Don Garber's MLS Crew: 2017-18 MLS Offseason Thread

Titans Bastard

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The offseason is way more entertaining than it used to be.


Some creativity is added to LAFC's midfield. KC is really going to need to go out and sign someone. They have some relatively competent attackers, but no real difference-makers. If they don't add some attacking quality, they are go to be so unwatchably Vermes-ish next season.
 

Titans Bastard

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Schedule is out:
https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/schedule

Timbers at Revolution is when the Red Sox are on the road, so I'll probably continue to wait to make the trip out there. I'd really like to double up and see both.
If you are used to the atmosphere at Timbers games, you're going to love the Gillette Stadium Experience!

On the TV schedule, the usual teams are going to be dominating the national telecasts:

16: ATL, LAFC
14: NYRB, NYC
13: LAG, SEA, ORL
12: POR, DC

Which all makes sense - these are clubs from big markets and/or clubs with good atmospheres. (And DC United - but they are opening a new stadium.) Atlanta is the most popular home team and NYCFC is the most popular road team, which makes sense because they are a "name" but soccer in Yankee Stadium looks really bad on TV

The Revs are on TV twice, both on the road, tied with Minnesota for last place among US clubs.
 

Titans Bastard

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Imagining MLS after Garber

This is a really good article about Garber's legacy - acknowledging both what Garber has done to move the league forward and how he is now creating problems (Columbus) and not solving others (the insane web of league rules).
 

Titans Bastard

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MLS signs six college underclassmen to Generation Adidas contracts.


Once upon a time, this was a big deal. Now, so many American prospects get fished out of the amateur pool by going pro abroad or by signing homegrown contracts that it's much more of a sideshow, along with the draft. In fact, Mason Toye is the only GA player out of the six that is actually American. Among the senior signings, Hilliard-Arce is said to be the most MLS-ready player in the draft. He's a CB.

MLS should really just remove all restrictions and let underclassmen enter the draft. Or even abolish the draft entirely.

And yeah...that's a different Portuguese Joao Moutinho.
 

Titans Bastard

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Colorado announced the signing of Edgar Castillo and Wolves' Jack Price today. Price looks uninspiring, a rarely-used Championship bench player. Castillo should be fine, if unexciting, at LB.

NYRB signed an academy player Ben Mines, a 17 year old attacking players from Ridgefield, CT.

Vancouver sold Canadian left back Sam Adekugbe to Vålerenga. Adekugbe is an academy product who just doesn't want to be with the Whitecaps and had been loaned out a couple of times before finally being sold.

DC acquired Danish goalkeeper David Ousted from Vancouver. He'll compete with Steve Clark for the starting job; both would probably be serviceable but below-average starters in 2018.
 

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Titans Bastard

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Saw it somewhere that I couldn't copy/link, but it looks like the Revs have signed an international LB of Syrian/Swedish background from a club in Sweden.

Anyone have information on whether this is promising or "Revs being Revs"? I know LB was listed as a chance to improve the squad.
He's been a rotational starter for a team that finished 8th and 5th in the last two seasons in the Allsvenskan. I've never seen him play and don't know much about him from a qualitative standpoint, but players with that resume have tended to be something less than a resounding success in MLS.
 

Titans Bastard

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There were several signings across MLS today.

1. RSL signed RB Adam Henley on a free. Henley is a Welsh-American who made his EPL debut at age 17 for Blackburn. He played a bit in the Championship, but his career has been badly derailed by injury. At one point he was the subject of some dual national tug-of-war interest. He's a potentially interesting reclamation project. Normal starter Tony Beltran will be injured for a while, so he'll compete with Aaron Herrera and maybe Jordan Allen for playing time.

2. LA Galaxy signed Perry Kitchen from Randers. Kitchen's Euro adventure was underwhelming ever since he was named captain at Hearts. He fell out of favor, then moved to a bad Danish club. He could definitely be useful for LA, the hopes that he'd be a USMNT player are long dead.

3. Minnesota United signed Cameroonian attacking midfielder Franck Pangop. He's a true mystery man, coming from Union Douala in his home country. He spent a year in the Swedish lower divisions in 2014, but recently has worked his way into Cameroon's national team in late 2017.

4. Yet another Venezuelan signing....this time it's Eduardo Sosa, a 21 year old attacking midfielder who signed with Columbus. 6g/6a for Zamora in the Venezuelan league last year.
 

