Trades, transfers, free-agent moves – MLS’s offseason “hot stove” keeps roaring as the clock ticks down to MLS is Back weekend (Feb. 22-23), and we’re back to wrap up the week’s wheeling and dealing.
The news can move fast at this time of year, and it’s easy to miss developments, particularly in a league that has now grown to 30 member clubs. Case in point: Mere hours after our last edition was published, Austin FC sold Sebastián Driussi, their highest-paid player and face of the team, to River Plate… and it’s already old news.
Here’s a rundown of the latest:
On Wednesday Charlotte reeled in one of the biggest names of the MLS winter window to date, securing English Premier League veteran Wilfried Zaha as a Designated Player on a season-long loan from Turkish giants Galatasaray.
A day later another shoe dropped in North Carolina, as incumbent DP striker Karol Swiderski returned to Greece in a reported $2 million transfer to Panathinaikos, leaving The Crown with one remaining DP slot to work with if they so desire. This coming and going represents a potent shot in the arm for a CLT attack that scored the joint-fewest goals among last season’s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs participants, as general manager Zoran Krneta acknowledged in welcoming Zaha.
“We have good players, but in the final minutes, we needed the one that will take the ball and do something special. We had 51 points last season. He’s the kind of player that’s on, what he’s on, will give us an extra 12 points, in my opinion, just because he will do something that will win us games all season,” Krneta told Goal.com of the Crystal Palace alum, adding that “this is probably one of the most difficult negotiations I’ve ever seen.
“It was a complex deal. It took us almost three months behind the scenes.”
Head coach Dean Smith spoke of the “stardust” Zaha brings with his guile and flair on the ball. Can this push an already sturdy Charlotte squad over the top?
Whatever ambition, exposure or buzz was gleaned from the Chicago Fire’s recent outreach to Neymar, The Men in Red got some actual business done this week with the acquisition of winger Jonathan Bamba from Celta de Vigo as a…
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