Offseason's First Big International Signing

2 days, 2 player moves.  Today the Rapids announced the acquisition of Brazilian attacking mid Max Alves da Silva (who, like my Dad, goes by Max) from Brazilian side Flamengo.  He's 20 years old and signed with Flamingo from their youth side last year.  Max appeared 12 times for the club before being loaned to fellow Brazilian side Cuiaba where he made 15 appearances.

The big news here is the length of contract and money reportedly spent.  The deal is for the next 4 seasons with a club option for a 5th year.  According to various sources the Rapids spent $750K on his transfer fee, with another $250K on top of that depending on performance.  That puts Max up there with the likes of Gashi, Namli, and Ramirez.  Three names you don't really want to be associated with...

Given his age Max qualifies for the U22 initiative, much like Esteves (and Vines).  That means despite his price he'll only hit the cap at $150K and won't be a Designated Player.  So this doesn't really tie our hands too much, at least this year.

This is the first big deal for this length of time that we've seen this Front Office make for an "unproven in MLS" player.  Its even more unusual considering Max only has 27 appearances in his senior career.  The Rapids' scouts must have seen something to make them believe that Max will develop into a major MLS player or,, more likely, into an asset that will be able to be sold for a significant number.

My first instinct was that there's a lot of money tied up in our midfield.  Kellyn Acosta has a million dollar salary.  Mark-Anthony Kaye cost us a million dollars in GAM to acquire.  And now Max cost us (up to) a million dollar transfer fee.  Hard to get all 3 million on the field and Jack Price at the same time.  To say nothing of Bassett (if he's still here), Barrios, Galvan, etc.

But then I realized that I was looking at Max as an immediate contributor.  After further thought I think that's the wrong take.  We signed him for up to 5 years and he's 20 years old.  I think this is a long-term play, with anything we get out of him this season as a bonus.  That's not say that I expect him to spend the season with Rapids 2 but that I would be surprised if he started a majority of our games in 2022.  Right now we should look at this as a depth signing with significant upside.  Now if Acosta or Kaye are suddenly sold, we have somebody who should be expected to take over their role.

I don't know if we'll have any news tomorrow going into the weekend.  Assuming not then by Monday night I'll have my Superdraft preview up (as of right now the Rapids have 5 picks).  After that things will really start to pick up speed as we're only 42 days away from the season kickoff in Guatemala City!  (Assuming COVID doesn't throw us a curveball)