Atlanta United officially announced 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 Stripes. The deal is a free transfer through 2026 with an option for 2027.
Amador recently completed his four year contract with Primeira Liga club Moreirense F.C. where he helped the squad finish in a respectable sixth place, narrowly missing out on UEFA Conference League qualification. He was a utilized frequently throughout his time there, though he was absent much of his first year due to a knee injury. Since then, though, he helped the team claw their way back into Portugal’s first division after being relegated in 2022 as the club dominated the Liga Portugal 2 under Paulo Alves. Amador then went on to start 14 matches and appear in 21 throughout the most recent campaign.
The move helps fortify a position that’s admittedly been fairly shallow for Atlanta United. Caleb Wiley has been the starter, with Ronald Hernandez (who prefers to play as a right-back) and now Matt Edwards as the only true depth pieces. With Caleb Wiley likely off to the Olympics soon, not to mention his potential transfer out of the club entirely, the acquisition of Pedro Amador was crucial.
“We’re excited to sign Pedro as he will bring leadership and experience to our backline as we continue to strengthen our roster this summer,” Vice President and Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra said. “At 25 years old, he’s coming at a good age from a strong league in Europe and we like his experience of playing more than 100 matches in Portugal, including captaining his team in various matches last season. We look forward to welcoming him to Atlanta and having him join our group.”
Amador will bring with him the experience of promotion and relegation in European football, and hopefully help strengthen an already robust defense. His formative footballing years were spent at Sporting CP’s academy, the same youth development system that built some other notable players like Luis Figo and some guy named Cristiano Ronaldo. He plays as a modern wing back, albeit one that will likely be more comfortable in his defensive duties than the nimble and aggressive Caleb. Amador is naturally left footed and seems to have rebounded well since his injury back in 2020.
The Portuguese defender will be available as early as July 18th, when the MLS secondary transfer window opens. Welcome to Atlanta, Pedro!
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[…] only confirmed signing for Atlanta United as of Thursday is left back Pedro Amador, signed through 2026 with an option for 2027. The free transfer and former Sporting Lisbon academy […]
[…] Atlanta United finalize transfer of left back Pedro Amador […]
Football, and the world outside, two intricately related things. My home state suffered horrible flodding, and my hometown, Porto Alegre, had huge, expensive, anti-flood defenses that failed miserably, due to a lack of proper maintenance from the city administration.
Guess what the mayor is doing? Trying very hard to maitain an appearance of back to normal, mistakes were made, let´s not politicize, trust me to turn this around, and he is hiring a big consultancy firm to design a new project, when there is one already paid for, and in place.
Atlanta FC has been sinking since its F.O. did not replace the only proven coach they had, who had built, and brought the team to great heights. Instead, they hired a sequence of three non-proven coaches, who, all, in sequence failed.
What does the F.O. do? Hire some player no one has heard of, to show there is government, and everything is fine.
Do you buy this version, and attitude, or reject it as another attempt from a failed system to stay in power?
Disappointed in both our National teams, yours, and ours. So much talent, so little use.
Where are we at in terms of our U22 slots? We have mosquera, and 3 slots under the new rules.
Are Ibarra/Sosa still on our books during their loans?
Also, just looked at Sosa’s stats on fbref this year and it looks like he’s doing very well
https://fbref.com/en/players/f080dd22/Santiago-Sosa
Ibarra… not so much, but he very solid defensively
https://fbref.com/en/players/db6540c5/Franco-Ibarra
Dear Atlantistas: I admire the football played in Portugal. They are a=n incredible generator of very fine players. However, this guy was not in a big club there, and this move seems to replicate the vision that brought you Soviet Mechanic, Muyumba, Xande, that is, fine B players.
You don´t build greatness, and you don´t win in modern football without a nice layer of A players. And, more than anything, why is Bocanegra hiring, before there is a coach to tell him whom to hire?
Because the team needs players and player acquisition is his job.
Then he should be fired.
I dont mind getting B players that arent expected to start. While Im glad to see it reported here, this is kind of a non story. We were dangerously shallow at fullback, so to sign a B player to plug a hole is fine with me.
Looking at the big picture in which we lost our A level striker, are about to lose our A level attacking midfielder, and might lose our B+ 19 year old left fullback with A level upside, it is quite worrying.
