Chris Richards at Crystal Palace

Profile:

https://www.internationalchampionscup.com/en/articles/chris-richards-bayern-munich-fc-dallas-usmnt

 

Luchi Gonzalez was on ETR and when asked about Richards he said they’re open to having him come back, and he spoke to him recently because Chris is back for the holidays. Very political.

 

Yes let’s hope Chris’s situation doesn’t somehow hurt the relationship FCD and Bayern recently established.

 

They are all big boys and girls. They can handle some actual business negotiations.

 

Kind of felt a little bit like an advertisement for other American kids who Bayern may want to recruit.

Still, it was cool to see the whole campus and put an image to his training

 

Have heard that Bayern offered Richards a 3-year deal with around $1.5 mil in total wages guaranteed. Huge for the player and his family, and FCD gets a nice return on a player who's only been in their system since 2017. https://t.co/YQM3Mb2rJf

— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) January 5, 2019

 

More tweets:

I’m told FC Dallas and Bayern Munich have completed a $1.5 million transfer for #USMNT Under-20 midfielder Chris Richards. Fee could rise to $2million, and transfer includes a large sell-on. More details here. #FCBayern : https://t.co/G5NmvjEq9O

— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) January 5, 2019

 

Congrats to Chris. How does the transfer fee rate for Bayern? Normal to pay that much for a youth team player?

 

so... as an instructive to all the other mls teams...

what did dallas do differently? how did they actually procure $$ from a european giant? rsl is getting squat for several prospects they developed!!

 

Good question. Maybe the broader corporate partnership they have in place set the parameters for this type of transaction.

 

RSL needs to convince the players and their families to sign a professional contract. In short they need a closer to seal the deal.

 

Well, that seems like a pretty bad answer. Occam's Razor applies here, MLS teams need to actually sign players to professional contracts before they can transfer away their services to other professional clubs.

FCD found Chris Richards at 17, he spent a year in their academy, and then they signed him to a professional contract. It seems there was an understanding about his mobility because FCD sold him without him playing a single MLS minute.

If RSL can't get players who have spent many years at the club's academy (oftentimes coming from out-of-state to live in Arizona or Utah) to sign professional contracts, then clearly RSL were unable to build trust with their players. My suspicion is, RSL's prospects either didn't believe that RSL would act in their best interest or didn't believe that they would have the same opportunities to go overseas as an RSL player. Or perhaps a combination of both.

 

In a Goal.com profile on Richards, Ramos says "Out of all the center backs I’ve coached I think he’s the one with the most potential."

https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/who...ospect-set-to-sign-/ombmqco8e5pd1esbxol2jwrt7

 

No longer "on loan":

.@eastmamba's path to @FCBayernUS is officially complete.

FC Dallas has reached a transfer agreement with FC Bayern Munich for the Homegrown defender.

📰 https://t.co/UqBDDfbIR6 pic.twitter.com/xHas70OIOx

— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) January 24, 2019

Official: Bayern have completed the permanent signing of Chris Richards from FC Dallas on a 4.5 year contract until June 2023. pic.twitter.com/xw6mgnxJKe

— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) January 24, 2019

@TheFalseNine

 

It sounds like FCD sent him on loan to Bayern U19 because an MLS rule prevented them from playing Richard until this upcoming year

 

Finally complete

 

Sounds like FCD did extremely well in this deal with a 40% sell-on and performance incentives that could take it from initial fee of $1.5 to $5 million.

If FC Dallas is going to have a partnership with Bayern, they should join in reaping the rewards beyond the initial transfer.

 

From ESPN:

17.15 GMT: DONE DEAL -- Bayern Munich have announced they have signed American youngster Chris Richards from FC Dallas on a permanent deal.

The Bundesliga is quickly becoming the home for young American talents with Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Josh Sargent all thriving there and Tyler Adams recently having joined RB Leipzig.

Richards, 18, has been on loan with the Under-19s but now the defender has signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with the German champions.

The youngster seems over the moon about his move telling Bayern's website "I've always dreamed of playing at a big club in Europe. "Now I'm at one of the top teams and am really happy."

 

I'm starting to wonder if the same reason kids moved away from home to the RSL academy is now hurting them because they didn't grow up with the team and develop any loyalty. FCD kids (not all but most) grow up with the Team and the youth club all around them and have family in the area. RSL has shown they will play their HG's yet they can't get them to trust them?

 

Here is the blueprint for youth development now playing in the global footballing market. This is great to see and I really hope FCD continues to do this and other clubs mirror them.

 

Selling is good. But it's also good to have the kids play for a year or two with the first team before selling - if possible (it not always is). It helps to create a bit stronger of the bond between the community and the club

 

Glad, Lennon, and Acosta all were from RSL AZ, so I don't think that's it.

It could be the overseas offer was too good to be true, or those guys were always looking to play in Europe. Perhaps, even with the expectation of playing time, they still wanted to develop in the Netherlands/Germany.

 

First in a profile series on the young man:

https://www.bavarianfootballworks.c...-youth-soccer-luchi-gonzalez-brandon-servania

His father was a pro basketballer in Europe, so he was headed down that path at one point.

"Personally, he kind of went back-and-forth between basketball and soccer until he left here for Houston. He would get up at 6AM for basketball practice, I would pick him up after school, and we would go straight to soccer practice. We would do that every day."

Incredibly, it may have been the timing of Richards’ growth that tipped the scales definitely in favor of soccer. His parents, both college graduates, hoped that their son could win a college scholarship. But which sport?

"With him being undersized at the time as a sophomore — he was probably 5’9”, 130 pounds — but with the way things worked out it was like there was a plan for him. Had he been 6’3” already as a sophomore, I don’t know know if we would have pushed him more toward soccer or basketball. It could have gone either way."