After months of being linked to Atlanta United, Gonzalo “Pity” Martinez is on the move to Major League Soccer.
Atlanta United announced on Thursday they’ve acquired Martinez from River Plate, ending lengthy speculation about the 25-year-old’s future. Martinez’s arrival however gives the Five Stripes four Designated Players which means a decision will need to be made prior to the start of the 2019 regular season.
Martinez joined River Plate in 2015 from Hurcan and went on to make 96 appearances with the club, scoring 24 goals. He lifted a pair of Copa Libertadores titles, two Recopa Sudamericana titles, two Argentina Cups, and one Argentina SuperCup.
“We’re excited to announce we’ve secured Gonzalo to a long-term contract with our club,” Atlanta United Vice President and Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra said. “Recently named as the best player in South America in 2018, Gonzalo is an attacking player who can play wide or centrally. His abilities complement our style of play and we expect him to make a smooth transition to MLS.”
He has won two caps with the Argentina National Team, while also scoring on his debut last September.
“I’m very excited to come to Major League Soccer and to join Atlanta United,” Martínez said. “The club has shown a lot of trust in me and I’m looking forward to working with Frank de Boer and my teammates to continue making history at the club.”
The Five Stripes open their season in the Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 on Feb. 21st against Herediano.
Does that mean Almiron is gone? figured they had to wait for that to happen before they signed him…..
Best guess is they’re going to deal Barco, probably via a loan deal. I know his attitude seriously rubbed a lot of the club the wrong way. They’ll probably end up eating a lot of his salary but since Atlanta can basically print its out money thanks to Uncle Arthur’s endless checkbook that isn’t any kind of issue for them.
At the end of the day they want DP’s who earn their money since they can only have three.
It’s not a matter of the “Endless Check Book” but rather of fan support and concessions. Kid’s salary is paid for in 2 70k attended games. Add in concessions, parking, team store and other match day dollars and you can see why “eating” the salary is nothing.
Not necessarily an attitude thing BUT an economic realities thing. This is why I feel so badly for other MLS teams who are also owned by billionaire NFL owners who will not spend the money to build proper stadium and control all points of the finances so their teams can have high-quality attractive designated players
The Galaxy is another team that currently has 4 DP’s. It has been awhile since the league has increased the spending limits appreciably. Perhaps they will soon allow 4 DP’s or maybe increase the TAM so that teams like Atlanta and LA can shift a player from DP to TAM. Just speculation on my part, but when 2 major franchises maneuver themselves so that they have an extra DP only a month and a half or so before the season starts, I get suspicious.
I’d be cool with teams going up to 4.
Actually another thing I’d like to see is, teams that don’t want to use those DP slots can sell them for cold hard cash, which they can then apply to their own cap.
I can hear the cries already: “but this gives all the power to teams with money!” Not necessarily, because if you consider that each DP slot would sell for as much as $5 million, what you end up doing is subsidizing much higher salary caps for the small-market teams. Right now the cap is, what, $5 million…if you sell off all three slots you’ve effectively raised your cap to $20 million…$15 million of which is subsidized by the big dogs. You can put a heckuva team on the field for that, especially if you shop smart.