Titans Bastard

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Wow, the Revs now have as many full-time scouting employees as the entire US men's national team!

https://www.revolutionsoccer.net/post/2018/01/10/revolution-name-remi-roy-director-scouting-player-personnel

My snark aside, I think it's a huge (and belated) step forward for the club. Hopefully, this allows the Revs to target foreign players outside of FC Sion.
Yes, this is an important and long overdue move. Hopefully Roy is good at scouting! It sounds like he has been involved with the occasional-scouting-by-committee system the Revs have used in the past.
 

Titans Bastard

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Today has been a day for homegrown player signings:

  • Chicago signed CB Grant Lillard from Indiana. He's considered one of the most MLS-ready players in college. Chicago needs to throw some money at some of their ex-academy underclassmen like Cam Lindley and Andrew Gutman to rescue them from another year of NCAA ball.
  • NYRB signed FW Amando Moreno, which is a bit of a throwback. Moreno originally signed from the academy in 2013, but walked after one season and has played sparingly with Tijuana in recent years.
  • Dallas signed CB/RB Kris Reaves from Portland. Depth for now. Hopefully a modest signing such as this means that they intend for Reggie Cannon to play a lot at RB this year.
 

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"GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle caught up with Jonathan Kraft, President of the Kraft Group, who said they are moving forward with the effort to develop a soccer-only stadium and anticipate having the stadium plan completed by the end of the year."

Stop me if you've heard that one before.
 

Titans Bastard

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The Revs signed a DM in a deal that included "allocation money" (unclear if TAM or GAM).

https://www.revolutionsoccer.net/post/2018/01/11/revolution-add-midfielder-wilfried-zahibo

Wilfried Zahibo is a 24 year old French DM who comes from Gimnàstic de Tarragona in the Spanish second division. He didn't seem to be a starter there. Prior to that, he spent a few years with Valencia's reserve team and made a few first team starts. If he's really a TAM salary player (>$500k or so) that's very dubious. This sums up my thoughts:



NYCFC signed 23 year old Beninese/French CB Cedric Hountondji. He comes from Gazélec Ajaccio in Ligue 2. Probably a backup to Callens and Chanot for now.

FC Dallas signed 21 year old CB Jordan Cano, a former academy player who finished his college career at SMU last month. 40% of their roster is now made up of academy products and their staff is talking about atoning for the sins of 2017, when they overemphasized mediocre veterans who failed down the stretch. (Wait, am I writing about FCD or the USMNT?)


And there's this:

 

moly99

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Yeah, but this time it's in Providence!!!
To be honest I think the team would do alright to Providence. There are 1.6 million people in the Providence metro area and the US average is roughly 1.5 million/major league team. It is also much easier/quicker to take mass transit from Boston to Providence than to Foxborough, so urbanites in Boston would actually be better off with the team in Providence.

And if we are being honest in Massachusetts the Revolution will always take a back seat to the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and Patriots. In Rhode Island they would be the biggest show in town.
 
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Titans Bastard

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The Revs aren't ever going to move to Providence.

If MLS ever gives up on Boston, the team will be sold to the next Andrew Precourt and moved to a much larger market than RI.
 

moly99

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The Revs aren't ever going to move to Providence.

If MLS ever gives up on Boston, the team will be sold to the next Andrew Precourt and moved to a much larger market than RI.
I don't think they either will or should move to Providence, but it isn't a crazy idea. Boston is 2.8 times the size of Providence but people living in Boston already have several of the most historic teams in North America to spend their disposable income on. It's like trying to sell a Ford Mustang to a guy who already owns a Ferrari, BMW and a Bentley.
 

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I don’t think a league with two teams in the NY market and two in the LA market is thinking that way. They want more presence in the country’s biggest media markets, not less.
 

moly99

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I don’t think a league with two teams in the NY market and two in the LA market is thinking that way. They want more presence in the country’s biggest media markets, not less.
New York is actually one of the most under-served major sports markets in the US on a per capita basis. I think people sometimes forget that the New York metro area is bigger than Boston, DC and Philadelphia combined.

New York: 20 million in metro area and 9 "big 4" teams (2.2_ million people/team)
Chicago: 9.5 million in metro area and 5 "big 4" teams (1.9 million people/team)
Los Angeles: 13 million in metro area and 8 "big 4" teams (1.6 million people/team)
Dallas: 6.2 million in metro area and 4 "big 4" teams (1.55 million people/team)
Boston: 4.6 million in metro area and 4 "big 4" teams (1.15 million people/team)
 

Cellar-Door

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Atlanta just murdered the MLS transfer record
I might have to go to some games next year, insane attacking talent and Tata managing
 

Titans Bastard

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The Barco transfer saga has been a soap opera for at least a month. If it goes through - and it looks like they are bringing it home now - you could argue it is the biggest signing in MLS history, at least in a certain sense. The transfer fee shatters TFC's record (Bradley) and we're talking about an 18 year old budding Argentine star, the sort of top tier talent that generally goes straight to bigger Euro clubs.

