Adu traded out

sundula

DC United off loaded Adu

Skysports

Freddy Adu is on the move but the American starlet is not on his way to Europe, he has been traded by DC United to Real Salt Lake.

A host of European giants have reportedly been tracking his progress while Premiership leaders Manchester United recently brought in the 17-year-old for a two-week training stint.

A disagreement over Adu's best position was reportedly behind the trade and Real Salt Lake coach John Ellinger believes DCU's loss is all to his club's gain.

Ellinger, who is part of the USA Under 21 set-up, feels Adu is a quality signing for the side who finished 10th in MLS last season with 10 wins from 32 league games.

"The value he brings to our organisation is hard to accurately describe. His arrival will benefit the entire organisation," Ellinger said. "Freddy is an exceptional talent.

"With all of the hype that surrounded him entering the league at such a young age, sometimes people fail to see what a proven player he has developed into.

"He is no longer a great player for a young kid, he is a great player, period."

How long Adu stays with Real Salt Lake remains unknown as he becomes eligible to seal a move to Europe when he turns 18 next June.

iregk

You've got to love america. Hes been traded out! Not transfered or sold you understand but 'traded'.

sundula

Cant beat the old barter system. He must be a bit of a handful if DC are getting rid when he is only months away from being eligilble for a potential big money move to Europe

sundula

Cant beat the old barter system. He must be a bit of a handful if DC are getting rid when he is only months away from being eligilble for a potential big money move to Europe

therecklessone

iregk wrote:

You've got to love america. Hes been traded out! Not transfered or sold you understand but 'traded'.

Ah yes, while we laugh at their idiosyncrasies they sit on the other side of the pond and wonder just how a manager can be paid by a players agent to complete a transfer...

DC United included their reserve keeper, Nick Rimando, in the transfer, in exchange for “a major allocation, the rights to goalkeeper Jay Nolly and future considerations, including a share of any future replacement allocation money attributed to Adu, should he be transferred.”

Major allocation you say?

the “major allocation” given to DC United by RSL either allows United to sign a player of some ability from outside MLS, or a returning US National Team player

MLS regulations including a section on allocations

The goalkeeper swap means DC Utd get to offload a highly paid reserve keeper and take on a replacement who's happy with a lower salary.

Other bit's a sell on fee.

More here

Kingp35

Something tells me that Adu is not half as good as all the hype suggests. There is also serious question marks about what age he is.

iregk

therecklessone wrote:

Ah yes, while we laugh at their idiosyncrasies they sit on the other side of the pond and wonder just how a manager can be paid by a players agent to complete a transfer...

I'll never understand that one myself either!

MrJoeSoap

The American system beats ours hands down, no question. With franchising being a possible exception.

Sundula wrote:

Cant beat the old barter system. He must be a bit of a handful if DC are getting rid when he is only months away from being eligilble for a potential big money move to Europe

As far as I know, the MLS owns his contract...

iregk

Well dont they do the draft as well. The best young up and coming players go to the worst teams or something like that. I remember reading about it in world soccer a good while back. The philosophy being the league will only ever be as good as its weakest team. A brilliant argument you have to say. Afaik the mls own all contracts and the wage cap is 400k a year with a new rule coming in in Jan stating that each club can have one francise player. A star player type thing that can earn up to 1m I believe. When this rule comes in it will be the reason why LA Galaxy and such like are trying to get Beckham.

MrJoeSoap

I think the overall salary cap is about $2m, or $400k per player.

Starting next year clubs can sign a "higer-earner" player, or two if one is traded from another MLS club. The MLS will pay about $400k of the first players salary, and $325 of the second players, with the clubs paying the rest. All transfers have to be confirmed by the league first though.

The change has somewhat prematurely been dubbed the "Beckham Rule".

A bit like the system in Australia, where clubs are allowed a "marquee" player.

event

Kingp35 wrote:

Something tells me that Adu is not half as good as all the hype suggests. There is also serious question marks about what age he is.

i dont believe that

he and his mother have offered to do bone marrow dating(whereby they take a section of bone marrow or carbon or something and it can tell exactly what age you are)

this offer has never been taken up

the kid is the age he says he is, why would you think any different?

