What I heard is that Apollon bought him as an investment, nothing more. They weren't planning to ever have him play in Cyprus but they hope he improves in Belgium and they can sell him on for a profit.
The ironic thing is Royal Mouscron was just purchased by one of the controversial men in all of football. Israeli super agent, Pini Zahavi, who's been at the forefront of some must lucratative and controversial transfers in football. I know at one time their was an association with Chelsea and he was part of the collapse at Portsmouth. I was reading earlier that essentially he purchased Royal Mouscron to be a feeder club as a way he could circumvent FIFA's crack down on 3rd party ownership of players. Their current roster is loaded with young players and only a handful over 23 yrs old. At least on paper, Shane fits what they are going for: young talent that could eventually move onto bigger, better clubs for a profit. I would be willing to bet Royal has some sort of clause to receive a portion of a sell-on fee if Shane were catch the eye of a bigger club. If all this is true call me interested. I just hope to God, for Shane's sake, he's not getting himself involved in something similar to Traffic Sports.
http://www.noshortcorners.com/2015/08/belgian-stuff.html Greg Selzter, the man when it comes to Yanks Abroad, has reported that Shane has fully transferred from Apollon to Royal Mouscron. He singed a 2-yr. deal and will report to Belgium as soon as he concludes U-23 duty with the US. Seltzer also mentioned he should have the full story on the strange sequence of events. Stay tuned..................
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...hane-oneill-signs-royal-mo?module=from_footer Official announcement. This was an odd one. I'm not sure I get what Apollon was doing, unless they thought his Irish passport didn't exist or something was wrong with it.
Certainly a head scratcher, that's for damn sure. The only thing I can conceivably think of is that Apollon were not aware of his dual passport. But the again that would raise eyebrows because that would clearly indicate they didn't complete due diligence on the player. I don't know. This whole thing smells fishy. Greg Seltzer, the Yank abroad guru, will surely find out. I am interested in how this all went down. For Shane's sake, I hope he didn't get into something that's going to have adverse effects down the road --- i.e. all the Traffic Sports players that were screwed beyond belief.
Interview with Shane: O’Neill didn’t ask to be transferred, but does think the midseason switch was the best move for both parties. “I think it was good for both parties and I’m happy with what’s happened since.” I hope he gets lots of playtime.
Commentator on the U-21 England vs U-23 USMNT game impressed with O'Neill. Might have been subbed out at the 60th minute, hard to tell, both teams basically swapped out all their players. But yeah, couldn't get a sniff with us this season.
Heck Rapids dismissed him from practices before his "transfer", there is much more to this story then MLS fluff piece.
I'm guessing that O'Neill got his way and the RFO is taking the high road. No proof, that's just how it smells to me.
O'Neil started and was Captain of U-23 game vs England, in report I read he was one of the stars for USA. I will be interested to see the story guy talked about on Twitter: This seems a strange story I will definitely get to you next week at MLSS, but Shane O'Neill has moved on a full transfer from Cypriot outfit Apollon Limassol to Belgium's Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz. He signed a two-year deal last night and will join the club once he is done with US Under-23 duty. A report is coming to MLSS in a bit. , my understanding is when he returned from USMNT camp it quickly became obvious he was not even in Rapids 18 plans. Thought he could work his way back on team but slowly discovered otherwise. Other Rapids players were also confused on his lack of opportunity to get into opening XI. Things deteriorated from there with Rapids "excusing him from practices" (kicked out in other words), Rapids then dumped him to highest bidder (not much) given his complete lack of playing time. Seems PM has huge preference for long term Vet players which is yet another contradiction with front office.
The flip side I've heard from many non-Rapids sources is that he came back from the Nats with an entitlement attitude and never lost it, so never got on the field. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
Also between here and Facebook I've seen definitive claims that the move to Belgium was a loan and a full sale. It would be nice to have some accurate reporting from somebody actually paid to do it.
Denver Post is quoting Shane saying that the Belgian loan opportunity came around shortly after the transfer to Apollon Limassol was finalized (so full sale to Cyprus and then a one year loan to Belgium). O'Neill also stated that "U-23 coach Andy Herzog was in discussion with the former Rapids defender throughout his transfer and was very supportive of the move". Wonder if Rapids get commission should Apollon Limassol eventually sell O'Neill? (That would be nice)