Atlanta has also assembled a very strong academy by MLS standards in very short order. That impact won't be felt at the first team level for a few years, but as an organization they are raising the bar big-time.
 

Cellar-Door

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The Barco transfer saga has been a soap opera for at least a month. If it goes through - and it looks like they are bringing it home now - you could argue it is the biggest signing in MLS history, at least in a certain sense. The transfer fee shatters TFC's record (Bradley) and we're talking about an 18 year old budding Argentine star, the sort of top tier talent that generally goes straight to bigger Euro clubs.

Atlanta has also assembled a very strong academy by MLS standards in very short order. That impact won't be felt at the first team level for a few years, but as an organization they are raising the bar big-time.
yeah, they dumped a ton of money in, and Bocanegra seems to be great at his job.
A lot of it is Tata though. No way they get the kind of talent from S.A. they have without his draw.
Almiron wrote a players tribune thing where he basically says he turned down Europe for Atlanta 100% because he wanted to play for Tata.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/miguel-almiron-atlanta-united/
 

Titans Bastard

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yeah, they dumped a ton of money in, and Bocanegra seems to be great at his job.
A lot of it is Tata though. No way they get the kind of talent from S.A. they have without his draw.
Almiron wrote a players tribune thing where he basically says he turned down Europe for Atlanta 100% because he wanted to play for Tata.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/miguel-almiron-atlanta-united/
That's absolutely true, though you have to credit the FO and Blank for landing Tata in the first place.

This will never be a major factor, but I wonder how much the atmosphere and support will help with player recruitment. Atlanta got over 48,000 fans/game last season, a number that only five EPL clubs topped in 16/17. A second-year MLS expansion team isn't a Big Club by any stretch, but that does give it some trappings of a big club feel.
 

Titans Bastard

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The rumors around Cyle Larin being sold to Beşiktaş seem rather real....

Not a huge surprise, especially after news that Dwyer signed an extension with Orlando.




NYCFC signed Ismael Tajouri, a 23 year old Libyan/Austrian attacking midfielder from Austria Wien. He seems an interesting signing.

LA Galaxy signed Brian Sylvestre, a 25 year old GK who has bounced back and forth between the MLS and the lower leagues since coming through the Whitecaps' residency program. Supposedly he was good for North Carolina FC last year. He'll back up David Bingham, anyway.

The Sounders signed Handwalla Bwana to a homegrown contract. He's a Kenyan immigrant with an interesting backstory who spent two seasons at UW. The Sounders' press release claims that he's an American citizen now, which I hadn't realized. It also claims that he was born in 1999, though other sources say he's a 1997 or 1998. If he really is 1999, that's really young for a college sophomore, and it also puts him on a more interesting trajectory. An 18 year old winger with some real skills who already has succeeded among older NCAA players?
 

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Oops. Sounds like there will be drama. This looks like a Camilo/Castillo situation where the player is forcing the issue.


Note to MLS: as the quality of player improves in the league, you're going to lose leverage.

 

Titans Bastard

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Orlando signs a 19 year old Paraguayan attacking midfielder from Cerro Porteño. According to earlier media reports, the transfer fee was somewhere in the range of $3m.

 

Titans Bastard

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Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and Revs' offseasons.

 

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Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and Revs' offseasons.

A few folks on Revs social media connected the dots and determined it was Krépin Diatta who was rumored to be sold to the Revs at a price of over NOK 20,000,000 but ended up signing with Club Brugge at a price lower than the USD 3,000,000 that the Revs had offered. Obviously recruiting European players is a tough task for any MLS side, but the Revs are playing the game on hard mode with FieldTurf and a middling record.

Oh and Lee Nguyen wants out.
 

Titans Bastard

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Yet another Venezuelan heading to MLS. This is one a 21 year old CB. If you count RSL's purchase of previously on-loan Jefferson Savarino, that's the seventh this winter. In Houston, he'll compete with Adolfo Machado, Leonardo, and Philippe Senderos.

