It’s official: Atlanta United have finalized yet another league record player transfer, as Thiago Almada has made the move to John Textor’s Eagle Football group. The transfer is the culmination of weeks of rumors, a public call by Textor stating his desire to submit an offer for the young Argentine, and speculation as to just how much Atlanta United’s star boy would bring. Atlanta United will receive an MLS-record $21 million up front, with conditional payments bringing it up to $25 million and a total potential valuation of $30 million.
Thiago Almada came into the league as one of the hottest South American prospects back in 2022, at one point bringing the attention of the likes of Manchester United and other UEFA giants. He immediately showed he was a force to be reckoned with his creativity as an attacking midfielder and his free kick acumen. Almada won the 2022 MLS Newcomer of the Year, and then went on to be a member of the Argentina squad that won the 2022 World Cup.
2023 kicked off with a bang as he won Atlanta United’s opening match against San Jose Earthquakes in dramatic fashion, overcoming a 0-1 scoreline with a free kick banger and open play golazo in stoppage time to win the game 2-1. He participated in the All Star Game, and then became a candidate for the MVP award that year but ultimately fell just short of the accolade.
“We spent more than a year recruiting Thiago to join Atlanta United and during that process we agreed that our club could provide a great platform to showcase his abilities and he would have the opportunity to continue his development until the time was right for him to move on to the next challenge,” Vice President and Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra said. “We’re proud of what Thiago was able to accomplish in a short period of time, which includes debuting for the Argentine National Team, winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup and winning a pair of individual MLS awards – Newcomer of the Year and Young Player of the Year. His success is something we’re all proud of and a ton of credit is owed to our scouting department, in addition to everyone who has worked with him at the club. Our team has been prepared for this move and we will look to immediately reinvest in the team during the upcoming Summer Transfer Window.”
The move frees up another valuable Designated Player spot, in addition to the one left by the earlier transfer of Giorgos Giakoumakis.
The young magician always made it clear he wanted to end up in Europe, and it seems he’ll spend the next few months with Botafogo in Brazil before making the jump to Textor’s other club holdings, Olympique Lyon (or Crystal Palace). It’s been a pleasure watching Thiago Almada here in Atlanta, and we wish him nothing but the best as he looks to lead Argentina to yet another trophy in the Olympics!
[…] talk about the two roster elephants in the room. With striker Giorgos Giakoumakis and midfielder Thiago Almada gone, Atlanta United now has two available designated player slots that should be filled with […]
[…] summer, which has also seen Giorgos Giakoumakis make a move to Liga MX’s Cruz Azul, and Thiago Almada transfer to the Eagle Football Group’s Botafogo (with an imminent move to Lyon). The combined transfers have netted the Five Stripes approximately […]
[…] Stadium in Kennesaw. The transfer season has already been running rampant for the Five Stripes as Thiago Almada’s move to Botafogo was finalized and Carlos Bocanegra stated that Caleb Wiley’s transfer out of the club is essentially […]
[…] on Atlanta United transfer Thiago Almada to Botafogo for league record feeJuly 9, […]
assuming the wiley deal goes thru, we will be sitting on around $50m in transfer money this summer. absolutely unheard of for mls. i worry about how (and if) that money will be reinvested, but hats off to the fo for 2 (soon to be 3) great player deals.
this money could go a long way towards enticing the right manager and several key pieces in this rebuild. let’s see how garth deals.
Guessing his mother told him if he didn’t have anything nice to say…
But that’s just speculation.
After watching Colombia play I wouldn’t mind seeing us go after James Rodriguez, looks pretty solid in the tourney, no clue about the rest of his career
Would be interesting for a couple of years. He is 32 not a long term propect. I think he would light it up in the MLS.
i want james and cordoba here. i know the james club curse, but i am more than willing to take that chance.
just need a competent manager first!
I was a bit puzzled by this “record” talk because for years now, I’ve read multiple sources insist that Miggy went to Newcastle for $27 million. So if you also read that in the past, you may also be wondering what’s the deal here? $21 million is less than $27 million.
AJC Doug reports that Miggy’s actual sale price was $19 million, so the $21 million is a record, even if there are no further future payments in the Almada sale.
Best wishes to Almada and I hope he ends up in Lyon in January. Hard for me to see him going to Crystal Palace, but if he pulls that one off, more power to him.
Favorite moment might have to be the San Jose brace, but it’s so hard to choose
https://youtu.be/9B5uiyUfj_I?si=CSRH3HOvtgHAIgqN
This one hits hard. Obviously we knew he wasn’t going to be here forever. I hope he makes it to a big 4 league and thrives.
[…] Atlanta United transfer Thiago Almada to Botafogo for league record fee […]
Good for Thiago that he has a pathway to pursuing his dreams of playing in Europe and good for this Front Office in setting a new transfer sale record in the league. I wish we could have been more competitive during Almada’s time with us. Still, the incoming funds from GG, Almada, and Wiley totaling $45-50 million should give us enough resources to recruit our next 2-3 DPs, 2-3 U-22s Initiative Players, and our new coach.
