Navarro In, Ilic Out, Bombito Out?

We've got some players moving around, or not moving, or maybe moving.  Lets take ti from what seems most confident to what's still up in the air.

Braidon Nourse of the Denver Post is reporting that the deal to make Rafael Navarro a permanent member of the Rapids is done.  A 3.5 million dollar transfer fee and a new contract through the 2027 season.  This is a million dollars less than the originally negotiated purchase price in the loan.  With the $500K loan fee its a total of $4M, making him the highest priced player in Rapids history, beating out Mihailovic's $3.5M this past offseason.

Combining the Navarro deal, the Mihailovic deal, and other moves made in the offseason (loan fee for Diack for example) the Rapids have spent around $8M on loans and transfer fees in the last two windows.  That's a severe departure from the normal operation of the club by KSE.  Something that should be noted.

Also reported by Braidon (same link) is that Colorado is close to permanently transferring goalkeeper Marko Ilic to a European team, but not Sarpsborg where he's currently on loan.  I don't think this is a surprise to anyone, as soon as he left on loan I (among others) said he'd never come back to Colorado.  We'll see what we can get for him in a transfer fee, but barring a surprising deal I think its safe to say that his move was one of the larger boondoggles in Rapids history.  We don't need to rehash the details at this point, the faster we put the move in the rearview mirror the better.

The last bet of news is that Moise Bombito is still a Rapid.  For now.  Tom Bogert reported yesterday that Colorado turned down an offer of 4 million dollars from French Ligue 1 side Lyon.  Lyon is expected to submit a new offer and there's interest from other teams, including the possibility that Lyon buy him and loan him to Botafogo in Brazil (same owner).  This would be a fairly unusual move though and unless Bombito has some personal connection in Brazil I don't see why he'd accept a move like that.  He'd likely be better off staying with a team he's already settled into, even if its slight step lower than Brazil, and then moving direct to Europe next season.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if a deal gets done in the next couple of week and it includes loaning him out, but that loan is back to Colorado, a la Auston Trusty when he went to Arsenal.  This is a pattern we've seen a few times across MLS and it makes more sense than Brazil.  The downside is that if he goes somewhere right now and joins a team for preseason he can fight for a starting job.  If he stays here through the end of the season, even on loan, and then transfers to Europe in our offseason he'll be coming into a team with (presumably) an already established starter for the season.

Padraig Smith was on the DNVR podcast two weeks ago where a potential move for Bombito was discussed.  At that point, and things change fast in the transfer world, Smith was really leaning into the idea that there was still more for him in Colorado and there wasn't going to be a move soon.  Now he did say that if a Premier League team, Champions League team, top-level Europa League team came in then that's a move that makes sense for the club and for Bombito.  Well until the last 4 years Lyon was a top 5 team in France and still hasn't finished lower than 8th in almost 30 years.  They're not a "top" Europa League club right now but they're just below that.  So you have to think there's some real teeth in this possible move.