Sporting sign Italian midfielder, Jose Mauri https://www.sportingkc.com/news/sporting-kc-signs-25-year-old-midfielder-jose-mauri
Frankowski transferred to RC Lens in France for a reported 3 million. Dzięki, Frankie! Best of luck in France.— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) August 5, 2021 In Revs news: Club Brugge and the New England Revolution have agreed in principle for a deal around $7m for Tajon Buchanan, I’m told. Would have a loan back to NE for the season 🇧🇪 🇨🇦The deal is NOT done yet. No agreement on personal terms w/ Buchanan. Two Bundesliga clubs still in the race— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) August 5, 2021 Oh, and the Whitecaps signed someone: One of Ecuador's brightest young talents ⭐️Welcome to Vancouver, @PedroVite99 🇪🇨#VWFC— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) August 5, 2021
Ebobisse to Quakes official. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/offi...re-jeremy-ebobisse-from-portland-timbers-in-b
I'm trying to figure out why there was such a specific number for that allocation money. Not $650k in GAM this year. Not $675k or $700k. No. $667k. That is an oddly specific GAM amount.
Culture shock? Perhaps. But he could very well end up finding heartland life to his liking and benefiting from the cultural experience.
Probably just the result of negotiation. Portland asks for $750k or $800k for 2023 and SJ offers $500k or $550k and they agree to basically split the difference at $667k. The SJ press release notes that there is a $50k in GAM performance incentive bonus. Not sure if the performance is # of goals, minutes played, all star appearance, etc, so hard to know if that will get paid. Also interesting, the Portland press release states "Portland will retain a small portion of the player’s 2021 salary budget charge." The SJ release states "Portland will retain a portion of the player’s 2021 salary budget charge." So to Portland the budget amount is "small" but SJ doesn't quantify the amount. Subtle amounts of spin on the deal from each side.
PS. ESPN is reporting that Portland is picking up Ebobisse's salary for the rest of 2021 of $167k which makes the total outlay from SJ an even $1mil for the trade. Apparently, to Portland, $167k is a "small portion" of Ebobisse's salary. San Jose trades for Timbers' Ebobisse, sending $1m in allocation money to Portland (espn.com)
NEWS: #SportingKC transfers @gbusio13 to Serie A side @VeneziaFC_EN in club-record deal.📰: https://t.co/XP06LDEGaG pic.twitter.com/ftHznrKJWN— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) August 5, 2021 Busio heads to Venice
Additionally, the Sounders have signed Leo Chu (accents that I don't have on this keyboard on multiple vowels) from Gremio as a U22 player. Also, the Dynamo sent Jose Bizama to the Charlotte Independence (possibly a trial of sorts for Charlotte FC for next year?) in order to sign Aldalberto Carrasquilla on loan from FC Cartegena.
Window is now closed so only deals that went through prior to 8 PM can be completed or if the player was out of contract by that point (hola Messi!). Bunch of rumored things that haven't been announced but Darren Eales posted a gif on twitter like he does before most signings. Looking at the comments it is a gif of Hugh Grant from the movie Love, Actually. There was a rumor this morning they had an offer accepted for 12 million to purchase Luiz Araujo's rights. So, it sort of checks out. And in case you don't know who he is (and I didn't) he is a 25 year old Brazilian that started 22 games (and appeared in 37 total) across all competitions for the team that won Ligue 1 last year. But, as with anything with Atlanta this week, who knows what is actually going on down there.
Atlanta confirmed the Araujo signing. He'll take over Franco's DP slot once the latter is bought down, and then the Brazilian will essentially slot in the role everyone hoped Jurgen Damm could fill. I'm still leery of why he would want to leave Lille and the UCL (assuming Lille wanted to keep him) but that's done and dusted now. Now it's a matter of hoping he acclimates to Atlanta and MLS. Local suspicion is that Argentine Thiago Almada will be brought on in January, essentially as Barco's replacement.
