń saw his two-season stay at La Liga's Deportivo de La Coruña end uneventfully this past summer and without a contract extension. He used this autumn in his native Poland, where he didn't intend to sign professionally, to gather himself and prepare for the next challenge.

It didn't take Stern long to realize the long journey to visit Tytoń would be time well spent.

“It was very, very quick. The first time that we met, he came to the hotel I was staying at and we got coffee. Right away, I thought that this was someone I’d like to work with," Stern told The Enquirer. "He’s very positive, the personality, very kind and he was genuinely interested in the project in Cincinnati and in other people. I was very aware that I was there for four training sessions and I didn’t want to make quick judgments either way. I wanted to really assess things over the four training sessions, but it was very difficult not to walk away from that first training session and think it’s been worth it to come here and we might have found our guy.”

More:FC Cincinnati personnel tracker: Who's staying, who's going and what's next?

More:FC Cincinnati adds to defense with Ligue 2 ES Troyes AC's Mathieu Deplagne

Grades:Grading the picks, trades, and transfers so far

Even though Stern attempted to avoid snap judgments, he knew after the first day of training – an all-goalkeepers session – FC Cincinnati had probably found its man.

At the second training session Stern observed, one special moment from Tytoń all but clinched it.

"He made a save, a really good save, and the ball sort of bounced and looped up in the air. It went really high and sort of looping into the goal," Stern said of that day's full-team shooting exercise. "In that situation, especially in training, you'll see goalkeepers not make that effort to make that second save and the ball goes in, but he got straight back up onto his feet, ran straight back to the goal and he actually made the save by making a bicycle kick off the line.

"It was just so much fun to watch. So much effort. So much enjoyment. So much passion. He had so much pride in what he was doing. He didn't want the ball to go in," Stern said. "Honestly, at that moment, and I told him this personally, that was the moment I wanted him to come to Cincinnati and I wanted to work with him. Really, we both knew at the end of that week, we knew we wanted to work together."

And so they will work together. FC Cincinnati officially announced Tytoń's acquisition via a free transfer Dec. 13. Tytoń is occupying one of Cincinnati's eight senior-team international roster spots for 2019.

Tytoń boasts 13 years of experience and 200 professional appearances under his belt. He's played in several top European leagues and his stops along the way have included PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie, Netherlands), Elche CF (La Liga, Spain), VfB Stuttgart (Bundesliga, Germany), among other destinations.

He's also made 14 appearances for the Polish senior men's national team.

Connecting interpersonally in Plock was a good start for Stern and Tytoń, but that was only the initial visit. During his visit to Cincinnati to sign his contract and conduct a medical evaluation, Tytoń took a Stern-guided tour of the Queen City for about four days.

The tour included stops to look at housing options, Nippert Stadium on the University of Cincinnati campus, the Milford training ground and a Jeff Ruby restaurant in town.

"He likes his Jeff Ruby's," Stern recalled.

Tytoń, who prefers to be called by the nickname "Titi," should shoot up to No. 1 on FC Cincinnati's goalkeeping depth chart.

He'll be joined by returning FC Cincinnati goalkeeper Spencer Richey, who finished 2018 strong during the club's final United Soccer League season.

After playing with FC Cincinnati via a loan from the Vancouver Whitecaps, FC Cincinnati traded for Richey to rejoin the club in MLS.

Koch has said previously he wanted to carry at least three goalkeepers, meaning there's still work to be done with Stern's position group.

Still, Stern said he's extremely happy with Cincinnati's goalkeeping situation at present.

"Obviously, it's really pleasing to be able to announce Titi and I think that's a really key part of our goalkeeping group for next year," Stern said. "We made the trade for Spencer and that's every bit as important... The whole thought process of putting together a goalkeeping group – very important that you have a good balance of guys to work together, so I really see Spencer and Titi working well together.

"I think Titi is someone, with all the different places he's played, is someone that can help Spencer develop his game. I spoke with Spencer about Titi yesterday and he's excited, too. We already have a WhatsApp group chat and starting to build that bond as a group. Obviously, we need to add one more and that will come at some point, but so far I'm delighted with the two goalkeepers we have."

Tytoń was unavailable to comment for this story.