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Bill Hamid leaving D.C. United after this season

Sunday will be goalkeeper Bill Hamid’s final game with D.C. United, at least for the foreseeable future.

The club’s longest tenured player will leave at the end of the season after weighing extention offers from the club and considering other options for his future.

“I want to push myself and see how far I can go because I know I have the work ethic and the hunger to take myself very far in this game,” Hamid told the Washington Post. “I know I can make it to the next level.”

He would not make a specific comment on the next step in his career, but a move to Europe appears inevitable, with FC Midtjylland in Denmark said to be the leading candidate.

“I think you are going to find out in the next 48 hours,” he added. “I am extremely excited for what’s next. It’s a big opportunity. It’s a big steppingstone to what can come later on in my career.”

Hamid has been a D.C. United staple for most of the past decade. He’s been with the club since 2010 after coming up through the club’s academy. He’s played in at least 24 games in all but his first season with the club. He’s been to the playoffs four times, alhough they never got out of the conference semi- finals. He was MLS goalkeeper of the year in 2014. He holds the club record for starts and appearances with 184 and has 49 clean sheets.

He has also been capped by the U.S. Men’s National Team three times, most recently in last summer’s Gold Cup group stage finale against Nicaragua.

D.C. United will not be paid a transfer fee because Hamid is leaving as a free agent, having played out his country. The team will reportedly retain his MLS rights after offering him a contract. He is one year too young to be eligible for MLS free agency, with is also a likely reason for his departure to Europe.

Comments

  1. It seems to me that the problem Hamid has had in the past was injuries. If he stays healthy I think he’ll do well in Europe. As for MLS becoming a selling league, I don’t think that is far off as far as talent goes. However, their rules make it difficult for a young player to force a sale when compared to other leagues. And, too often, MLS teams seem to ask too much for some of their players and drive away offers.

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  2. He is making the JUMP!

    Everyone get excited for the move to Denmark.

    One, MLS is never going to be the selling league that some crave for whatever weird reasons. Teams are trying to win. It is a league where DC tried and failed to keep a great goalkeeper because they want to win a championship, UNLIKE almost every team in the world.

    Two, all this whining about player development, when just about every team now has a Davies or Roldan starting for it. Will it be better late
    r, sure….but just as I boldly ? predicted no Pro\Rel….MLS will not be a selling league.

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    • Quit Whining-
      And because of that, the USMNT will continue to suffer. What is most likely to happen is we will see youth players get smarter about their contracts and they won’t sign anything past their 18th birthday so that they can go to Europe right away.

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      • If Denmark would have paid more for him straight away… he would have gone most likely when he was 18.
        I don’t know why you think the players were ignorant before and aren’t now, with evil MLS pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. You and others have exposed the league!
        .
        MLS is already getting to be one of the top leagues. The idea that the league will or should be a selling league makes no sense. The Sounders picked up a LaLiga player from a selling LaLiga team, the way it should go for a team trying to win a championship. Selling a player to LaLiga that could help you win a championship for money is called not trying to win.
        .
        Since MLS teams ARE trying to win the title, they are different from LaLiga teams NOT trying to win a championship.
        The lower LaLiga teams are sellers, the Sounders are buyers….for a reason.

      • I understand why they do it, I even understand why they over value American players. I said they aren’t helping the national team, which they aren’t. It’s a cultural difference, do you think Monaco wasn’t trying to win Ligue 1? Of course they were but they sold Mbappe because he wanted to go and they got good value for him that they could reinvest, in developing additional players. That MLS is a top league is complete fabrication, it is not even a top ten league yes it attracts aging stars that don’t have big club options but even in that it loses out to China. I watch MLS every week but I look at it for what it is.

    • As you point out Sounders buy an aged part-time player from a team that was relegated (and needed to unload payroll), so that they don’t have to develop any talent of their own. If you are really trying to win championships with a player whose last three transfer were free transfers you really can’t claim yourself as a top league.

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  3. Congrats Bill! I wish you had made the jump to Europe sooner but hey, nows great time! We really really need our next USMNT keeper!

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    • We need your help. If you believe in the fans of MLS, and what MLS means to the fans, help us show this greedy ‘Mergers & Acquistions Specialist’ Anthony Precourt that he has no place in MLS.

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      • Ways to help
        Show your solidarity this Sunday by wearing yellow to the game
        Bring signs denouncing Precourt (and Garber who is entirely complicit)
        At minute 10 (Crew was the first of the original 10 teams in MLS) begin a Columbus Crew chant – i.g. clap,clap,clap COLUMBUS
        Anything else that you can do that would show the league that this is not the way to do things in MLS!

  4. Could he really not get a look from a higher level league that the Danish league? The anti-american bias facing us players is real but it usually has been reserved for field players not GK.

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    • Clover- He’s not a regular with the national team, his team has been average, and almost every season he’s missed a stretch of games due to injury. Add in that he is already 26 which isn’t old for a keeper, but you’d want a better level by that point, and no there probably isn’t a lot of interest from higher teams. Also, it’s not bias its just reality.