Lille needs money as they are in financial trouble. Their majority investor/owner was forced out, he was also forced to sell his stake in Portuguese power Boavista too. A good portion of the French League is in financial trouble. Interesting that Atlanta is bringing in high priced players when they don;'t know who their next coach will be.
BTW, for all the talk we've had here about players leaving under option years because "team options" aren't a thing that can be enforced and some have suggested its an American thing, Sam Vines was signed by Royal Antwerp to a 3 year deal with an additional team option year.
Ramon Abila apparently is changing Uniteds...Minnesota to DC...to complete his loan. Since all contracts are owned by the league, this is allowed after the window is closed because it's a loan.
Thanks for the insight, and props for the Dodgeball reference! As for Atlanta, they know they need help in a few areas and the fan base has been hounding them to get better. Couldn't afford to wait on a coach in this instance, and they already know they're looking for a coach that will match their intended style (read: attacking) of play. Admin office admitted they failed in due diligence in that regard for Heinze, and have been (allegedly) more particular in their investigations thus far. Hopefully they've done the same thing in investigating the player in this regard. By all accounts Araujo should be a positive addition, I just hope he can adapt to Atlanta vs life in Lille.
That's great. When Atlanta came into the league they worked with Tata to bring in players to play his style and system. Now they are bringing in players to........just spend money and appease fans? Y'all lived through the de Boer debacle, and now the Heinze error. It just feels like Atlanta is putting the cart before the horse. It also feels like Arthur's millions are burning a hole in Bocanegra's pocket and he just wants to spend spend spend. Araujo is likely a very good player and will bring talent to the roster. Atlanta needs to be sure their next coach will get on with him and Martinez, because if that coach doesn't.....Atlanta's post Tata hangover will continue.
I'm not saying they're making the right decision, per se, but no one will disagree with the notion that the roster right now is both not good enough and banged up. Barco isn't good enough to warrant his DP status but is paid too much to change that right now. That and other roster moves made last year set the club back, regardless of the coach. This move at least fills a need and the team can afford it, especially if it keeps the support intact. Meanwhile, I think a lot of folks are coming around to the notion that Atlanta was very fortunate in what they assembled in '18 and '19. They caught some players in peak form (Josef, Almiron...), had very capable and experienced on field leadership (Parkhurst, Larentowicz), and had role fillers who came good (Gressel, Villalba...). Some of that was by design, some of it good luck. They kind of fell into landing Nagbe, who wasn't high on Tata's radar. Bottom line, this may be less a drop off in the ATL front office as much as the typical expansion learning curve arriving after some great fortune. #BocaOut is VERY popular among locals right now. But I digress.
Likely they'll just say the paperwork was done prior to the window being closed. The "rules" of MLS say that you can only trade players during a window and technically this is a trade (just a very weird one that I've never seen before). Other confirmed moves so far are: Niko Hamalainen on loan at the Galaxy (he played for LAFC in their inaugural year), Tyler Blackett to FCC, Sebastien Ibeagha traded from NYCFC to LAFC, Florian Jungwirth traded from SJ to Vancouver, and Lucas Monzón to NYRB on a year and a half loan. Additionally, Vancouver sent Theo Bair on loan to HamKam in Norway and Chicago is supposed to be adding Federico Navarro (likely as a U22 signing). Edit: and sort of MLS related. Albert Elis' move to Bordeaux from Boavista is supposedly being held up by FIFA. Rumor is that they are making sure that Boavista actually pays MLS what they still owe before allowing it through.
Was actually their second season. Looks like he only appeared 4-5 times at the beginning of the season. Purely a depth move for the Galaxy I think. We don't really have a back up to Villafana at left back and now this guy is here. He is American so no issues with international slots.
The Rapids announced the expected loan deal for LB Lucas Esteves from Palmeiras today. Loan through June '22 with option to buy.
This one got in under the wire, reported $5 million transfer fee for Federico Navarro to provide cover for the Fire's shaky defense. He becomes the 4th player from Tailleres to join MLS recently (Pochettino, Mauri, Fragapane).