My confidence in the ambition of the team, all the way up to the owner, is dwindling by the day.
At least we have a coach that has us playing within our means.
Sure. But the point is really that the priority should be the coach, and then let the coach form the new team. This brings in players the new coach may simply not appove of.
Sure. I would just say that this is probably a signing we should have made before the season started.
Had we waited until we have a coach, we would be approaching a series of games with almost no fullbacks available to come off the bench.
No. This is some backwoods South American cult of the Dear Leader shit. The organization is bigger than one man.
I’m sure your opinions on the matter will be given proper weight and consideration.
I’ve said this so many times I am really surprised that you have missed reading it. Bocanegra’s “thing” is that he wants to pick players without any input from the manager so if the team wins, he can take all the credit. So it is very normal for Atlanta United to pick up new players and not ask the manager for input.
It makes no sense adding to the roster when a new coach is going to arrive. In a normal club, that is.
You’re probably right we should just play with no left backs…
Tata got Busquets playing as a center back while looking for a solution, he also invented a right back (British kid who tragically died), because Atlanta´s then right back was horrendous. Coaches find temporary solutions, rather than adding permanent non solutions.
No. Anton Walkes played five seasons between Tottenham and Portsmouth before coming back to Atlanta and MLS. Notably, Walkes went on loan to Portsmouth in 2019 because Tata couldn’t unlock him, and returned as a successful player in 2020 after Tata was gone.
This has nothing to do with what I said, or anything to do with the topic. Walkes was a center back, who Tata moved to right back because the then right back was awful and could not play. This discussion was whether to hire players without a coach, or find temporary solutions while hiring a coach, and not be stuck with a player who does not fit the new coach´s vision. I have no idea where you get your footballing notions from, but they don´t seem very related to football itself.
The new Atlanta United manager will play some form of the tactically fluid build from the back football Atlanta United has expected from inception. Red Bulls will press high. We will build from the back, value possession, and try to be front footed and attacking.
The new coach will fit the system. His success will depend on how well he can read oppositions in advance and real time and tweak the formations that support that system to get wins.
In other news, no Atlanta United player was selected for this year’s MLS All-Star team. The silver lining is that none of our players can get hurt in a worthless match.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/2024-mls-all-star-team-roster
That’s wack. Williams, Lennon, Wiley, Almada would have all been solid choices.
Wish I could agree with you, but I don’t think anyone has been consistent enough for one reason or another.
Hopefully he can help us get some clean slate matches after July 18. This summer roster morph is gonna be interesting to say the least. I can’t imagine we do too much before a new coach is brought in.
Also let’s go USMNT!! Praying for lot’s of Uruguayan rested players and a couple golazos from the US for the upset. Everybody’s treating Bolivia like they are an easy game for Panama. That match will be closer than expected. Wouldn’t be shocked with a draw.
Conmebol Refs + Berhalter = Grouped
Rumors of selling Wiley and bringing in a more traditional LB might indicate a long term lean into a 3 man back line?
We have a lot of fantastic depth at CB and talented youngsters who can profile as wide CBs in a back-3, while also producing attacking fullbacks that work well as wingbacks. Why not go for what fits the talent pool?
If they are pivoting away from the Almiron/Almada model, it would be natural to treat high end academy talent as a way to backfill the lack of selling on some from young DPs. I’m not saying that’s the plan, but it would be a rational gamble.
I think having a deep pool of academy talent would better support the acquisition of players like Almada and Almiron.
Something Miami has done well is balancing top-tier homegrown talent and draft picks with quality young South Americans and older star DPs. A lot of it comes down to how we manage the minutes of our young players to make sure they feel that they have the ability to compete for significant roles in the squad. Having Fortune out there battling with Slisz, McCarty, and Muyumba for minutes and earning his opportunities is a big deal. Having an open competition on the wings where Brennan and Wolff can step in and claim their spot is a big deal. Seeing how stout our Cobb and Morales have been has been a huge coup for this club.
