WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Yup. A deal that we’ve been waiting for just became official as U.S. national team forward Jozy Altidore has been sold to Spanish club Villarreal for a fee of $8 million, team sources confirmed on Monday afternoon.

According to sources, the fee is $8 million with a sell-on clause and performance bonuses that could increase the fee to $10 million.

The sale shatters the old record for largest transfer of an MLS player, which was set when Clint Dempsey went from the New England Revolution to Fulham after the 2006 season.

We all knew this transfer would shatter any previous fee, and now that the league has agreed to it we will wait and see what all comes next as it cannot become official until July 1, when the European transfer window opens.

Its a good move for Jozy. Let’s face it, the kid is a dreamer and this is a good move for reaching those dreams. As much as I would like to say the Red Bulls and MLS should have waited until the winter, I think it is his time to go on. Yes, he did lose focus and was distracted by the impending European move, but at the same time Villarreal gets a very solid prospect who is still very young and is developing.

Also, it appears he will get plenty of time to play as there is a scenario where Villarreal loans him to Recreativo Huelva should pan out.

New York will have to regroup here. They were already expecting a loss like this and would be looking for replacements anyways this summer. They won’t find a good young talent like him but they should have the resources now in place to make a good enough offer to a couple players to fill the void. You can pretty much bank this club using this transfer money on another DP next year as they look to open Red Bull Park in as big of a way as possible.

What do you all make of this? Should the league have held out for more money or was this the right price?