Rapids Get A Cannon Back

Straight from the Rapids Twitter account

I was planning to write a post tonight on how we skipped the transfer window this summer, but then the Rapids flipped that plan on its head.  Tom Bogert was the first to report and Braidon Nourse of the Post has also confirmed that the Rapids have signed U.S. National Team defender Reggie Cannon.

Lets start with the how.  The window closed almost a month ago, but that only closes the window for transfers.  Free agents can be signed up until the roster freeze deadline which is later this week.  Reggie Cannon spent last season with QPR (and we'll get into his transfer history a bit later) but agreed to a termination of his contract.  That was announced on August 30th but Bogert is reporting it was agreed to and executed before the MLS window closed.  That means he was a free agent when the window closed and is eligible to sign with MLS.

Now the who.  Cannon is a 26 year old right/right-center back.  There's some belief he could play left back as well but he's better on the right.  So this is an obvious replacement for Bombito between Rosenberry and Maxso.  He got his start in Dallas before moving to Europe and has had 28 caps with the National Team, but none since 2022.  Like Vines, Steffen, Mihailovic, and even Bassett, Reggie is coming to Colorado hoping to work his way back into the National Team.  Obviously whatever the case for that Taylor, Armas, and Smith are making, its working.

As mentioned Cannon came up through the Dallas Academy (like a couple of other former Rapids) and spent a year at UCLA before signing for the first team in 2017.  He appeared 67 times for them before being sold to Bovista in Portugal 4 years ago yesterday.  His new club got into a lot of financial trouble and to this day still owes Dallas part of the transfer fee.  Reggie appeared 83 times for them but went unpaid for a while and eventually walked away from his contract, thinking they had breached it.  He signed with QPR last summer on a free and played 21 times in the Championship for them.  Earlier this year FIFA ruled that Cannon did not have the right to leave his Boavista contract and now owed the club a significant amount of money in compensation, but they also ruled that Boavista owed him his missing wages.  And they still owe Dallas the transfer fee.

Nourse's report is that the deal is through 2027 with a club option for 2028 so he'll be around for a while.  Bassett, Vines, Navarro, Mihailovic, and now Cannon are under contract through 2027.  That's the core of the team through the next few years.  He is already in Denver and will be available for selection potentially as soon as Saturday.

This was an unexpected move, but one I like.  While I'm not entirely sure that a long contract will work in our favor I'm willing to give it a chance.  This gives us needed depth on the back line (I'm guessing Abubakar gets the start on Saturday with Cannon working in during this upcoming 3 game week).  Plus signing as s free means no extra money spent so at most he's costing us $700K in TAM per year.