All of that builds momentum and gives us more flexibility in how we build quality sides. It becomes a numbers game where more high-quality homegrown players leads to more quality minutes being taken up by players who are not counted against the cap. The same is true for U-22s who are highly subsidized prospects at just 200k apiece against the cap, same with U-23 DPs who are also cheap against the cap with the added bonus of a practically unlimited purchase investment. With more high-end academy talent building out the roster, we have more cap room for a smaller group of veterans and prime-age TAM and nonTAM players.
The updates to transfer fees also help us if we are working in a “Yes And” or “All of the Above” model. According to the official MLS Roster Rules for 2024, we can make a lot of allocation money.
For U-22s, “95% of the proceeds of the sale (after out-of-pocket amounts are recouped) will be paid to the Club and such amounts may be converted to General Allocation Money based on the sliding scale.” That scale has an inverse relationship between the cost of acquiring the play and the cap on the player’s sale that is convertible to GAM. If the player is acquired for under $2.5 million, up to $1.2 million can become GAM, but if the purchase was over $5 million, the selling club receives no GAM. A way to game the GAM here is through the legal avenue of turning top Homegrown players into U-22s if you want to extend them beyond the first Homegrown contract.
By bringing in more GAM, we can buy down players’ salary cap hits to a floor of $150k against the cap so the more GAM we have on top of the annually allocated amount ($2.585 million in 2024) we can have more quality players as the core of the roster who can be consistent culture, leadership, and starters/roleplayers as the more lucrative rising stars and aging stars come and go. The DPs, Young DP, and U-22 Initiative Players thus become luxury picks or ways to plug in different makers who won’t be here for a long time but can help put a quality core over the top.
For a team with deep pockets, an emerging academy pipeline, and an improving core group of experienced players, I think this may be the type of system we are building for our next manager.
I have read and read and read the MLS rules on allocation money, but it never makes sense. At this point, I am not going to bother to try understanding it.
That’s Grey’s job here. He reads that cap magic shit so I don’t have to. I have a guy for NBA cap stupidity too.
You’re probably right in the short term, but I don’t see it as a long term thing at all. Really not seeing Amador as a long term solution here and much more of a temporary fix.
His metrics as a defense-first LB look pretty good, an upgrade over the other options on the roster. If his price is fairly low over 2.5 seasons, that’s a great bridge to Wiley’s successor in 2026. That player could be Dom Chong Qui (U-17), Braden Dunham (U-19), or Remi Okunlola (Clemson). I doubt this will be our only move at LB/LWB over the next two windows if Wiley is leaving.
I like that we’ve been making a point to sign leadership guys. Ozzy obviously tore his ACL which sucked, but Dax, Williams, and now this guy are bringing invaluable experience and maturity to our team. That was a big issue post-2019.
Also, he reportedly made 70k last year and was a free transfer, so signings like these make it possible to have guys like Silva, Slisz, Saba, Lennon, etc.
Agreed on the affordable veteran leadership point.
I doubt this guy will be a veteran minimum player ($90k) but he could certainly be around what McCarty makes. That would be around $225,000. If he does come in as a veteran minimum, he’d be making the same amount as Rios, Westburg, McFadden, Morales, Noah Cobb, and Eric Centeno.
I pray he’s better than Hernandez. FB depth has been kind of thin, so regardless of Wiley’s sale rumors, this was a needed add, IMO. It doesn’t seem like Amador is really starting-quality, but I guess we will see.
Hernandez isn’t terrible, most of the times when he did play, they had him play LB when he is clearly a better RB. He just isn’t worth the money he is currently making.
I hope so too and from the Portuguese league is a plus for me, but I truly think he’s just a much cheaper version of Hernandez and will have similar results. Unless the analytics team has found a gem here, which would be great. I am just not seeing him as anything more than a half season stop gap after Wiley leaves, backup player after that.
I can’t prove this, but I very strongly suspect that Hernandez was picked up originally with the idea that he would help the offense, but in reality he’s clearly a defense first (and not good at that) old school fullback with extremely limited offensive abilities. It can be hard to judge young fullbacks and some of them look more offensively minded early on then they really end up being, so if that’s what happened, I do get how someone could make a mistake in evaluating him. But at Amador’s age, there just isn’t much offense there for sure. If he can play well defensively, he could still be an upgrade over Hernandez. Hernandez supposedly has an team option for 2025 and my advice would be to NOT pick it up.
Welcome to the ATL!!!
finally getting some LB help