Just when it seemed Atlanta United would sit by watch MLS’s Primary Transfer Window pass like a leaf on the wind, Lagerwey and Co. pulled a trade mere hours before the deadline. It may not be the splashy signing the fans are clamoring for, but the Five Stripes announced Wednesday evening that they’ve traded winger Xande Silva to St. Louis City for up to $250,000 in GAM. St. Louis retains Xande’s budget charge and Atlanta retains his “special discovery” tag.
Ever heard of “special discovery?” Here’s the info straight from MLS:
In general, the total amount of the acquisition cost of a player is charged against the Salary Budget in the year in which it is paid. For one player on a club’s roster (a “Special Discovery Player”), a club can amortize the total amount of acquisition costs (up to $500,000) over the term of the player’s contract, including Option years, or over the term of the first and second contract, so long as the second contract is signed prior to the expiration of the first. A club may choose to amortize the acquisition costs evenly or in unequal installments. If the club chooses unequal installments, no less than 10-percent of the amortized acquisition cost may be captured in any given League year of the player’s contract.
If a Special Discovery Player leaves MLS prior to the expiration of the term of his contract, any remaining unamortized acquisition costs would be charged immediately to a Club Salary Budget. If a transfer fee is received for the player, any unamortized acquisition costs, including the acquisition cost charged to the Club Salary Budget during the MLS season such transfer occurs, may be recouped prior to any sharing arrangement with the League. Any guaranteed compensation due to the player will continue to be charged to a Club Salary Budget. Special Discovery Players must be 27 years old (or younger than the age of 27) during the League Year under consideration (the age of the player is determined by year – not date – of birth). There may be no more than one Special Discovery Player per number of clubs in the League (i.e., 30 total Special Discovery Players across the League in 2025). A club may have more than one Special Discovery Player on its Senior Roster at any given time if the club received the additional player(s) via trade. However, the club trading the Special Discovery Player may not sign a new Special Discovery Player until the traded Special Discovery Player’s original contract expires, the player’s contract is terminated, or all the amortized acquisition costs are accounted for in the Salary Budget Charge. Targeted Allocation Money may be used on a Special Discovery Player if he qualifies.
This essentially means Atlanta United can still sign a “Special Discovery” player in the future. Xande’s move doesn’t prohibit the club from using that mechanism in the future. It also frees up approximately $688k in cap space.
The move arrives amid a flurry of “Deadline Day” transfers across MLS. It also – hopefully – creates more opportunities for Atlanta United to figure out which option will work best at left wing and turn around the frustrating and demoralizing start to their season.
Let us know what you think of the move below!
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[…] Xande Silva was traded to St. Louis CITY in April and Edwin Mosquera was loaned to Millonarios, Atlanta United was left very thin on either […]
[…] traded winger Xande Silva to St. Louis CITY in April, the club can sign a player using the “Special Discovery Player” tag. That […]
I mean he’s fine but maybe redundant with Mosquera. But Injave to imagine this is to free up room. I honestly do t know where though. Maybe CB but I’m not sure I see that as a massive improvement over our backup CB (Cobb). I mean the only way meaningful move is at CAM, or at Winger (and push Almiron to CAM). I guess at the end of the day I don’t see changing roster as a game changer unless you address CAM/winger.
My take away from this article is how stupid MLS roster rules are
Even though he (Alexey Miranchuk) was recently signed & I know it wouldn’t happen….. I would’ve preferred for him to have been shipped out instead of Xande because at least he was faster and more of an offensive threat despite the decline in his performance from when he first arrived. On the flip side of this……ATL UTD getting more $ out of this deal could potentially just be another mismanagement of $ by the FO because as we can see so far this season that’s all we have gotten out of all the $ allocated this past summer for (Almada, GG, & Wiley) and nothing more. Atlanta in general in recent years has been known for wasting $ in the sports world besides ATL UTD…..just look at the Falcons and the deal that they worked out with Kirk Cousins. We’ll see what happens with this money that was allocated for Xande for better (or) worse. However, seeing the big spending that took place from this past offseason and our recent form to start the season I am not that ecstatic until there’s a legitimate reason to be otherwise.
