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Sporting KC deals Dom Dwyer to Orlando City in blockbuster

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Photo by Gary Rohman/MLS/USA TODAY Sports

Orlando City has pulled off the biggest move of the MLS summer transfer window yet.

U.S. Men’s National Team forward Dom Dwyer has officially been traded to Orlando City for an MLS record amount of allocation money. The recently naturalized American striker moves from Sporting Kansas City in exchange for $400k of general allocation money, $500k in targeted allocation money, and an additional $700k in future allocation money for a grand total of up to $1.6 million.

“Dom has been a great player on the field and a tremendous ambassador off of it for this organization,” Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes said. “We thank him for that and wish him nothing but the best.

“It is important to understand that when an organization is successful, individuals are going to be highly sought after by other clubs. Understandably, the salary cap world of sports does not enable you to keep everyone on your roster forever. So as the ever-changing and fluid roster continues to evolve, moves like this can occur.

”This organization is committed to consistently fielding a highly competitive team and pursuing every trophy attainable.”

Dwyer has played for Sporting KC since 2012 after being selected 16th overall in that year’s SuperDraft. He’s gone on to become a high-level MLS striker, appearing in 128 matches and scoring 57 goals in his five seasons with the team. Dwyer won an MLS Cup with Sporting KC in 2013, and recently made his debut for the USMNT after acquiring citizenship in March, scoring in his first two appearances.

While his professional career has been with Sporting KC, Dwyer is familiar with Florida. He spent his college career with the University of South Florida, and spent part of 2013 on loan with Orlando City back when the team was in the USL PRO league.

Comments

    • I. Gotta. Bow. Down. To. You. Player.

      That was the first thing that came to mind when I heard the news. You just have more guts than me and went there, publicly (our family actually discussed this during tonight’s dinner–seriously).

      Props to you!

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  1. The money they are getting might be used to try and lock up EPB after his contract runs out this year if they intend to keep him because he has looked pretty good the few times he has played this summer and has been going interest from Europe since his loan and this past u20 WC

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    • I don’t think you can pay that kind of money to a 20-year-old defender with 12 career MLS appearances. They’ll use it on a striker to replace Dwyer.

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  2. Will we have to wait until the annual release of MLS salaries to find out what Orlando will be paying him? He is making $668,000 in guaranteed comp with KC this season. You’d think he will be getting a healthy raise for this move.

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    • I admit I may be completely wrong about this since I am talking off the top of my head without research, but I think you are confusing MLS with European football. Remember that MLS is more like the NBA and MLB. So basically, when a player gets traded he stays on his current contract. I’m guessing Dwyer will still be making the same amount of money in Orlando as SKC, unless his contract is about to expire.

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      • UCLA: You may be right, that’s why I was asking. Honestly, when I looked up his current salary, I was surprised it was that high. I didn’t realize he was already in DP range. Hopefully, someone can clarify/confirm for us.

      • I believe there has to be an agreement to a contract extension that will be worked out at some point otherwise it makes no sense to spend all that money on a contract that is expiring at the end of this season. It doesn’t seem to make business sense to spend 1.6 million for 13 matches plus possible playoffs.

      • His 2018 option probably goes with him. He was set to make about $900,000 next year in the final option year of his contract.

    • That’s not really DP money, so I assume he was getting TAM. Anybody know? One thing, I think it’s a real improvement for Orlando. With him and Larin, they have some potent strikers who could feed off each other.

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  3. Kind of a bummer as a SKC fan, his energy and fire will be missed. The goals have been down a tad but he is still one of the best in the league. They need to give Krisztian Nemeth a call.

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      • Agreed… even though splash signings aren’t really their thing it will be interesting to see who it is. With that Defense they have a real opportunity to make a deep run, no way they’d throw away the season. I like Salloi but he and Rubio aren’t enough to pick up Dwyers slack.

    • Diego is ready to start based on what we’ve seen in Dwyer’s absence. If anything, they would bring another wing in to play opposite Gerso. I don’t doubt they are always looking for strikers, but I think this deal doesn’t get made if KC isn’t ready to let loose Diego.

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      • Diego is decent off the bent, may have potential down the road. He won’t lead this team through the playoffs and given their current standing they aren’t throwing the season.

      • I’m on a mobile phone and get shit service. Why is Nemeth a part of the allocation process??

      • There are three reasons for allocation first two deal with US national team players, here is the wording on the third category.

        (iii) former MLS players returning to MLS after joining a non-MLS club for a transfer fee greater than $500,000.

        I believe Nemeth’s transfer was for 3 million, so he falls into that category. Interestingly SKC actually will get more money for player acquisition from the Dwyer deal than the Nemeth deal because MLS takes 1/3 of the transfer and only 650,000 can be used of the remaining 2 million, in this case, can be used for players.

    • Not a KC fan, but I had the impression that they let Nemeth go and that didn’t make sense to me. I thought he looked really good when I saw him play and wondered why he wasn’t offered a long term deal. Any idea why that was?

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      • Still not sure why. SKC and Nemeth have differing takes on what really went down. It sounded like an ugly breakup. So I am shocked and thrilled that he could come back.

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