Ljungberg officially traded to Chicago
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jul 30, 2010 3:36 PM PDT
in Major League Soccer
98 comments
UPDATE: The Sounders just released the official announcement, Freddie Ljungberg has been traded to the Chicago Fire for a conditional draft pick in either 2011 or '12. The move also allowed the Sounders to move Alvaro Fernandez to the active roster.
The Internet is going crazy with Sounders rumors right now, all of them tied to Freddie Ljungberg's supposed trade to the Chicago Fire.
According to several sources, most reliably Joshua Mayers of the Seattle Times, Ljungberg is -- amazingly -- staying in MLS. I don't know how the idea of him going somewhere like Chicago escaped my imagination, but this seems like a reasonably good fit. I don't think it gets him any closer to the playoffs, but his starting job is probably more secure and he's moving to a bigger market. No news yet on what the Sounders would be receiving in return, but this would clear up plenty of space for Alvaro Fernandez, as well as make signing a third Designated Player a possibility.
In related news is the report that the Sounders have offered a DP contract to Fredy Montero. The source is not nearly as firm as Mayers, but they are the same people who correctly broke the story that Luis Gil was going to either Salt Lake or Seattle.
Mayers also says that a formal announcement will be made later today, so that should be worth watching. I'm sure if there's anything official, we'll be able to get that for you.
Full release after the jump
RENTON, WASH. - Freddie Ljungberg, an MLS Best XI selection and two-time All-Star midfielder for the Seattle Sounders FC, has been traded to the Chicago Fire today in exchange for a conditional selection in the 2011 or 2012 SuperDraft.
Ljungberg, 33, led Seattle and finished fourth in MLS with nine assists in 2009. He was named the MLS October Player of the Month after assisting on the team's final four goals of the regular season, helping the Sounders FC reach the MLS Cup Playoffs in the club's inaugural season. Ljungberg was also a finalist for MLS Newcomer of the Year.
"Freddie is a tremendous individual and an exceptional player who contributed greatly to the huge success of Sounders FC, both on and off the field, in the past year and a half," said Adrian Hanauer, general manager. "Freddie, along with Kasey Keller, gave this club immediate stature in the world's game, and we are grateful for his service. We wish him all the best in Chicago."
Said Ljungberg: "I want to start off by saying how proud I am to have been part of the most successful new franchise in MLS history, the Seattle Sounders FC. I didn't know exactly what to expect when I first came to Seattle but I have to say that how the city and the fans have embraced me has gone beyond my wildest dreams and for that I am forever grateful. I also want to thank my teammates who are absolutely great on and off the pitch. I have made some very close friends who I know I will be in contact with forever."
In a related move, Sounders FC has added midfielder Alvaro Fernandez, 24, to the active roster. Fernandez, a member of the Uruguay National Team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, was acquired on Thursday and has received his International Transfer Certificate. He is now eligible to play on Saturday night against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Ljungberg was signed as Seattle's first Designated Player on October 28, 2008. He came to Sounders FC after 10 seasons in the English Premier League. In his nine years with Arsenal he was a member of teams that won two EPL titles, three FA Cups and a UEFA Champions League final appearance.
This season the former Swedish international played in each of the first 15 Sounders FC matches (starting 14) and contributed three assists. Altogether over the two seasons he played in 37 matches (starting 35), scoring two goals and adding 12 assists.
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not quite what i picture
Seattle naming Montero their 3rd DP.
I wouldn't be shocked
He’s proven he deserves it and that move would protect both him and the Sounders.
Because if it's not Love | Then it's the bomb ... | That will bring us together
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jul 30, 2010 3:30 PM PDT up reply actions
It's what I'd love to see.
Fredy is one of the best forwards in MLS and he’s young. Signing him would be another excellent sign that our FO is trying to change the way MLS works. Keeping good, young talent and then selling them for big bucks. Montero is going to leave at some point, but if we can keep him and get some money for him later, all the better.
No.
The main thing is that I’d assume any DP contract would extend his stay here. Right now he’s free at the end of the season right? I don’t think we can afford to lose him during this season which means if he leaves it would be on a free at the end of the season. So if we wrap him up for some more time we might be able to make the moves to replace his production. That’s what I was thinking.
by Perrinbar on Jul 30, 2010 3:40 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Not sure why, but I had thought we already had him locked up at least through next year
Either way though your logic holds.
How does that jibe with the
we don’t do contracts mid season that they told Freddie?
It would fly in the face of it
Which is why I would take this report with a significant grain of salt.
