Just addressed on the broadcast: he never spent 12 or more consecutive months in the academy prior to turning 18.
Bertin Jacquesson at #16. Frech winger, former teammate of Jasper, GA deal. I think he'll count as an internation player.
Rivera is the 35th HG at RSL. https://www.rsl.com/news/rsl-sign-defender-luis-rivera-as-homegrown-player
Pierre is the 36th HG. He appears to be a CB. Took the college path, so maybe Pablo intends to play him. https://www.rsl.com/news/rsl-brings-delentz-pierre-back-to-utah
A third guy named Pierre in the system? We had those two guys who played in the USOC last year, Pierre Reedy and Bobby Pierre, and now this fellow. EDIT: Bobby is his brother.
I'd be curious to know how close this guy is to getting a green card given he's been in the US as long as he has with Pitt. Hopefully that international slot doesn't have to be used on him long
Here's my concern: I remember reading a year or so ago that international status can't change during the year. If you use an international spot at the beginning of the season, it's there all season. I get we need to take chances with guys in the draft, but we only have 7 spots to work with. How often can you be drafting guys if they take a spot for more than one season? Also, because he's GA, he takes a supplemental spot unless loaned out. Makes me question why guys like Holt are brought back, he uses a supplemental spot, too. We sign all these HGs, but then they can't play (listed as unavailable) because we don't have room on the roster. I'm just hoping we get answers as to who takes what roster spot this year, especially the HGs and internationals.
Looks like arguably the Monarchs two best players, Aziz Kayondo and Golden Mafwenta, are not with the group. They were both in a tough spot - good enough that they'd probably be in demand elsewhere, not quite good enough to justify the international slot it'd take to sign them. If international slots weren't an issue I'd have signed Kayondo for sure, but it's just hard to justify an international slot on a backup left back. Though I shouldn't rule them out signing with the first team after all.
Gomez finalized. 4 years!!! with 1 year option. U22. Reports were $4mil transfer fee. Not sure what his salary will be. Probably in the range of being able to use TAM to buy him down from DP status? So, I guess he & Savarino can switch sides as needed. This should put Chang and Meram as 1st off the bench type of guys. I'm still worried about our CF situation. Hopefully Moose can step it up this year for 60, and Anderson Julio can come on at 60 to devastate at will.
I really think we will see a DP level signing at the striker position in the coming weeks with a quality CB being signed also. Cannot imagine this new ownership group not wanting to make a big splash in their first full year in charge.
(x) doubt. Edit: also we already had our quality CB signing. Did you miss Holts contract extension lol
The club seems fine using an international slot on a developmental (at best) forward drafted from college… this is just bad roster building and bad club pipeline promoting
Sam Stejskal said on Twitter it's $3.1m for 80% (Millonarios retains a 20% sell-on). He's under contract for 5 years (through 2027) with an option for 2028. U-22 Initiative says players can't make more than the roster max (~$650k this year), but hit the salary budget at $150k or $200k depending on their age. No TAM is needed. Really glad to see them using the U22 initiative the way it's intended. Hope to see a couple more moves like this, this year. I'm not asking for $10m players, but I won't complain if that's what they decide to do.
Quick math says that RSL has an outgoing $3.2m on senior roster spot players. They have only brought in Gomez to the senior roster, budget hit of $150k. They may have given some raises to Silva, MacMath, Gomez and Chang, but there should still be a fair amount of money in the budget to make some significant additions. Don't know if Holt will hit the senior roster or not.
An interesting name in RSL's preseason camp - Moses Nyeman started our preseason game against LAFC. He signed with DC United at 15. Got some decent playing time with DC and then signed with Blitzer-owned SK Beveren in Belgium. A lot of people thought Nyeman went to Europe too early and he never got minutes for Beveren. In fact the player he sat on the bench behind was Everton Luiz. But he's still only 19 and is really talented - there's potential that he could be a cheap reclamation project. I'm guessing ~90% of our CM minutes this year will be some combination of Ruiz, Ojeda, and Loeffelsend, but Nyeman could still find some minutes ahead of Caldwell if he impresses.
Is he a classic 6 or more of an 8? RSL's midfield is pretty full. He'd start for the Monarchs though. Interesting byproduct of the dissolution of the Allocation order already for RSL.
Probably a bit more 8 than 6. Haven't seen him play much but when I have he's got a good motor, good defensively, very good at dribbling through pressure. Stylistically I've seen him compared to N'Golo Kante. Like I said, he was sitting on the bench behind Everton Luiz in Belgium so I wouldn't expect a lot of minutes in 2023. But if he gets occasional minutes with the first-team and some Monarchs minutes to develop he could end up being a steal.
To say a bit more about Nyeman, he was considered an elite prospect for a while. He was starting for DC United as a teenager and made the US provisional squad for the 2021 Gold Cup. He didn't make the final squad but he was only 17 at the time, and making the prelim squad was really impressive. He even got a profile from the Guardian as one of the world's top '03 talents. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...0-of-the-best-young-talents-in-world-football But by 2022 he'd fallen out of favor at DC, and then he couldn't even make the bench for a Belgian second tier team. Sometimes that happens to young phenoms - we probably all remember Luis Gil, and how excited we were that he played well at 18 before dropping off the face of the earth. My feeling is we shouldn't give up on a player at age 19. Maybe the talent is still there and we help him get his head on straight. If we can get Nyeman back to the trajectory he was on at one point, bringing him in could be an absolute steal.