MrJoeSoap

Anyone else thing the thread should have been called "Real sign Adu"?

Kingp35

event wrote:

ithe kid is the age he says he is, why would you think any different?

How do you "know" that he is the age he says? By the way I never said what I thought, I just said there are question marks over what age he really is because there are.

event

Kingp35 wrote:

How do you "know" that he is the age he says?

ah sure how do you know what age anyone is

Kingp35 wrote:

By the way I never said what I thought, I just said there are question marks over what age he really is because there are.

and all i was saying is that those doubts died down after he offered to do the test

and my other question is why do people doubt his age?

therecklessone

MrJoeSoap wrote:

All transfers have to be confirmed by the league first though.

Thats the clincher for me, the league authorises each transfer/trade after analysing eahc deal to ensure they meet league rules. Would help clean up the European game.

Pighead

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Anyone else thing the thread should have been called "Real sign Adu"?

I know what the headlines will be if he doesn't start producing the magic within the next couple of years

"Much Adu about nothing"

zAbbo

Anyone see him play, pretty average, he's no Ronnie O'Brien.

FatherTed

MLS operates on a single entity system, meaning that the league/MLS owns all the player contracts. Each team then have the rights to that player. Also, each team has a salary cap, in 2006 is was $2.1mil next year it is supposed to increase to $2.3-$2.4mil.

"Trades" are quite common in MLS as in all US sports. They differ to most football "transfers" in that usually one team gives another something that is not cash for a player. It could be another player, or an allocation or draft picks. Most football transfers outside of the US usually involves just cash.

What is an allocation? Well it is essentially cash that can be used to sign a specific player that is not in the league. Also if an "impact player" leaves MLS to joins another team, the MLS team only gets a portion of the money in cash but they get an allocation to go out and get another player e.g. when Tim Howard was signed by Man Utd, the Metrostars got about $500k of the $1.5m fee and they also got an allocation.

Regarding the draft, this is held usually each January where each team has a chance to sign young players usually just finished college. As already noted it goes from worst to first order but there are usually trades that happen before e.g. the NY Red Bulls acquired a good full-back last season by trading an average midfielder plus a first round draft pick to LA.

The salary cap in 2006 for a player was $300K. As already noted, the new "Designated Player" allocation will start in 2007 where a team can sign a player who can earn as much money as they want, but onlly $400K will be paid by MLS and $400K will count towards the cap. Some teams have been bending the rules for higher paid players already so MLS brought in this new rule to tighten things up.

Regarding this Adu trade, I really think DC got the better end of the deal. He is probably going to leave MLS during next season when he turns 18 and DC would have gotten an allocation for that. But they get their allocation to use now, before the season starts. I think RSL did this trade for publicity purposes. There is some truth that Adu was not loved in DC because he complained a lot as he was played mainly on the wing when he is not a winger. He is more of a attack midfielder. Per US standards he is a brilliant player but thats US standards. He may look just average in Europe. Time will tell.

smackbunnybaby

as far as i know salt lake city are one of the purest teams in the MLS. This means Freddie will probably start a lot of matches cus they dont have many good players. could be a better move than it seems at first glance. "game time " is what this fella needs

sundula

Salt Lake maybe one of the poorest teams in the league but the MLS is not exactly the highest standard of football every and if Adu couldnt cement a place in the DC team he cant be up to much.

smackbunnybaby

ha ha - i said purest!!!
as sundula correctly pointed out - i did mean poorest

FatherTed

sundula wrote:

Salt Lake maybe one of the poorest teams in the league but the MLS is not exactly the highest standard of football every and if Adu couldnt cement a place in the DC team he cant be up to much.

It's not that he could not cement a place with DC United. He started almost all their games last season. It's that he was played out of position. It would be like Paul Scholes being played on the wing all the time.

sundula

FatherTed wrote:

It's not that he could not cement a place with DC United. He started almost all their games last season. It's that he was played out of position. It would be like Paul Scholes being played on the wing all the time.

Ok, i dont see any MLS.

But i still doubt his quality at European level