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OFFICIAL: FC Dallas trades Kellyn Acosta to Rapids in blockbuster deal

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Kellyn Acosta is on the move in a blockbuster trade few could have imagined when the 2018 season began.

FC Dallas has traded Kellyn Acosta to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for forward Dominique Badji. FC Dallas will also reportedly receive the Rapids’ first round draft pick in 2019, international spots in 2018 and 2019 and 50 percent of any transfer fee generated from a potential Acosta sale outside of MLS. The Rapids will receive a second round draft pick from FC Dallas in the trade.

“Kellyn Acosta is one of the bright young players in U.S. Soccer,” said Rapids Executive Vice President and General Manager Padraig Smith. “His versatility in the midfield and ability to control games, get forward and break lines is something that will help this team both this season and in years to come. We can’t wait to welcome him to Colorado.”

Dominique adds a scoring touch that will complement our roster as we look to stay competitive at the top of the table the second half of the season,” added FC Dallas Head Coach Oscar Pareja. “Kellyn has grown up with the FC Dallas organization. He will always be a wonderful part of our history.”)

Acosta joined FC Dallas in 2013, rapidly becoming the team’s most successful Homegrown star. He has since made 117 regular season appearances for the club, scoring nine goals. In addition, Acosta has earned 17 caps for the USMNT. However, the midfield has dealt with injury issues dating back to 2017 and has struggled at points in 2018.

Badji, meanwhile, was the Rapids’ leading scorer with nine goals in 2017. The forward has scored seven goals in 16 appearances for the Rapids this season.

Comments

  1. My first thought was, why would Dallas trade Acosta? After reading the details, it’s clear why. Colorado gave up too much, IMHO. The Rapids need to have another striker ready to sign up or else they will have to hope for a number of nil, nil draws.

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  2. Acosta needs to count down the days until his MLS contract expires and get the Hell over to Europe, if he hasn’t degraded so much that no one wants him anymore.

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      • He’s had stretches where he was really good. Since the injury last Summer he hasn’t shown the same form, whether that’s injury related or frustration from Pareja saying we’ll sell him “soon” for the last three or four Windows I guess we’ll see.

  3. This deal doesn’t make much sense to me for Colorado. They appear to have given up a lot if the plan is just to sell him but then again Colorado often doesn’t make sense.

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  4. IV- not sure if you saw my post yesterday about Kaye and LAFC but Acosta will remain as a HG even though he is leaving the team that “grew” him. It doesn’t make sense, but I linked the HG rules on my other post if you want to read them. There are about 10 players who are HGs that are no longer with their original team.

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    • Then why aren’t they back in the draft? You may remember the original idea on HGP was that when the academies were first being started — and there were really only a few like NYRB and the Fire — there was a question of whether the players they produced would be subject to either allocation processes or the draft like any other player starting their career here, or would instead be “dibs” because of the effort involved to produce the players. I always thought this was faux-Euro because across the pond a team has no guarantees their academicians sign their first pro deal there (though often they stay loyal). MLS’ response c. 2010 as players like Agudelo “graduated” was to implement “dibs” via HGP. This actually occasionally led to players like Ibeagha heading off to Europe instead because they no longer wanted to be with the parent team as a pro (in his case, the Dynamo).

      If HGP is now an attribute the player can walk around with, as opposed to just a “tag” by the parent team, such that the player can transport the “tag” for the benefit of the next team and the next, why do they have to sign for the original parent, and why aren’t they back to allocation or the draft?

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      • I don’t really know. I guess because the HG tag really only benefits the player because they choose where they sign, their salaries now count against the cap once they make the senior roster so there isn’t really any benefit to the designation after they have signed near as I can tell. I think the HG tag is really more marketing at this point than anything “see look we develop our players in this league”.

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