From a PR standpoint, this sale helps keep the South American rising star talent pool accessible to Atlanta United as a destination.
We ain’t getting ANY more U-22s until SOMEBODY (cough cough… Garth are you even listening here?) gets permanently rid of Sosa and Ibarra. We’ve STILL got a buyout left for 2024… I’m just saying. Given the U-22s bought to date, I can’t say I’m super optimistic here that the future will be better. Mosquera is our “best”.(ie. least bad) U-22 player ever. That’s really depressing.
Garth specifically warned us in his major interview after being hired that the team wasn’t going to do any more big splashes for young players and would instead go after cheaper, more veteran DPs that likely wouldn’t be sold on. Saba is an example. Hey, it would be great for that to be incorrect, but I can’t help but be hugely skeptical here until the team does something that goes against that. Crap, I’m not sure they’ll even spend $5 million for a striker, let alone any big money moves. Can Uncle Arthur just put the sale money in his pocket and that’s the end of that? I really don’t know.
We can do something about two of the U-22s in the next 6 months. Sosa and Ibarra are both on their last guaranteed years with options for 2025.
It may be too soon to say that we will no longer be using U-22s. What we have seen from the club is less so moving away from young players, but more a desire to create more balance and diversity of experience on the roster. The extreme emphasis we put on flipping young South American talent at the expense of good roster management has led to the issues we have faced the last few seasons. But with those issues has come an incredible opportunity to provide vital experience for Homegrown and 2s players rounding out the group. With how cheap or nonexistent HGs, Supplemental Roster reserve, and U-22s are against the cap, it makes a ton of sense to keep using those roster-building options.
The key to avoiding what we have seen is a combination of good scouting/analytics which we seem to now have and a desire to be more logical/pragmatic in our approach and less cute and clever.
An important thing to remember about what Garth was talking about was the Young DP or U-23 DP designation that Almada was under. If a club has 2 regular DPs and a U-23 DP, they can sign the full allotment of U-22s. The same is true if the club signs two regular DPs and 1 DP who is in the range to be bought down with TAM (Slisz, Saba, and Gregersen). With the new GAM we are getting from a portion of each of these big-player sales, we can afford to buy down Gregersen, sign 2 DPs, add a 3rd TAM DP, and then sign 2 U-22s. The cap hits would only be about $200k per U-22 and $684k per DP over the age of 24. U-22s remain under that designation through age 25 so the club would be able to afford patience in working with these talented youngsters rather than forcing them to sink or swim from the first whistle of the season.
When it comes to how the funds can/will be used, these funds belong to a specific corporation within AMB so it would be obscenely convoluted and unlikely for them to go directly into Mr. Blank’s account. The club will be able to invest those funds however they wish in building physical or institutional infrastructure at the club. They could even afford to start a new women’s franchise and academy if they wanted to, but the most likely outcome will be that it will be invested with the intent to build a strong and competitive roster that will have a more sustainable future.
Several of these points are why I was suggesting going after Rokas Pukstas as a potential U22 DP but MLS may be a step back. Also wouldn’t use an international slot.
I’m a little shocked we’re carrying a cap hit for Etienne instead of buying him out, unless they have someone else in mind.
Wasn’t that another of Boca’s finds?
Before we started using analytics more heavily, yes. I don’t know if the analytics would have steered us in a different direction or not, but I think this may have been one of the last if not the last player acquisition before we got serious about the data in March 2023.
Doesn’t that money go to MLS and only a portion to AU? Maybe I misunderstood how that works
According to the Roster Rules and Regulations published annually by the league, most of the funds received in the transfer go towards the club and 5% any profit goes to MLS.
In the case of U-22 players:
If clubs are using the same accounting methods that most film production studios use to define “recouped all out-of-pocket cash payments made by the club in connection to that player” it is entirely possible that even for record transfers, clubs could find ways to claim they never made a profit on a player sale and thus never be required to pay MLS 5% of anything over that break-even number.
I just pray that someday, the main games being played will be on the field instead of in the front office. It’s so disheartening to watch a team being put together over and over and over, only to have the better players get sold before we even learn to pronounce their names.
Many teams rebuild but not like we did. I think LAFC is good example, they had one year, maybe two, where they didn’t do great, but look at them now. They seem to find the right pieces and keep going. Is Vela still available?
Well, they just got rid of one of the reasons I went to the games and see him play. Right now I don’t see any reason to go to MB, certainly not the league cup tournament.
I still have no interest in Leagues Cup.
I am still very interested in the US Open Cup since that is our best path to an attractive competition for our new coach and new talent. MLS teams participating in CCL get a big boost of GAM to work with. If we win the US Open Cup and miss the playoffs, we will get a big bump in extra MLS Monopoly money to work with next season. We will also be getting additional money as part of a league-wide boost from a new expansion team entering the league.