Hmm…none of those comments seemed too controversial…AM isn’t going to cut it here not so much because of him but because of his skillset and the team around him. Xande isn’t great, though re: a comment above, way better than Mosquera who is terrible. Something tells me Silva might do better in St Louis..will be amusing to see all the comments at that point asking why he’d outperform there, etc
I do personally want to see him do relatively well so Atlanta can get the full allotment of GAM.
There were rumors he wanted to leave due to lack of playing time. Don’t know how valid those were but maybe that played into the decision.
Will always remember some of his electric goals, but will not miss his nonchalance. Too many poor passes, gambles…
Watch him succeed over there. There must something wrong with our water.
Just like former Falcon Players?
That area must be a former Native American burial ground or something.
I’m beginning to believe in some sort of curse but just for fun.
I will always remember Silva’s Spiderman celebration for his son.
Sorry that he has to move to St. Louis, not a fan of that city.
Can we start wildly speculating about a winger in the summer transfer window?
We need a true destroyer 6 or a stronger CB first, I think.
Denis Bounga?
I liked Xande when he first came on and I think he was in form. But after he missed that SITTER against Seattle (i think), he was never the same. He kept us in the playoffs and helped knock off Messi and Co, so we’ll always appreciate what he did, but his fancy footwork that led nowhere reminded me of Luiz Araujo.
Best of luck to him. Now we need a RELIABLE left winger – comparable to Saba.
Pretty much word for word what I would have wrote. Dude has skills, he just tried getting too cute with the ball and it cost him several build ups. Kind of cocky at times too, which I never appreciated. But yes, his banger to win that game against Miami last year will always be a good memory for me (and being at that game and hearing how loud the place can get).
Now, we’re pretty thin at winger so hopefully that means there’s someone else in the wings (pun intended) they’re planning on bringing in? Can’t just be Brennan.
these MLS roster rules are so bizarre. can we just get rid of the cap limit?
If we opened the coffers we could get tons of EPL level players!! In their Prime!!
We are United!! We got Banks purse to pillage!!
Watching MLS for a long time, especially the last ten years, it seems to me the roster differences play less of a role than the coaching approach. This is probably the only league where coaching makes a huge difference. If you take Miami out of the equation, our player by player roster compares pretty well to all the other teams and in many instances we have a superior roster. Spending lots of money on roster is not the solution. Aggressiveness, fitness, coaching and strategy play a huge role in our league.
You are right. I was just being sarcastic and silly.
That’s an astute observation, and I think the reason coaching matters so much in this league is precisely because of the salary cap. When everyone’s team is squeezed into a similar salary range, coaching and tactics are a way to give you an edge. Vs the premier league, for example, where no amount of coaching can get Southampton to outperform Liverpool.
That said, I also hate the MLS salary cap lol.
He 100% has top 5 most iconic moments in our history and maybe MLS history. Xande, I will miss you.
O Lard…..he doesn’t know what he is doing. Lard OUT!!!
There’s one person in particular on the teams FB page using “lard” incessantly and I personally haven’t seen it here until last night… Derrell, is that you bud? You okay?
Aren’t we slim on our wings?
Move some midfielders out! We have some to spare.
Nah, we’ll just start a holding mid at wing, no problem.
We need to ditch like 70% of the wing play because we’re rarely stretching teams, we aren’t big in the middle and we rarely have enough bodies in the box due to our setup. Around 15% of goals in MLS come from crosses, we’re way below that yet insist on making that central. We score on fewer crosses than the avg team yet seem to rely on that more. It’s a crutch and a flimsy one.
“Due to the setup” maybe it’s time to ditch the setup.
Don’t disagree wholly though setup in this case also encompasses some roster limitations and a few trade offs. If I were manager and wondered who’re the kinds of guys I’d want to service in the box or at least are solid secondary service kind of guys that merit defensive attention…him…maybe Lath (not big), Thiare (inconsistent)…Klich possibly hard to say. Which means likely having to play two strikers and some good sized midfielders…all of whom need to be the finishing type. Might be some other implications at that point and might tilt the team towards more counter. Ultimately, besides accurate crossing (elephant in the room?) a team either needs to overpower the opponent on the crosses or outnumber them, and the latter is typically going to happen when the opponent has at least been stretched some.