This. The Rapids have pretty consistently said the plan is to sell young players. I've heard TH name O'Neill specifically at least twice. The lie itself was so frick'n laughable it was insulting. At least make the lie believable.
I don't know about Apollon but several Cypriot clubs are owned and run by wealthy Russians. The league itself, AFAIK, is fairly stable -- much more than their Greek "cousins" who we all know are in economic shambles. Just poking around it looks like a good number of Greek Superliga players have moved to Cypriot clubs in the last couple of years. Presumably, because they actually collect a paycheck and aren't written IOU's. Like I said earlier, it's not a bad league. Arguably better than Norway and Sweden and slightly below Denmark, Beguim, and Switzerland.
Who gets dealt to a team in Cypress? I mean WTF? I'm 58, I have followed the game all my life and I have never heard of anyone going to Cypress. Is Shane okay with this?
He has to be. Apollon Limassol doesn't acquire his current contract, they have to come to a new contract agreement with him before the transfer can occur. If Shane doesn't want to go to Cyprus he can just turn down any contract offer and the Rapids can't sell him.
Less than $500K for Shane: http://www.denverpost.com/rapids/ci_28602545/shane-oneill-sold-from-rapids-club-cyprus
If it's a garage sale how much would some developmental youth league offer for our coach? Any lingerie football team need a technical director ... used car lot need a general manager?
Apollon Limassol was knocked out of the Europa League in 3rd round qualifying last week, losing to Gabala from Azerbaijan (or "Qäbälä" as per the UEFA site). After that, there's a playoff round, then finally the group stage.
Speculation is that Cyprus is not actually his final destination. He may be headed to Belgium pretty soon.
It would be worse to be an organization that would stand in the way of a developing player. If O'Neil wanted to go to Europe and he was forcing their hand then I would want the Rapids to be accommodating.
I've heard that, too but it just doesn't make sense. Cyprus has been used as a gateway for non-Euros to gain a Cypriot passport but Shane has zero issues given he's a dual Irish-American citizen. On top of that Belgium is fairly lax when granting visas to athletes and professionals working in that country.
There's a level of upset for me in this that wouldn't be there with many other Rapids players as he is local and homegrown. Additionally, he seemed to be on track to be a solid MLS CB but obviously this season (his third with the 1st team) he's been out of favor for some reason. Now we'll never know what he could have brought to the club and may never see him in a Rapids kit again. Had he left having been considered one of the top defenders in the league with a lot of European suitors I would have been proud. But he's gone under murky circumstances leaving a bitter taste in both his mouth as well as that of the hard-core supporters. On top of all of that, he isn't bringing in a ton of transfer money and the Rapids seem to have fumbled at bringing in players to bolster the squad outside of central defenders. Although this is not analogous with the Beckerman trade it's up there in terms of my frustration and anger.
I think Bravo's gameplan all along was to buy up all these and have one he can use to get his kid a nice community college education: http://www.oyosports.com/Soccer/Colorado-Rapids
I'm so pissed. The only thing preventing me from totally going off the deep end is that Shane might have wanted this. The Rapids suck at a whole new level.
Except EUFA has completely banned it starting this season. Ministry of tuth is slacking, look at the comments posted to his transfer article. http://www.coloradorapids.com/post/2015/08/07/shane-oneill-transferred-cypriot-side-apollon-limassol
This would not be third party ownership. This would simply be a team loaning a player out to another team.
Losing a local kid would leave a bad taste in any situation, but when the team's backline has been inconsistent and ever-changing from week to week makes it worse. Shane may very well have wanted out--I mean, who wants to sit on the bench for a lousy team with no direction--but somehow that doesn't make me feel better about the FO. How about running the team in a way that makes local players want to stay? Will it surprise anyone if the next bit of news we hear is Serna wants to play in any league other than here?
Powers has already beaten Serna to the punch, although I do get your local point, I want to broaden the category to include draft picks.
Most interesting to me is Powers has played way more then O'Neil but 2 Italians teams (rumor) have not seen enough to bid for his transfer. Sounds like O'Neil was a fire sale dump. You don't improve transfer value by not playing them, sure when deal is close teams sometimes pull players for injury concerns but from day 1, O'Neil was not in Rapids plans this year. Look at his quote showing his confusion on his lack of playing time. Anyways best of luck to him, bet they have more wins in a couple of weeks then Rapids will get this year. Maybe we can see him one last time in Denver with the U-23 qualifier (Olympics) this fall.
Actually its just the final camp before the qualifiers, they haven't announced the qualifying roster yet (but good bet he'll be on it).
BREAKING: Shane O'Neill has been loaned from Appollon Limassol to Royal Mouscron in the Belgian Pro League @MLSTransfers @the18soccer— RK (@RyanKoenigsberg) August 29, 2015 koenigsberg orginally broke the story about Shane heading to Apollon so it's reasonable to assume he's got this one right, too. Side note, Belguim was the consistent rumor I heard for weeks and weeks before Shane signed with Apollon, which caught me by surprise. I'm a little baffled why Apollon is loaning him out. It's not like he was quick grab and sign in order to finagle passport limitations considering he possesses dual citizenship.