 

Titans Bastard

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A few more moves:

  • LA Galaxy signed 26 year old Montengrin center back Emrah Klimenta, who spent the last four seasons with Sacramento Republic.
  • RSL signed 27 year old center back/utility knife Shawn Barry. He's made the rounds, having left UVA early for LASK Linz, then playing for FSV Frankfurt and Korona Kielce. It seems to be a wide open contest among Barry, Horst, and Peay as to who partners Justen Glad.
  • SJ signed 21 year old Uruguayan CB Yeferson Quintana on loan from Peñarol. I can't quite make sense of SJ's backline situation at the moment, but they have a hole to fill at CB now that Victor Bernardez has departed after a number of years.
  • SKC signed forward Zach Wright to a homegrown contract. Wright finished four years at UNC, so he's not a young uber prospect or anything. He does exemplify how aggressive KC has been in recruiting players to their academy - he's from outside Austin. In the last 1-2 years, they've also signed academy players originally recruited from Nashville, Johnson City, Carbondale IL, and Hungary.
 

Titans Bastard

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Today's haul:

  • Vancouver signed 29 year old Mexican DM/RB Efrain Juarez from Monterrey. He should be a very useful player for them.
  • Orlando and Chicago completed a trade in which the Fire received young Portuguese right back Rafael Ramos and some cash while Orlando got the rights to, and signed, CM Cam Lindley. Lindley was a sophomore at UNC and is considered one of the best prospects in college soccer, for whatever that's worth. Despite coming through the Fire's academy, he has a beef with the organization and wouldn't sign for them, but they did manage to get a little value for his rights.
  • Montreal signed 22 year old Canadian fullback Michael Petrasso, who had recently terminated his contract with QPR.
  • Philly signed a pair of 18 year olds to homegrown contracts. Left back Matthew Real was on a USL deal with Bethlehem Steel last year. Center back Mark McKenzie was a freshman at Wake Forest. Supposedly Real will get a shot at LB in preseason. I have to imagine McKenzie will spend the year getting reps in the USL.
  • SKC signed 22 year old Argentina CB Emiliano Amor on loan from Velez Sarsfield. Backup to Besler and the ever-fragile Ike Opara.
 

MetSox1

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David Accam to my Philadelphia Union. Shortly after re-signing Andre Blake.

That's a solid start to 3-4 moves they need to be making just to be competitive.

And they need to re-sign Accam to a new deal as his expires this year. All of this will happen when pigs fly.
 

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In a gee wizz, that's kind of cool.....Wyatt Ohmsberg went #15 to MNUFC - a local kid from here in ME that my son played along side and was apparently a beast at the collegiate level (Dartmouth). Allegedly, he "would have been a top 5 pick" if he had gone to a major college program.
 

Titans Bastard

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David Accam to my Philadelphia Union. Shortly after re-signing Andre Blake.

That's a solid start to 3-4 moves they need to be making just to be competitive.

And they need to re-sign Accam to a new deal as his expires this year. All of this will happen when pigs fly.
I've seen some reporting this evening that Accam is now under contract for a longer period of time.


Lots of big stuff happening tonight...

 

Titans Bastard

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In a gee wizz, that's kind of cool.....Wyatt Ohmsberg went #15 to MNUFC - a local kid from here in ME that my son played along side and was apparently a beast at the collegiate level (Dartmouth). Allegedly, he "would have been a top 5 pick" if he had gone to a major college program.
Omsberg is said to be pretty good, but in my experience reviews of college players are fairly unreliable because the season is so short, there are so many programs, and almost nobody has a complete grasp of everything that's going on. He'll probably make Minnesota's squad (and if not, some USL team will definitely sign him), which would make him Maine's first pro since Roger Levesque retired.


On the Revs' front, the team selected Brandon Bye and Mark Segbers, two college forwards who apparently are both expected to be fullback conversion projects in the pros. It's a little odd to take similar players in back-to-back picks, but I guess we'll see what happens. Friedel was said to want Mason Toye, a freshman forward from Indiana, but Minnesota took him right before the Revs picked.

Only about five players from last year's draft were real contributors in Year One (Danladi, Yueill, Nerwinski, Gressel, Elliott) with a bunch of others playing a little bit here and there. More will emerge in 2018, but the draft just isn't much of a source of talent now. I doubt the 2018 draft will prove to be all that much stronger.
 

Titans Bastard

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A few other moves...

