The Union are in talks for a new record signing at striker
Ezekiel Alladoh, a 20-year-old Ghana native, would cost around $4.5 million to sign from a club in Sweden.
The Union aren’t waiting to do their offseason shopping.
The team is in talks for a signing that would break the club’s transfer fee record for the second offseason in a row. Ezekiel Alladoh, a 20-year-old Ghanaian striker from Swedish first-division club Brommapojkarna, would cost around $4.5 million to sign.
Alladoh, who stands 6-foot-3, has scored seven goals in 28 games in the Swedish league this season. (The Allsvenskan plays a summer-centric schedule, unlike most of Europe but similar to MLS.)
More impressive than the stats is the list of European clubs that reportedly have been interested in him in recent months: Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton of the English Premier League and Leicester City of the second-tier Championship. A trio of Belgian clubs also had eyes on him: Club Brugge, Cercle Brugge, and Westerlo.
Crystal Palace, coincidentally, is part-owned by 76ers managing partner Josh Harris, and is the home of U.S. national team star centerback Chris Richards.
The Athletic and Sweden’s Aftonbladet were among the outlets to break news of the talks, though a source with knowledge of the matter told The Inquirer that things are not over the line yet. There isn’t absolute urgency, because Alladoh’s contract wouldn’t start until Jan. 1.
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Alladoh would be signed under MLS’s under-22 initiative, a roster status that lets teams sign young players for big fees without them having to count as Designated Players. It has long been expected that Mikael Uhre will move on when his contract expires after this season, which will free up a DP spot and a big place on the striker depth chart.
The Union’s other current DP also holds the team’s transfer fee record. Bruno Damiani cost $3.4 million last winter.
Tai Baribo’s future remains uncertain, though. He’s in his last guaranteed year, with a team-held option for next year, and talks on a new deal started a few months ago.
Things have gone quiet since Baribo’s agent talked a big game in late June, but there still has been no resolution. His current salary is $810,000, and he’ll be in line for a raise whether he stays here or moves elsewhere.
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The question will be how much. Will the Union make him a DP, or will he take a number below that level to stay in a city that he really likes, and where the fans really like him? It’s a business in the end, so we’ll see.
Baribo’s two goals at Chicago last Saturday took his total for the year to 19 in all competitions. Off the field, his wife is due to have their first child in the coming days, so he passed on going to Israel’s national team this month for its final World Cup qualifiers of the cycle.