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    • I had heard other clubs had expressed interest, including both teams in the EPL and Bundesliga.One team was Watford, which would probably use him initially in early round FA Cup matches or if their starter gets hurt.

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      • Frankfurt or Watford would be both be great fits for Bill Hamid. Either place he would be the #2 keeper but I could see him winning the job from Gomes next season at Watford. would he qualify for a UK/EU work permit? not a lot of USMNT caps in past few years..

        the USMNT goalkeeper job is wide open for the first time in a very long time. whoever can get established at a bigger club first should be the favorite to knock Guzan out of the next cycle.

  5. Demand is one thing, but consider that it may be the case that, even at this low demand… MLS teams just don’t have the development systems in place to replace a Bill Hamid.

    Maybe they’re sandbagging and pulling bush league moves because… who exactly is coming through the pipeline to replace dude?

    I love the idea of becoming a selling league and in no way disagree with your posts. I just wonder if the issue is even deeper than Joe DIrt and Qouzzel mentioned. MLS can’t even dream of being a “selling league” for a decade or so because we just don’t have the development system in place, let alone one that smoothly pumps out internationally marketable talent. Hope I’m wrong…

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    • @ThisGuy, agree and good point and that is certainly part of the calculation MLS teams have for not selling. Replacing a first second or thrid year player on a low MLS salary who’s got possible European level talent is near impossible in the MLS 2.0 system.

      Atlanta (I’m a fan full disclosure) is building a system where they are looking to us Tata and his name to recruit talent in SA and give them exposure and them sell them on in one or two years to Europe. We will be lucky to keep Almiron thru next summer break IMO. However, Tata is so well know in SA that he can pretty much snap his fingers and call in another talented 21-23 year old when he needs too. There’s a combination of scouting and high profile manager that makes it work. This could also happen with Carelton if he starts to play well in league play next year and the year after as far as talent pipeline thru the academy system goes.

      This system where we scout and develop talents and polish them and then profit on them helps the league by bringing in and finding top talents making the league funner to watch, helps the club by bringing in better talent and profiting on their sale, and helps the player by getting them better exposure early on in their career and helping them make their euro dreams happen. This is MLS 3.0 but the transfer fee split with MLS and not being able to use transfer proceeds across the entire roster need to be revised.

      Maybe by MLS 4.0 or 5.0 we can start becoming the destination league Garber and MLS loyalist currently see it as but being a selling league is the the missing step in between.

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      • Joe Dirt – In order for MLS to become a “selling league,” it must first become a developmental league. That has just started to be the case over the last couple of years. Also, if you are selling players for peanuts, what’s the point? They have to try to set as good of a market as possible.

    • I love Bill Hamid, but come on, there are plenty of guys that aren’t seeing the field in MLS that will replace him. Sounders back up, Orlando back up, all deserve shots. Unless DC blows it, this isn’t an issue for them and almost certainly the reason that keepers are able to do better in Europe.

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  6. MLS really needs to rethink its strategy on players and start to become a selling league. There is no shame in being a selling league. What DC United did with Hamid when they benched him knowing euro scouts where in the stands a few weeks back was bush league from MLS.Wish him the best of luck going forward.

    Problem is since the way the transfer fee is split it doesn’t really benefit the team to sell the player. The club has to split a portion of the fee with MLS and only allows the club use the sale proceeds on either a new single player ie DP or admin/academy costs it can’t use the proceeds across its entire roster.

    MLS 3.0 needs some rule changes particularly if certain clubs like ATL United start developing their own pipeline both domestically and thru scouting South America. The rule needs to be changed so that the club keeps the entire transfer fee and can then use the entire amount across its entire roster as it sees fit. Reward player development and scouting .

    As we saw with the USMNT this month the MLS is not on par with European leagues not even some second division Euro leagues. MLS is making progress and will get there and part of that process is giving clubs the right incentives to scout and develop talent both within US thru the academy and in our hemisphere at make a profit off the resale which can be used to reinvest in new players up and down the roster.

    Half my family is Brazilian. Corinthians don’t find shame in selling a Paulinho to Tottenahm or Sao Paulo selling Kaka or Gremio selling Ronaldinho. Its good business and lets them invest in the next generation of up and coming talents. Champions League is where the money is and MLS can’t change that anytime soon. Time that we stop kidding ourselves and realized who we are as footballing nation and make the most of it while still trying to move it forward.

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    • I would agree and there really isn’t likely to be a huge run going on American players globally anytime soon anyhow. Americans are not particularly popular abroad – especially under our current administration, sorry – and typically we are not known for assimilating particularly well anyhow. Add in the general lack of respect for American soccer in general and while there have been and will continue to be some who make it out there it’s not like foreign leagues are going to be strip-mining MLS for talent. No point in making it even less appealing to sell a player on, especially if it benefits the club.

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  7. Go ahead Bill—do what you gotta, Player. It’s been a joy for our family to watch him grow and play before our very eyes the last several years. That young man always got after it.

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