Parks and recreation in Lisbon: Keaton at NYCFC (on loan from Benfica)

You have not. He's never played for a DA club. He played for his high school team with the intention of going to college. His NPSL coach did set up his opportunity to Portugal and sometime along the way during that trial he decided to go play pro for Varzim rather than attend SMU.

It's a very unusual path these days. Kudos to him and to his former coach who encouraged him to try a less traveled path to make it as a pro soccer player.

 

I was under the impression that he was not DA affiliated.

I'll try and find the specific article in a minute but I seem to remember reading that he was developed by a Venezuelan coach whom Keaton spent his entire youth career with.

Apparently the coach played professionally in Portugal and has a bunch of connections from his playing days and Keaton isn't the only player from Texas that he's helped get a look from Portuguese academies.

 

Yeah, that's the most infatuating thing about Parks. He was never apart of a DA. Played select but played with the Liverpool Warriors NPSL team. His coach helped him out with setting up trials and ended up at Varzim.

A truly unique path to success. Most people who are select in the DFW area end up going to play college and usually their careers ends there. Glad he didn't follow that path because he is one hell of a player.

 

He's been listed as a pending transfer (July 1) on transfermarkt for a while but now that zerozero.pt has him as such, we can say with near certainty that he is going to Benfica.

http://www.zerozero.pt/jogador.php?id=475518&search=1&search_string=keaton+parks&searchdb=1

 

Gotta be excited about this kid.

 

Benfica is a great team but I don't recall anything related to Portugal league that has ended up well for American players. Just different levels of disaster.

 

Small sample size.

Hopefully Keaton are already overcame his organizational disaster.

 

It's true the Portuguese League is not known as a bastion of stability but Porto, Benfica, Sporting, and Braga are completely different animals than all the rest. They are veritable factories of buying young talent from all around the world and selling them on the bigger clubs for profit. If Keaton continues to prove that he can boss the Segunda he'll get his chance at the 1st division and from there who knows.

He's got some really nice qualities to build on and he'll get world class coaching there. It's just me personally but he, McKinnie, Hydman, Wright, Green and Gooch are the most interesting almost established youth yanks abroad and I can't wait to watch how his season unfolds. Even better there should be highlights and full games available of Benfica 2.

 

Just screwed the second most talented American prospect.

 

How?

 

Are you talking about EPB? They said they wanted him but couldn't afford him. He went back to KC after his loan. They gave him a lot of minutes, more than Sporting KC does.

 

Porto couldn't afford him? Such a poor club.Should I loan them money? They didn't know the price when signed up loan agreement? He didn't play well?
Total bullshit. Just wanted to shake up KC. KC didn't blink. EPL is in the middle of nowhere.

 

Maybe you've never worked in business, but it's quite common agree to pay $x in/over 12 months and then run into financial difficulties and be unable to pay the amount agreed and/or in the manner agreed. What should you/a company/Porto do then? If you think it's to tell them "I can't afford to pay the full amount, here's your widget back," I'd suggest that a business career might not be for you.

 

Thank you for for being condescending, I'm 30 years in business. $2M for Porto huge money of course. That's why I offered them a loan.

 

If the fee was the reported $2m, and the contract would have been the usual 3 years, his wages would have come to about $600k per year, plus the usual (bonuses, apartment, car) and they'd have had to pay at least $500k down (more likely $650k) within 30 days of signing the deal with the rest in quarterly installments over the life of the contract. If they were using/had used an intermediary to set up the deal, there'd have been another couple of hundred ks on top, probably in one shot.

Not a vast sum of money in football, but not chump change either, and a big hole in the cash flow of a team that's already in financial difficulties for a player who's ready to be phased into the squad but not quite ready to be an automatic starter.

And please don't talk about Jorge Mendes and third parties: dealing with those guys is not exactly conducive to financial transparency or effective cash flow management.

 

The whole Portugal league is one big shithole with business ethics of oriental market.

 

Yeah, I'm trying to recall a single American player who has had what would be considered a successful stint in that league, but I can't do it. Not in their top division anyway.

 

What? Porto was forced to make a bad financial decision. They couldn't buy unless they sold and at that time they didn't sell enough to buy EPB. No it wasn't ideal for EPB but SKC could have sold him before the U-20. They could sell him right now in the summer window, or they can let him walk this December. SKC had options beyond Porto and has failed to make a deal.
Regardless of anything else EPB is a better player for the time he spent with Porto and in the long run his career will benefit from what he learned there. He was hardly screwed by them. Besides in this case Keaton is on a free and costs Benfica nothing. All the more reason to bring him along, coach him up, give him opportunities to excel and sell him on for pure profit in a few years. Their situations are nothing alike.

 

wow, did those cunts at BSMX give you a yellow card just for posting in one of their threads?

 

Yea they do that. Theyre as sensitive as 5-year old girls.

But only after they quote your post from another thread in theirs first, unsolicited.

 

Nah, it was my fault. I made the rookie mistake of starting a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

 

Yea and they're still quoting me. Probably going for the red.

 

It's official!

Conheça os jovens que vão tentar ganhar a confiança de Rui Vitória

Meet the youth who are going to attempt to earn the confidence of Rui Vitória.

http://www.record.pt/futebol/futebol-nacional/liga-nos/benfica/detalhe/talentos-para-evoluir.html



snip:

KEATON PARKS. O médio norte-americano, de 19 anos, deu nas vistas no Varzim, clube com o qual se encontra em litígio – rescindiu com justa causa. O Benfica pretende vê-lo evoluir no Seixal

Keaton Parks. The American midfielder turned heads at Varzim, a club with which he is currently in litigation - he voided his contract for just cause. Benfica hopes to see him develop in Seixal*.

Other links abound. Most in Portuguese.

https://www.zerozero.pt/player.php?id=475518

Updated Zero Zero page.

SPORTS And More: @USSoccer @Varzim Keaton Parks signed with @SLBenf... https://t.co/YtvOMYyWEW

— Francisco (@cun555) June 30, 2017

*neighborhood in Lisbon where Benfica is located.

 

So he'll start with Benfica B or their first team?

 

I think it's Benfica B. Benfica had first training today - and I didn't see him. I could be wrong though.