Akil Watts at RCD Mallorca

I'd advise him to ditch portland, but noooot for spain.

 

The Portland u19s next match is a week from today. First match since December. Will tell a lot if he is still in Spain on Jan 27th.

 

Segunda B Group 3. So third tier but not third division. Mallorca leads the Group by 4 points (over Vila-real B, no less).

 

A few things here.

First off, Akil's instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/akil.watts/) has Mallorca in his bio, so I feel pretty confident in saying he's signed there. I think if George Acosta signs, which also seems likely, it would make sense to have a joint thread considering how hard it will be to find information regularly.

Now, just for general club information, RCD Mallorca plays in Segunda Division B, which is the third division of Spain, featuring 4 regional leagues of 20 teams. Their B team plays in the Tercera Division, which is the 4th highest division. I assume they'll start there, especially considering they'd be the youngest players by a couple of years on the first team if they did join.

Mallorca is a fairly large club (they rank 18th in the all time la liga table), and played in La Liga from 97/98 to 12/13, and were relegated again last year.

Notably, they were bought by Robert Sarver in 2016, who is also the owner of the Phoenix Suns, who also shares his investment with notable soccer fan and honorary American Steve Nash, who has a large role with the club. He says that he makes trips over to the club twice a year, and is generally the bridge between the ownership and the rest of the club, among other things. Rafael Nadal also supports the team, giving it money from time to time.

This is a club that, as Americans, could be really awesome to follow and support. I suspect that Nash being the face of the ownership has something to do with Akil and George trialing/signing there.

 

RCD Mallorca looking at one, maybe two, #usynt this month.

— Joey (@USAprospects) January 23, 2018

Where did you hear that Acosta is trailing here?

 

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/george-acosta-in-argentina.2014320/

Where else?

 

When Watts and Acosta inevitably part ways, who gets to keep the thread???

 

Up to the lawyers, of course!

And who says it's inevitable? Only 50% of thread merges end in divorce.

 

Hey, if you want to bet on two academy youth players both becoming One Club Men, just give me the odds!

 

Mallorca is gone from the Instagram bio, and he posted something from Madrid with Rayo Vallecano in there.

And here's something from Twitter...

971429391535427584 is not a valid tweet id

 

Back in Spain and back with Rayo Vallecano.

 

He's listed as unattached in a new U19 YNT roster.

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...an-ukraine-and-czech-republic-in-slovakia-cup

 

Akil is set to sign with RCD Mallorca tomorrow 7/9/18 at 1245 pm et. You can live stream the signing here: https://www.facebook.com/FWPLEX/pho...203459275232/1917390958323131/?type=3&theater

I personally know Akil and know that our hometown club coach, Bobby Poursanidis, has a relationship with RCD Mallorca and brought Akil to the clubs attention. Some of our Fort Wayne United teams toured over in Spain which kick started this relationship. He has a bright future and is a great young signing for Mallorca.

Mallorca also just won the segunda B group leaders playoffs, so they will be in the 2nd tier professional league in Spain, La Liga 2 this coming season. I see Akil playing many games for their B squad in his first year, but having an opportunity to train and potentially making the roster for the A squad.

 

Also, Akil has confirmed he is the only American and that he will be starting out w the B team.

 

And he won't have to leave the islands to play any of those games. Not a bad place to live at all.

 

For anyone who didn't believe him, like me:
Life isn't fair.

 

If so, this means that Benji Machini has moved on after playing for the reserve team for a few years.

 

I’ll be there this Friday - and I’ll hunt you down if you’re lying

 

Watts has been called up to the US U19 team. However, he is listed as unattached. Hopefully his stint at Mallorca goes better than Emmanuel Sabbi's stint at Las Palmas.

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...19mnt-u20-mens-invitational-venezuela-jamaica