Signs with the Galaxy. http://www.lagconfidential.com/2012...ily-gyasi-zardes-signs-champions-league-dates http://www.lagalaxy.com/blog/beat/2012/12/19/zardes-sign-homegrown-contract-galaxy
Ives Galarcep @SoccerByIves More on Gyasi Zardes. I'm told he passed on standing offers from German clubs Freiburg and Nuremberg to sign with Galaxy
21 year old signs a 5 year deal. Let's see how many free agent offers he gets as a 26 year old. Maybe he can do the same as Chad Barrett, a loanee to Valerenga that barely saw the field in Norway.
Or maybe he will tear it up like Clint Dempsey or Ryan Nelson and get a EPL deal before the end of the five years. Time will tell.
You can just see the vitrol in sfs's post in that a player spurned offers from the Bundesliga for MLS. And you know for a fact it's a 5 year deal sfs? I'd be willing to bet it's a 4 year deal as he used Europe as leverage in that regard. MLS has been much more lenient giving out 4 year deals lately to high profile rookies. Danny Mwanga, Luis Gil, Juan Agudelo are some that signed 4 year Generation Adidas type deals in the past few years.
Dempsey and Cooper were the last "middle aged" attacker sold by MLS. Clint was not 24 yet but was already an MLS Rookie of the Year and the full USNT member/World Cup participant. Kenny was 25 and with a Euro passport. Other than these two, MLS attackers in their mid-20's - Rolfe, Gomez, Noonan, Wolfe, Mathis, Findley, Buddle, Rogers - had to leave on a free. MLS did sell Altidore (then 18), Adu (also supposedly 18) and will probably be forced to sell Agudelo who just turned 20. Overall, the odds aren't with Zardes moving any time soon and, if he has to play out his deal, he'll be 26, which is often considered too late for a striker to make a jump to a Top 5 Euro league out of MLS. It's not even dismay. I am not too big on Germany as the development league for a 21-year old to begin with and chances are that Freiburg decided not to invest really big money into a 21-YO college striker anyway. I mean, it's not like the kid had Ajax after him. Personally, I would have advised him to take less money in Brazil, where he should have been considered a citizen. The article said five years.
I think the Galaxy will get some tepid offers for him in the off season. In hindsight playing with Donovan and Keane probably provided development he couldn't overseas.
I trust Bruce and co. to not pull the trigger on that too soon (unless BJIV is really that good), Zardes probably needs a chance to prove that his current scoring rate isn't just a hot streak. I'd give him another year in the league before seriously entertaining any offers tbh.
Honestly, he should stay in the MLS maybe one more season to hone his skills next to Keane. After that, he can try out Europe. Germany wouldn't be bad since he almost went there already. Speaking of, I think he made a great decision to stay in the States and develop instead of going to Europe right away. I mean when Zardes first went to Galaxy he was so raw and over a season or two he has developed quite a lot. I'm afraid he wouldn't have gotten the same patient approach in Germany (might be wrong).
Agreed. Had he gone to Germany you couldn't really have blamed any team for sending him straight to the bench based on what we saw from Zardes that first season. As cringe-worthy as some of his play was that first season I do think it was pretty obvious that with a little sharpening up he would be a stand out amongst american MLS strikers.
It could be a career defining year in MLS and with USMNT this year for Zardes. Lets hope he makes the best of it for the YA's sake.
Does anyone know his contract status? I know many rookies sign a 3 year deal but Zardes is a very well paid homegrown signing, so I don't know if LA locked him up for 4 years.
Don't know the basis for this report, but it seems to suggest some kind of link between Zardes and, of course, 1860 Munich: Für den vakanten Platz im Angriff kursieren derweil mehrere Namen. Neben dem vereinslosen Ex-Nationalspieler Cacau und Artur Sobiech von Hannover 96 bringt die “TZ” mit Gyasi Zardes von L.A. Galaxy nun noch einen weiteren Kandidaten ins Gespräch. Der 23-Jährige ist trotz seiner 1,88 Meter nicht aufs Sturmzentrum festgelegt, sondern kommt sowohl im Verein als auch im US-Nationalteam unter Trainer Jürgen Klinsmann auch auf den Flügeln und sogar im Mittelfeld zum Einsatz. http://liga-zwei.de/tsv-1860-muench...s-im-visier-mohamed-gouaida-kommt-nicht/44454 EDIT: This might be the source report: http://www.merkur.de/sport/tsv-1860...ardes-neuer-loewen-stuermer-meta-5318420.html A follow-up: http://www.merkur.de/sport/tsv-1860...ardes-neuer-loewen-stuermer-meta-5318420.html
Here's another article linking Zardes to 1860: http://www.tz.de/sport/1860-muenche...ardes-neuer-loewen-stuermer-meta-5318420.html It reads like they are chasing Artur Sobiech of Hannover in addition to Zardes.
I was kind of hoping he would be the next Landon Donovan and be an advert for how talented our league is. Staying his whole career, but he is a young man and he should be confined by no standards with such potential.
It makes sense for both the Galaxy and Zardes to look for a transfer when the season is over. I believe Zardes is on the last year of his contract next year, I'm sure he'll be looking for a pay raise that will effect LAG's cap. The Galaxy have a bevy of attacking talent, not to mention young attackers on the cusp of consistent first team action like Villarreal, BJI4, Lassiter, hell, even Mendiola. I'm not saying those guys are better than Gyassi, but they sure as hell could help pick up the slack. Seems like it'd be a win win
1860's top paid transfer over the last five years is 600K. If that's his market overseas LA will hold onto him and dare him go abroad on a free is my guess.
@MLSTransfers Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports that KRC Genk are in talks with Zardes (LA Galaxy) pic.twitter.com/Xf4DUwaXl7— Phil Finch (@PhilFinch91) August 13, 2015 Genk in for Zardes?