Because if it's not Love | Then it's the bomb ... | That will bring us together
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jul 30, 2010 3:53 PM PDT up reply actions
It could be adjusted to
“We don’t do midseason contracts with old guys”
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Flat out guess
but if the team knew that Freddie was planning on leaving at the end of the season to Europe (he hasn’t exactly made a secret of his desire to play there) they might not have had a choice – either offer something like this or watch him leave. Ljungberg is a good player, but unlike Montero, his play hasn’t exactly lit the artificial turf on fire. Ergo, no mid-season contract. That could have also been a part of Ljungberg’s ‘ankle injury’ and subsequent exit – he wanted the same treatment.
Can't imagine he's going to be too happy about staying in MLS.
I see this as basically a half season rental. My suspicion is that he’s trying to get his body right to join a European team for the upcoming season.
My suspicion is
he got crap for interest from real European teams and he made do with what he saw. If there was any sizable European team with interest, I don’t think he’d stay.
Conditional Draft Picks
From the official website:
“Transaction: Seattle Sounders (MLS) – Traded MF Freddie Ljungberg to Chicago Fire in exchange for conditional selection in 2011 or 2012 SuperDraft.”
A conditional draft pick...
…isn’t exactly much of “something.” More like a bag-full of Jabulanis.
Can any of that be used for new acquisitions...?
My impression was that we wanted to sell FL so as to use the transfer fee for picking up further new talent during the rest of the transfer window. This trade would seem to foreclose on that possibility.
Yes, selling for a transfer fee would have been optimal
But my guess is that any offers out there were quite small, seeing as FL will be on a free at the end of the year and had not been having a great year so far.
This means we can save the $250,000 for the 3rd DP slot and buy it when we want to use it (which might be soon), and frees up the money we would have paid FL to go to… Montero… new DP… more Sounders glitter…. who knows?
We'll see
and find out in the next 15 days.
In his interview with Josh Meyers...
…Adrian pretty much threw cold water on hopes of signing a 3rd DP, pointing out that that would tie up 40% of cap room in three players.
Except that it wouldn't
Because the 3rd can be paid down
And yesterday he said they had room for 3 DPs
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
It is still
possible Seattle could add another player during this transfer window assuming Seattle opens up a roster spot for said player. So we’ll see and find out what happens these next 15 days.
He dampened speculations, sure
but his phrasing was pretty far from saying it can’t be done. He’s right, it’ll be challenging, esp. with some of the other fairly big non-DP contracts they have like Vagenas, Jaqua, and Keller, but, yeah, with they ability to buy down that 3rd DP salary (however the heck that works, sigh), it’s doable.
they can bring it down via
allocation money
usually
its how much playing time he would get in Chicago.
Now this is strange
The Chicago Fire site declares at the end that: “Per Major League Soccer and club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.”
http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2010/07/fire-land-ljungberg
But the Sounder site has teh line on conditional selections in 2011 or 2012.
So did the Sounders break MLS policy on announcing the trade or is Chicago blowing smoke?
That doesn't
make sense to not mention what Seattle is getting out of the trade.
perhaps it was in relation to possible money changing sides.
Or allocation dollars?
it
was just updated to state the draft picks.
The first rule of MLS financial terms:
Don’t talk about MLS financial terms.
by florean on Jul 30, 2010 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
You're not a beautiful, unique snowflake!
You’re part of the same salary cap as everyone else!
Unless you are NY or LA
Then you are a beautiful snow flake and we’ll change the rules to accomidate you.
by blakec on Jul 30, 2010 5:11 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
When I read this
The rest of the news was irrelevant. Great to get him on the field with Blaise and co. This team has a lot of gelling to do with new signings/new players/players returning to form.
Who knows if he actually will start though.
I’d love to see it, but he may not be ready to go with the Sounders. I guess we’ll find out.
Is he match fit?
I guess he’s got to be pretty close to it, since he played in the world cup a few weeks ago.
I've had the worst luck with Ljungberg recently
Just before his “ankle injury” (wanna bet he plays this weekend?), I bought my daughter a Ljungberg jersey.
The Aug 28 match happens to be on the evening I’m taking my wife out for her birthday. The one and only home match I’ll miss this year (already gave away my ticket).
Damn you Ljungberg!
Montero as 3rd DP?
Montero’s current salary is $180,000.00. The 3rd DP slot normally counts as $335,000 hit against the cap. However, any player signed during the summer transfer window as a DP only counts $167,500 against the cap.
I don’t know what this all means, but if Avaro is really a DP next year, we will have 3 players who take up almost $1 million of cap space next year. It will be interesting to see what salary Keller has next year (assuming he resigns), as that will most likely play a large role in what type of cap space we will have.
