Busy Final Transfer Window Day includes Goodbye To Vines

The Secondary Transfer Window closes in 2 hours, after which the only way a team can add players is if they're already out of contract.  The Rapids made two moves today and probably a third that won't be announced until tomorrow.  The big move was the one we had all been expecting, Sam Vines has been sold to Royal Antwerp in Belgium.  Technically he was still taking his medical and it could fall apart but a guy coming off playing in the Gold Cup final isn't going to fail his medical.  Royal Antwerp fans and media spent the day treating the signing as significant on social media, posting of Vines and his girlfriend Jess arriving at the airport, announcing the signing, and posting an image of him photoshopped into an Antwerp kit.  Its good to see a homegrown Rapid get this kind of publicity for going to Europe.

its unlikely Sam will play but this weeks Antwerp match will be live on ESPN+ at 5:30am Sunday morning.  Also if you're interested in a Sam Vines Antwerp kit they are available on the team website.  The kit is 80 Euros, with another 15 Euros to get a name and number on the back.  As of this afternoon Sam Vines was not available in the player selection when ordering one, but I assume he'll show up there eventually.

The Rapids, understandably, spent the day hyping the move.  Lots of social media posts showing his journey from a 13 year old Academy signing to today, an interview with him, and some shots of him saying goodbye to his teammates on Tuesday.

The team did not reveal any details of the transfer, but the rumor was $2 million dollars plus incentives and a sell-on clause.  There was a good article from Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium about the transfer.  In it they mention that his contract with the Rapids included a clause that let him move to Europe.  That sounds suspiciously to me like a release clause for European teams.  For those unfamiliar, its not unusual for a young player who's signing with a non-top club to have a release clause in the contract that will let him transfer if certain requirements are met regardless of what his current team wants.  Most often that's a "minimum fee" release clause, which means that as long as a team offers a transfer fee of at least the listed amount the player's current club has to accept the offer.  There can also be clauses like "if a team in a European continental competition makes a minimum offer" and such.  I'm thinking that when Sam signed a new contract a couple of years ago, knowing he wanted to go to Europe, he got a clause included and that explains why the rumored $2M fee is lower than what we're seeing from other MLS transfers this window.  If that's all that was needed to trigger the clause, that's all that would be offered.

Regardless, its huge for Sam and the Rapids.  Vines is going to a team that he'll be expected to win the starting job, and they'll be playing in the playoffs for the Europa League in two weeks.  The Rapids now have shown to their Academy kids how there's a path from the Academy to the first team to the National Team and then to Europe.  They also got a nice transfer fee and, should Vines play as well as we expect, some credibility with the next set of teams looking to buy our guys that we develop players well.

The other bit of official news today is that we traded Nicolas Benezet to the Sounders for $50K of GAM, with another $50K of GAM possible if he hits certain performance benchmarks.  Reports are that we kept part (probably most) of his salary on our books but that's fine.  We moved on from a player that wasn't working out and we freed up an international slot.  That's important because of the move that I expect will get done before the window closes but not announced until tomorrow.  There were multiple reports that Brazilian left back Lucas Esteves was in Colorado today to take his physical and finalize his loan deal from Palmeiras.  He will probably need some time to get his visa and acclimate to altitude, so I wouldn't expect to see him in the 18 for a couple of weeks, but he'll be a good option to try to fill the Vines-shaped hole at LB as we get into the second half of the season.