  • NYCFC signed 27 y.o. Norwegian forward/winger Jo Inge Berget from Malmö. He seems like a sensible sort of signing. David Villa is getting old (though he hasn't yet showed signs of slowing down). It would be useful to have a solid backup who can also be in contention to start on the wing. NYCFC's attack is looking very deep at this point.
  • Salvadoran midfielder Darwin Ceren was traded from San Jose to Houston in exchange for some allocation money. SJ has accumulated too many central midfielders and needed to dump at least one. Ceren's an okay player, but unremarkable - hopefully younger guys like Jackson Yueill and Tommy Thompson get a little more run instead. Houston needs depth since Rico Clarks seems like he won't be back.
  • Minnesota United acquired GK Matt Lampson from Chicago as part of a draft day trade. Lampson started a bunch of games for the Fire, but mostly because their expected starter Jorge Bava was mostly old and bad and injured. He'll back up Bobby Shuttleworth. Not sure what the Fire plans to do. Right now Richard Sanchez would be their top keeper, but he's pretty unproven and they have an even less proven keeper behind him. They'll probably sign a veteran, either to start over Sanchez or, if they like Sanchez, a mediocre veteran as insurance.
 

Titans Bastard

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NYCFC signed 27 y.o. Norwegian forward/winger Jo Inge Berget from Malmö. He seems like a sensible sort of signing. David Villa is getting old (though he hasn't yet showed signs of slowing down). It would be useful to have a solid backup who can also be in contention to start on the wing. NYCFC's attack is looking very deep at this point.
Maybe not that deep. Report that Stoke has bid $4.5m for Jack Harrison.
 

Titans Bastard

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We have a situation brewing with the Revs as teams open their preseason camps:


Nguyen had reportedly asked for a trade and he he's trying to force the issue.

Meanwhile the Revs announced that they acquired Cristian Penilla on loan from Pachuca. He's a 26 year old Ecuadorian winger.
 

Titans Bastard

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Catching up on some moves...

  • Colorado signed 27 year old CB Tommy Smith, a long-time Ipswich Town player. Smith is the third Kiwi to sign for the Rapids since they hired former NZ manager Anthony Hudson.
  • LA Galaxy signed Chris Pontius, who comes from Philly as a free agent. I have to say, LAG looks much improved after their dumpster fire 2017 season.
  • LAFC signed Steven Beitashour, who it seems Toronto couldn't quite fit into their salary budget next year. One of the better free agents on the market. With him and Omar Gaber, LAFC will be very solid at RB next year. LAFC also did the rare intra-league loan, taking winger Aaron Kovar from Seattle for the season.
  • Montreal signed 20 year old Chilean winger Jeisson Vargas from Universidad Católica, 31 year old CB Zakaria Diallo from Stade Brest, and 25 year old French/Algerian CM Saphir Taider on loan from Bologna.
  • The Impact are also losing some talent - Blerim Dzemaili won't be back because he recently was divorced and wants to be near his kids. Ballou Tabla is close to being sold, per Montreal's GM, and is rumored to be heading to Barcelona B.
  • The Timbers picked up a couple of lower level players. Center back Modou Jadama comes from the Tulsa Roughnecks and midfielder Andres Flores comes from the NY Cosmos.
  • San Jose picked up 20 year old ex-US U17 midfielder Eric Calvillo, who played for the Cosmos last year.
  • SKC signed CB Matt Lewis to a homegrown contract, an ex-academy four year college player at Fordham.
 

Titans Bastard

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Revs' hardball tactics with Nguyen reveal how they've been left behind

"It's been consistent for years, [the Revs] go out of their way to screw with players on every issue," one source familiar with the way New England operates said. "They will use any rule they can use, regardless if that was intended to be used that way. It's a culture thing, not a practical thing."

...

Perhaps more tellingly, New England has yet to sign a free agent from within the league since such rules were introduced following the ratification of the last CBA in 2015.
 

Senator Donut

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Montreal announced that Ballou Tabla has been sold to Barcelona. Barca B, but still - that'll be a feather in their academy's cap.

https://www.impactmontreal.com/en/post/2018/01/25/impact-completes-transfer-ballou-tabla-fc-barcelona

Tabla has played for Canadian youth teams at times, but deep down every Canada fan knows he's going to play for Cote d'Ivoire.
I don't think this has been confirmed publicly, but MLS was expected to pass a rule allowing clubs to keep 100% of homegrown player sales. If that's the case, Montreal just earned a truckload of money on that transfer.

I'm not a Kraft apologist, but I hardly consider it hardball to ask a player to honor a contract he signed less than two years ago. It's not the team's fault that the league has instituted rules that would have allowed him to earn more on the current market; that contract is the product of bad timing on his behalf. Nguyen held out of practice to get that original extension, I don't think the club should give into him twice.