[MLS TRANSACTIONS] The sale of Omar Bravo to Mexican club Cruz Azul is layered with implications but in any transaction, sometimes the bottomline overrides all else.
Without revealing financial details, Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes succinctly encapsulated one of the major factors when he said, “You have to take it in the context of business,” when interviewed on
A seldom-discussed aspect of the MLS Designated Player option is how much such players might fetch in thetransfer market when they leave the league. Bravo played one season of a multi-year deal for $170,000 total compensation, which is well below the league’s $500,000 threshold (for salary andacquisition costs pro-rated annually), so it can be assumed MLS paid a fairly large – by its standards – fee to acquire him, and has probably recouped that sum and more by selling him.
Bravo finished the regular season tied with Kei Kamara and Teal Bunbury for the team lead in goals (nine). He sat out the playoffs, except for a five-minuteappearance in a 1-0 loss to Houston in the conference finals, despite his proclamation he had recovered sufficiently from a groin injury to play significant minutes.
He mildly expressed hisfrustration after that defeat, and was left unprotected in the MLS Expansion Draft Nov.23, after which came serious inquiries from Cruz Azul that eventually yielded the transfer.
Vermes hasdenied several times a rift had separated him and Bravo and says he would welcome him back. A condition of the deal is SKC retains Bravo’s MLS rights. “From the first day he joined us, hisattitude was excellent,” Vermes had said during the season. “You always wonder how a player like him will react to the guys and vice versa, but he’s been great in the locker room andworks his butt off in training.”
Since most DPs come to MLS at the tail end of their careers, for them there usually isn’t much re-sale value. Those who do leave before theircontracts are up often do so because they and the club are eager to sever the relationship as cleanly and quickly as possible, as was the case last spring when Swiss striker BlaiseN’kufo bailed on the Sounders just before the season started. Vermes insists this deal is rooted in the financial details.
“[Cruz Azul] really wanted him, pursued itvery, very hard with the league and with us and Omar – I’m telling you – was in between a rock and hard place,” Vermes said. “He wasn’t sure how to do it. He reallywanted to stay. He loved playing in MLS and the challenge of it.
“But I think you are smart enough to figure out that obviously there were benefits on both sides that eventually gotthe deal done. That’s really it.
The primary candidate to take Bravo’s left-wing spot in SKC’s 4-3-3 formation is Bobby Convey, acquired Dec. 2 in a tradewith San Jose. The attack has also lost former captain Davy Arnaud, selected by Montreal in the Expansion Draft. Vermes says the team is willing to sign another DP if the rightopportunity surfaces.
SKC acquired Bobby Convey in a trade with San Jose although I have yet to see what the Quakes got in return. Knowing the wily skills of San Jose general manager John Doyle it probably was something like a 4th round pick in the draft of 2016.
Looks like Vermes likes to stick with the sturdy athletic type player instead of a technical player like Bravo who actually did not fit with the team tactics.