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It's a Win-Win for Adu and United
"I just felt it was time to move on and put myself in a situation where I could play my best position to grow as a player," Freddy Adu said. "Unfortunately, it wasn't going to happen in D.C."
(Joel Richardson - The Post)
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MLS awards allocations when, among other things, a team misses out on the playoffs and when the league sells a player to a foreign club. Teams can use that allocation money to sign a player, to put toward contracts of current players or to use as trade bait.
In the Adu deal, United received half of Real Salt Lake's allocation money for missing the playoffs this year and a portion of an allocation left over from the previous year. It adds up to $275,000.
United had also banked $200,000 of allocation money from trades with Los Angeles and New York earlier this year, Payne said. As a result, D.C. plans to acquire two South American players and restructure the contracts of Gomez and veteran forward Jaime Moreno.
Nowak and technical director Dave Kasper recently returned from a scouting trip in Argentina and Brazil, and Payne said he believes the club might be able to finalize a deal with a player as early as next week.
Real Salt Lake chief executive Dean Howes was not concerned about whom United would acquire with the allocation, saying: "Allocations don't score goals and don't keep the ball out of the net. . . . We'd rather get a proven player and let the other teams spend the money to take chances on players who may or may not be successful in this league."
United's recent foreign acquisitions have been a mixed bag. Gomez became a superstar and Facundo Erpen a defensive starter, but forward Lucio Filomeno lasted less than a year and midfielder Matias Donnet had a marginal impact after joining the team in August.
United would receive additional allocation funds from Real Salt Lake if Adu is sold to a European team. Real Salt Lake is hoping to retain him until his contract expires in 2009, but Adu recently spent two weeks training informally with Manchester United and has talked openly about heading to Europe after he turns 18 in June.
Payne said the club weighed the impact of trading the most popular player in American soccer, but "it wasn't our most important consideration. That's not what we're about. We believe we gain credibility and build our brand by being successful on the field. It's not about one player."
