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Report: Juninho going back to Sao Paulo

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy appear to be on the verge of losing one of the key pieces to their championship squad.

According to multiple reports out of Brazil, midfielder Juninho is signing a three-year contract with Sao Paulo and rejoining the club after two seasons on loan with the Galaxy. For the Galaxy to have retained Juninho, they would have had to pay a transfer fee to Sao Paulo.

"Juninho has an offer. He knows where we stand," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena told reporters last week. "[Sao Paulo] knows that, his agent knows that. They just have to make a decision as to what they want to do."

In his two seasons in MLS, Juninho established himself as one of the league's more steady central midfielders, capable of scoring from distance while managing the game, breaking up opposing attacks and providing a hefty work rate while flying under the radar as the likes of Landon Donovan, David Beckham and Robbie Keane garnered the headlines.

The Galaxy have yet to officially release any new information about Juninho's future with the club. They did sign Brazilian central midfielder Marcelo Sarvas from Alajuelense last week, someone who can provide cover if Juninho does indeed head back to Sao Paulo for good.

What do you think of this development? How big of a loss would this be for the Galaxy?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Club America in Mexico is looking at him. As well as a few other teams.

    side note, i had to refresh this page like 30 times before the “post” button would pop up when i typed. been doing this for weeks now. anyone else has this problem?!

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  2. Juninho will be missed in LA. Very good MLS player. Its a shame that the Galaxy couldn’t keep him, and its a reminder of the financial limitations that MLS still operates under. As effective as Juninho was on for the Galaxy, something tells me that he’s not quite the type of player MLS should be spending big DP type money one. He’s really too old and not quite enough quality to expect that they could recoup the transfer fee by selling him on later in his career. He would not sell tickets on any other club. While the Galaxy may be able to afford that, most other MLS markets cannot afford that type of player. And competitive balance is really important to keeping fans happy in Columbus, Colorado, San Jose, etc. These cities don’t have fans born into being supporters because their grandfathers supported the team in the glory days…like European teams. The need some glorious history to build that type of fan base.

    One question – Juninho just signed a new contract with Sao Paolo – does that mean he could have gone to LA on a free transfer? — which would mean that LA didn’t offer him the salary Sao Paolo could offer him as a 5th midfielder?

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  3. To start, Everton is broke, they in no way humanly possible can afford to buy Donovan. LD is a great product to keep in the US, he’s been the face of US soccer, like it or not, for a long time and continues to be that face.

    I honestly think this is a just a cap issue that the league will have to contend with, until every team, is close to capacity for all games and has income from jersey sponsors, and possibly is in a sss.

    There are so many variables to look at in this one deal. But it’s certainly a trial case for league to watch, it’s going to continue to happen for the next several years while the league is still in its infancy. At 16, we’re still a very young league. It’s almost time for the training wheels to come off, but not yet.

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  4. Totally disagree.

    Juninho was our rock in the middle.

    A rock that scored some vital and beautiful goals.

    Also… IMHO our best “defender”.

    Who was covering Beckham’s butt when he got tired?

    Who covered Donovan’s butt when he did his as per usual disappearing act?

    Who covered Omar’s butt when he was too slow to deal with the speedy forwards?

    Who found Saddham Hussein?

    ****

    But seriously. He was a vital player for us this year.

    But I take your point, he’s not the type of player to directly put butts in seats.

    Reply

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