Soccer <\/p>\n
Winter transfer windows are open around the globe. MLS players start reporting for preseason in a matter of hours. There are a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous, and a lot of strands to keep in our heads as we count down to the opening day of the 2025 season, when it comes to trades, transfers and other roster updates.<\/p>\n
What have your favorite team and\/or their adversaries been up to? Here\u2019s a rundown of this week\u2019s major marketplace moves.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
A complex set of moving parts clicked into place for the Seattle Sounders<\/a> as their acquisition of versatile attacker Jes\u00fas Ferreira<\/a>, MLS\u2019s Young Player of the Year in 2022, from FC Dallas<\/a> in exchange for winger L\u00e9o Ch\u00fa<\/a>, up to $2.3 million in General Allocation Money (GAM), an international roster spot and other considerations finally went official<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n A day later, the Rave Green secured another foundational piece by re-signing<\/a> Designated Player Albert Rusn\u00e1k<\/a>. Based on general manager Craig Waibel\u2019s hints in a midweek media availability, they\u2019ll probably announce the acquisition of another FCD veteran, winger Paul Arriola<\/a>, any day now. Waibel also revealed that striker Jordan Morris<\/a>\u2019 productivity levels have triggered clauses that make him a full DP for the remaining three years of his current contract.<\/p>\n We\u2019d sum it up thusly: The league\u2019s most consistently competitive club of the past decade have chosen roster continuity and MLS experience over the exciting but risky alternative of splashing out on pricey imports. Go read the full breakdown<\/a> over at Sounder At Heart<\/em>, the gold standard in independent local coverage, for more on the \u201cWaibel method.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Adding some firepower to the attack ???? pic.twitter.com\/OAEOdM87Ho<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) January 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Down in central Texas, the prospects for 2025 took a marked upswing as Austin FC<\/a> unveiled their new club-record signing<\/a>, US international Brandon Vazquez<\/a>. The big No. 9 arrives from LIGA MX giants CF Monterrey for a reported $10 million fee, with a hunger to shoulder face-of-the-franchise responsibilities in the river city as the Verde, who missed out on the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs last season, seek a swift turnaround under new head coach Nico Est\u00e9vez.<\/p>\n “I know my qualities, and I know what I can bring to the team,” Vazquez, a Supporters\u2019 Shield winner and Best XI honoree with FC Cincinnati<\/a>, told MLSsoccer.com<\/a>. “I\u2019ve got to dream. And to me, in my head, with the group and the kind of players that we have, we can have some great success.”<\/p>\n His recruitment will be even more crucial if widespread reports of Sebasti\u00e1n Driussi<\/a> \u2013 Austin\u2019s showpiece in their first four years of existence \u2013 being on the verge of a similarly sizable move from ATX to River Plate prove accurate.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n What a welcome for our new No. 9\ufe0f\u20e3! pic.twitter.com\/dQyLaYcW5o<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Austin FC (@AustinFC) January 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n It\u2019s not too often you see a Designated Player traded within the league<\/a>, let alone for the extremely modest sum of $50,000 in GAM, plus a sell-on percentage. That\u2019s the deal CF Montr\u00e9al<\/a> swung with New England<\/a> for Giacomo Vrioni<\/a> on Tuesday, a transaction that underlines both how eager the Revolution were to shed the underperforming Albanian international forward to open up a DP slot and how differently CFM do business from most of the rest of MLS.<\/p>\n In recent years Montr\u00e9al have tapered down their discretionary spending, preferring to seek out undervalued assets they can burnish in-house, the likes of Romell Quioto, Djordje Mihailovic<\/a> and Caden Clark<\/a>. Now they reckon Vrioni is worth a flyer. As excellent local beat writer Jean-Fran\u00e7ois T\u00e9otonio writes<\/a> (in French) for La Presse<\/em>: “CFM has shown that it is capable of bringing out the best in players whose path, until their arrival in Quebec, has not been perfectly mapped out.”<\/p>\n That mindset also drove a bigger bet on Jalen Neal<\/a>, the LA Galaxy<\/a>\u2019s highly talented, but work-in-progress, homegrown center back. At age 21, with European and US men\u2019s national team<\/a> ambitions on his mind, Neal needs to be starting regularly in MLS, and MTL offers that in a way the freshly-crowned MLS Cup champs cannot. Hence his Monday arrival<\/a> via a hefty trade package headlined by $650,000 in GAM.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2014 CF Montr\u00e9al (@cfmontreal) January 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Seven goals, five assists and 26 key passes in 1,959 regular-season minutes amid an overall down year for Sporting Kansas City<\/a> might seem like a decent enough \u201824 for Alan Pulido<\/a>, if viewed in a context-free vacuum. Something similar could be said of his 35g\/16a across five campaigns in the Midwest, one of them spent entirely on the IR due to surgery to repair a cartilage defect in his knee.<\/p>\n Taken in full, however, most observers were bearish on the Mexico international\u2019s prospects of inspiring an SKC rebound from last year\u2019s 27th-place finish in the Supporters’ Shield table, especially with his 34th birthday looming in just a few weeks. There have just been more bummers than breakthroughs since the striker\u2019s reported club-record $9.5 million arrival from Chivas Guadalajara in 2020, and MLS Players Association documents indicate he was on one of MLS\u2019s biggest salaries following a 2023 contract renewal, with guaranteed compensation more than double that of Sporting\u2019s second-highest earner.<\/p>\n So the late Tuesday night news<\/a> that Chivas swooped in with a fee in the low seven figures to bring him back to Estadio Akron was welcomed by many of the KC faithful. Can they mobilize that newfound flexibility in the days to come?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Grateful for our time together. Wishing you all the best in your career, Alan ????#SportingKC<\/a> | @alanpulido<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/zBPEQ7sBit<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) January 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n With from-scratch expansion projects like San Diego FC<\/a>\u2019s, roster construction can serve as a de facto countdown clock from the inaugural signing, which the Chrome-and-Azul made just over a year ago, to opening day, a massive landmark which is now a mere six weeks away.<\/p>\n This week, SDFC swung a trade<\/a> with the Revs for winger Ema Boateng<\/a> and signed Franco Negri<\/a>, an Argentine left back whose rights they picked up<\/a> in the Re-Entry Draft. These veterans won\u2019t spark headlines like tentpole attraction Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano<\/a> or Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, whom they\u2019ve reportedly courted at length. They\u2019re experienced hands who can help steady the ship on what history tells us is likely a stormy voyage ahead.<\/p>\n Negri could turn out to be an inspired acquisition, having gotten eclipsed by Jordi Alba<\/a>\u2019s considerable shadow at Inter Miami<\/a>. And there\u2019s beautiful symbolism in Boateng joining San Diego, given he\u2019s an alumnus of Right to Dream, the aspirational academy program founded in his native Ghana a quarter-century ago, which has since blossomed into a global development network of which SDFC is the latest and perhaps most intriguing outpost.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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