When Major League Soccer announced last week it was blocking a $13-million transfer that would have sent national team forward Jesús Ferreira from FC Dallas to Spartak Moscow of the Russian Premier League, it did the right thing. It put morals over money, chose caution over cachet and displayed the kind of courage and values so sorely needed — yet so sorely lacking — in international sports.
I know! I was surprised too. And it doesn’t even matter that the deal wasn’t really close before it stopped. In this case it was the principle that mattered most.
The league declined comment on the Ferreira situation, choosing to let its actions speak for themselves. But privately, people with knowledge of the decision confirm the transfer was nixed last week over fear for the player’s safety and because of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
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A high-profile player such as Ferreira, a USMNT standout with dual nationality, a two-time MLS All-Star and the Golden Boot winter in the last CONCACAF Gold Cup, would be an inviting target for a Russian government that delights in jailing prominent U.S. citizens and holding them hostage.
Consider that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been jailed for more than 10 months without trial, while Paul Whelan, a former Marine, has been imprisoned since 2018. Both have been accused of espionage, charges they and the U.S. government strongly deny.
But perhaps the most relevant example is that of basketball star Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic champion who played nine years in Russia without incident before being jailed two years ago on smuggling charges after customs officials found less than a gram of medically prescribed hashish oil in her luggage. Griner was detained a week before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and held for a time in a penal colony to extract concessions from the U.S. government.
And it worked, with the U.S. giving up convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout to win Griner’s release after 10 months.
Now comes Ferreira, 23, who, after seven years in MLS, deserves the international attention he’s getting. However, the deal with Spartak Moscow really wasn’t close, and neither the player nor his agents with the Wasserman Group had begun serious talks with the club. Still, the league made all that moot when it stepped in to block the transfer, which it could do because its single-entity structure means Ferreira is…