Third DP can be paid down to 0 cap hit
Because if it's not Love | Then it's the bomb ... | That will bring us together
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jul 30, 2010 3:50 PM PDT up reply actions
And if there's one thing we got.
It’s loads of cash.
How?
Do you pay it down with just allocation dollars? I thought the $250,000 fee was just to get a 3rd DP, and that fee was then distributed evenly to the rest of the teams that don’ t have 3 DPs.
by MMAWrestling on Jul 30, 2010 4:03 PM PDT up reply actions
that is
out of pocket money. We are talking about his cap hit.
And there is
time to add another player if Seattle would go that way and sign someone as DP #3. Of course we would have to open roster space for that person as well.
My guess is
Seattle is done with DP signings for the year. You don’t think they’ll go with Montero as a DP?
its possible
that Seattle would use it on montero. I was just saying that Seattle still has time to had another player IF they were to go that route.
After his goal on Wed.
Montero started kissing the logo on his jersey.
Then after the game, he played up his time and goals with club, in a very, “I’m happy to be here” sort of way.
It seemed odd considering how much we all heard rumors of transfer last offseason. But this transfer window has been quite as can be for Freddy.
maybe…
Perhaps Fredy is a lot happier in Seattle...
…with FL10 out of it.
It would have to be an American
I think Montero would be a better signing, especially since they are now full on International slots and would either have to find an American DP, or get rid of an international.
We are still 1 international spot in the positive
With Hurtado on the IR. We had no net change in international slots. Long term sure. But not right now.
Ljuneberg
I guess it hasn’t really sunk in yet that he’s not on the roster. Also, I haven’t heard any news, but maybe Hurtado will be back before the end of the season?
Hurtado
He’s looking a lot better, but he’s still doing very light training. I wouldn’t be shocked if he can be back this season, but it’s still months away I’d imagine.
Because if it's not Love | Then it's the bomb ... | That will bring us together
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jul 31, 2010 10:16 AM PDT up reply actions
I am quite surprised
But okay with this. FL was becoming a very expensive angry winger with not as much production as his salary and reputation would have suggested. Perhaps the Fire will get more out of him.
More dives!
Zing! Seriously though, I’ll be a little happy to see the constant complaining that he did in a different jersey. Better for the team I think.
That's the one thing I didn't appreciate Freddie doing as a Sounder
I wish players would just shut up and leave the referee alone, because whining about it just makes it worse.
Me too.
It’s rough that we have to play against him twice, but maybe we can sneak things through/around/whatever while he’s busy complaining.
And even if it's a clean hello
he’ll still complain.
They needed a replacement for Blanco
I bet they were impressed by that red card Ljungberg got against them last year. :)
Interesting point made on the MLS site
- namely, that Ljungberg’s contract, as far as anyone knows, still only goes to the end of this season. Did Chicago already give him an extension (I’d have to think they very well might have considering that seemed to have been an issue here) or are they just getting a ‘rent-a-DP’ to help them make a 2nd half run towards the playoffs/MLS Cup and then have Ljungberg leave Chi-town for Europe on the off-season? It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
Why would we award a DP contract to a lazy player?
by Brian Floyd on Jul 30, 2010 5:02 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Would you want to keep
one of your best players a while longer?
I heard
it’s actually gonna be Vagenas as our 3rd DP
Actually, it's going to be a combo thing
They’re going to merge Noonan and Vagenas into one player called Noonenas and make him the 3rd DP. His/Their main role will be to use their combined sucking power to draw all of the ire and disdain of the fans so the rest of the team will be universally loved and respected and help drive ticket sales. Not sure the jersey sales will be all that good, though.
Chicago may technically be a "bigger" market...
…but Freddie will still be relatively anonymous (and certainly paparazzi-free) in Chicago, as I gather he is in Seattle. I live in Chicago and NOBODY talks/cares about the Fire.
Holy hell
I just made the connection that the Fire are basically dead even with us and big competitors for that playoff spot. And we still play the Fire twice.
Those games are gonna be interesting.
Next four games will be big for Chicago
5 points behind with 4 games in hand but the Fire have to face the Galaxy and Red Bulls first.
I head Ljungberg is on the season tickets for the August 28th game. Hopefully for my guys he brings an axe to grind. That is going to be a great game.
by Chicago Illinois on Jul 31, 2010 12:36 PM PDT up reply actions
I feel as if I should weigh in on this:
:(
by Robert on Jul 31, 2010 2:31 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
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