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It wasn't so long ago that Victor Valdes was the starting goalkeeper for the best team in the world, locking down the position for 10 years at Barcelona. Even still, the 33-year-old Spaniard is just a full season removed from being a regular starter.
But after barely getting off the bench a year ago with Manchester United, he appears to be on his way out.
Don't count on him coming to the Seattle Sounders, though, as Twitter, the Spanish media and what seems like every Spanish-language outlet have been suggesting.
What appears to be happening here, is something the rest of the world is quite familiar with: The silly season is in full swing. Best we can tell, this "rumor" started with a bit of a miscommunication.
Back on Friday, ahead of Manchester United's friendly against Club America at CenturyLink Field, noted Italian reporter Gianluca DiMarzio wrote that Valdes was heading to Seattle. One of the English-language reporters that writes for his site, then sent out a tweet saying that Valdes was doing this in anticipation of signing with the Sounders.
That tweet was eventually deleted and replaced by this one:
Victor Valdes has offers from MLS, he is heading to Seattle with Manchester United for their US tour (Di Marzio)
— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) July 17, 2015
He also followed up with this tweet:
My apologies the report on Victor Valdes mentioned Seattle in the context of where Manchester United is going
— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) July 17, 2015
All of that happened within the span of about an hour, or quick enough that we didn't initially think it was even worth reporting on. But somehow, this rumor is still alive and kicking. How? Silly season.
From the best I can tell, the rumor got new legs when Spain's Mundo Deportivo picked up the rumor citing "American media" and everyone kinda followed suit from there. Who is this "American media"? It would seem it was Amoyal, who of course retracted report.
None of this even begins to address the elephant in the room: Why would the Sounders even want Valdes? That's not to say Valdes isn't a very good goalkeeper and would probably be an upgrade, but if the Sounders are going to spend millions of dollars on someone I really doubt it would be on a position where they are pretty well set. Let's not forget that Stefan Frei was among the league leaders in virtually every meaningful stat before this slump started and that Troy Perkins hasn't been bad as his backup.
I suppose stranger things have happened in the world of crazy transfers, but there's really no way I see this happening.