With Caleb Wiley headed to the Paris Olympics in a matter of weeks, Atlanta United have reportedly identified a reinforcement at the left back position.
According to Portuguese insider Sebastião Sousa Pinto, Atlanta are on the verge of signing 25-year-old Pedro Amador, most recently with first-division Moreirense. Per Pinto, the deal is imminent and will see Amador join on a two-and-a-half year contract with an option for a third.
Amador signed for Moreirense in 2020 and spent nearly four years with the club while totaling 80 appearances across all competitions. His initial season saw him miss extended time with a torn ligament in his left leg, but he has managed to remain rather injury-free since then.
He is an alumnus of the Sporting CP academy while also playing in the Sacavenense and Belenenses youth setups, with his professional career beginning with 1° Decembro in 2017 before signing for Braga’s reserves in 2018 and eventually seeing time with its first team.
It’s not a major move for Atlanta United — the Giorgos Giakoumakis sale to Cruz Azul will open up bandwidth for more transfers — but it’s a key one ahead of Wiley’s impending absence. Of course, a standout performance in France for Wiley could lead to a possible move for the homegrown LB.
Let us know what you think of this potential signing for Atlanta United in the comments.
[…] the signing of Portuguese left back Pedro Amador on Monday morning, completing a deal that was only rumored a couple of weeks ago. The transfer is the most recent move in what looks to be a very active window for the Five […]
I hope to God that he does something that gets him in a fan vote contest.
Cheaper Hernandez alternative?
and hopefully better!
Hopefully cheaper, 1 scorer point every 12 games is pretty rough unless you’re a defensive shut down fullback
i don’t think he is cheaper than Hernandez, unless his contract gets adjusted with TAM/GAM…transfermarkt has Amador valued at 700K euro
his yearly wages are listed at $75k. hernandez is making like $450k i think
Not to go full Zontar, but Hernandez is either the GOAT during practice or he knows the locations of bunches of bodies Boca buried
Or our FO was just bad at making decisions the from last year or so Eales was here until Lagerwey got involved. It is kind of wild Hernandez makes so much. He’s often injured and then he’s not that good when he does play. Andrew Gutman was not a great defender (but I’m not sure they played to his strength), but cost less than Hernandez and was at least a very good attacking player from LB.
I wonder if his visa can be taken care of before transfer window opening, or do we have to wait until he can officially sign before applying for the visa?
He could of course come using a tourist visa to interview, etc. The work visa would require submitting proof of employment. They could start the process but the application wouldn’t be complete until they submit an employment contract, sponsorship, etc. The club might be able to tender a pre-employment agreement before the window opens, but that might not suffice as far as immigration is concerned. Possibly varies based on country of origin, political connections, etc.
well it looks like he is from Portugal, so hopefully that expedites the visa process
Officially it probably makes no difference, but if you actually track this stuff, in realty, yes, you are right that it should help. We brought in 3 guys last summer from European teams. 2 were citizens of European countries that are on the US Visa Waiver program and 1 was from Africa (no African country is on the US Visa Waiver program at present). Wanna guess which one took the longest? And it wasn’t even close.
The visa waiver program is for short term stays. Amongst other things I used to work facilitating visas for athletes and know a few folks who still do. Being from certain countries facilitates some of the background research the US does. A lot of the variability in any given case is case specific, but also depends on workloads and the queue. Sometimes having political connections helps but unlikely in any of these cases.
Correct. And you can’t change status from Visa Waiver anyway. So it would actually be detrimental to come here on Visa Waiver. In this type of case, it would be advisable to submit a P-1 Petition with premium processing and have him obtain the actual visa and stamping at the consulate abroad. He could do a B-1 to P-1 COS but that is just extra steps (unless he already has a B-1) and even then still creates problems with travel in the future until he actually gets his visa stamping as opposed to just an I-94.
Political connections wouldn’t actually help much in a case like this. Connections help in cases that are delayed for unknown reasons or where USCIS drops the ball / loses the filing (yes that happens).
You are 100% right about the variability in each case depending on the specific factors of that case.
(I am an immigration attorney and currently handle these types of cases)
No. The actual employment contract is part of the P-1 submission. So we can’t file his P-1 Petition until he actually signs with us. Smortz is partially correct, though not entirely, in that theoretically he could obtain a tourist visa to come here to inspect the training facilities and meet with coaches, and then once here he could submit a change of status filing from B-1 to P-1. That would be the “fastest” route. However, there are significant issues with that take.
First, he couldn’t train with the team or play until the application is *actually approved by USCIS*, not just submitted, which would take anywhere between 4 days and 2 weeks after submission. Second, (and here is the bigger issue), a change of status to P-1 does not result in the grant of an actual visa, only the issuance of an I-94 and duration of stay in P-1 status. There is a big difference between a visa stamping and status in a visa category. You can’t travel abroad on an I-94 with P-1. So the issue is if he only receives the I-94 (from a change of status submission), then if we had to travel outside the U.S. for any reason (e.g. a game vs Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal), he would be significantly delayed coming back because he would have to obtain an actual visa stamping before returning to the U.S. from that trip. And the visa stamping can take up to several weeks sometimes.
As for Zontar’s point about his country of origin. Again it’s only partially correct. If you file premium processing, it forces USCIS to issue a decision within 14 days of application regardless of country of origin. Yes, on the back end the consular processing of the visa stamping itself is usually faster for Europeans, though not always. Visa Waiver has nothing to do with it; visa reciprocity, administrative trust, and consulate administration are the factors.
(For those that don’t know, I am an immigration attorney that actually handles these types of cases. Though nothing in this post is to be considered individual advice. I am only generally explaining immigration processes as it pertains to this profession)
I may need a consultation because Im considering migrating to a different MLS fanbase.
you always bring the knowledge! you’ve helped clear up at least a dozen of these questions to us noobs over the years. thanks again!
Thanks, solid info. Wrt the tourist visa, wasn’t advocating for that as a solution per se…just stating the option. Regardless I’d defer to your expertise as an immigration attorney. In addition to shepherding the process, liaising, etc. there was on occasion some leveraging of contacts in the event of hangups. It wasn’t the norm, but did happen and sometimes in time sensitive situations.
I have Fanatiz, but due some issues with their Roku app that took many months to fix, I was not able to watch many Portuguese league matches this year. Yes, I know that instead I could watch them on a PC, but if I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have the Roku app.
Never seen his team play. They got promoted after the 22-23 season. I’m guessing analytics found him. If they think he’s good, sounds good to me. His goal and assist totals are unimpressive but the advanced scouting report here suggests he is very good at passing and crosses, so I assume that’s what he’s expected to bring.
https://fbref.com/en/players/00dad262/scout/365_m2/Pedro-Amador-Scouting-Report